Murat Akan

Murat Akan is Associate Professor of Comparative Politics, Political Theory, and Turkish Politics. in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Boğaziçi University. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University. He was a researcher in-residence at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity (2012-2013), a visiting scholar at the Institute for Middle East Studies in George Washington University,  and at Groupe Sociétés, Religions, Laïcités, CNRS-EPHE-PSL, at Droit, Religion, Entreprise et Société, University of Strasbourg, and at l’École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. He was in residence at the Nantes Institute for Advanced Study (2019 – 2020) and at the Paris Institute for Advanced Study (2020 – 2021).

The projet 

Title: Reinforcing Laïcité?: Loi du 24 août 2021 confortant le respect des principes de la République

Keywords: Secularism, Democracy, Authoritarianism, Institutions, Turkey, France, India, Comparative Studies

Selected publications

Book:

• The Politics of Secularism: Religion, Diversity, and Institutional Change in France and Turkey (New York: Columbia University Press, 2017).

Peer-reviewed Articles:

• “Floating Sophia, Polarizing to Abeyance, Waqf-izing the State,” Journal of Muslims in Europe 10:2 (2021).
• “Looking Beyond ‘Imaginary’ Analytics and Hermeneutics in Comparative Politics,” Philosophy & Social Criticism 43: 4 - 5 (2017). (SSCI)     
• “Diversité: Challenging or Constituting Laïcité?,” French Cultural Studies 28:1 (2017). (SSCI)
• “Turkey’s Attempt at a New Constitution in Political Context,” Anayasa Hukuku Dergisi (Journal of Constitutional Law) 3:6 (2014).
• "A Politics of Comparative Conceptualizations and Institutions: Two non-European Images on European Secularity in the Writing of the 1961 Turkish Constitution," Max Planck Institute Working Paper 13-02 (2013).
• "The Infrastructural Politics of Laiklik in the Writing of the 1961 Turkish Constitution," Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies 13:2 (2011). (SSCI)
• "Laïcité and Multiculturalism: The Stasi Report in Context," British Journal of Sociology 60: 2 (2009).    (SSCI)                         
• “Contextualizing Multiculturalism,” Studies in Comparative International Development 38: 2 (2003).     (SSCI)

Chapters in Edited Volumes:

• “Capturing Secularism in Turkey: The Ease of Comparison,” in Oxford Handbook of Turkish Politics edited by Güneş Murat Tezcur (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022).
• “Pandémie sous forme de métaphores de guerre et de crise,” in Tour du monde de la Covid-19 edited by Shigehisa Kuriyama, Ota de Leonardis, Carlos Sonnenschein and Ibrahima Thioub (Paris: Éditions Manucius, 2021)
• “Twin Tolerations or Siamese Twins: Kemalist Laicism and Political Islam in Turkey,” in Institutions and Democracy: Essays in Honor of Alfred Stepan edited by Douglas Chalmers and Scott Mainwaring (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2012).

Newspaper Articles and Editorial Essays:

• “Reinforcing Laïcité?: The Law Reinforcing the Respect of the Principles of the Republic,” Forum of the Berkeley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs, Georgetown University.
• “Interview: France-Turquie: deux laïcités que tout oppose,” l’Express, 07 November 2020.
• “Thinking About Heroes and Humanity During COVID-19,” editorial essay in E-International Relations (www.e-ir.info), 24 May 2020. [OA]
• “A New Constitution for Turkey without Democracy,” editorial essay in E-International Relations (www.e-ir.info), 14 January 2012. [OA]
• “La Turquía de Atatürk: las raices, ramas y mitos del laicismo kemalista,”  Vanguardia Dossier n. 32 (July/September 2009)
• “Laiklik Üzerine” Birgün 05 June 2007. [OA]