Ahmet Yukleyen

Ahmet Yükleyen is a Wilson Center fellow, a non-residential Jennings Randolph Senior Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace and the Croft Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Mississippi. He studied international relations at Bilkent University and completed his MA degree at the Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver. He received his Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from Boston University in 2006. His dissertation research in Germany and the Netherlands in 2003-4 was funded by grants from Wenner Gren Foundation, United States Institute of Peace, and Dutch Council of Higher Education.

He is the author of numerous publications including most recently “Localizing Islam in Europe: Turkish Islamic Communities in Germany and the Netherlands” by Syracuse University Press, 2012. He has published articles in journals such as Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Contemporary IslamImmigrants and Minorities, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, and Turkish Studies. His research interests include anthropology of religion, ethnicity, Muslims in Europe, Islamic movements, and multiculturalism.

Formerly, he taught at Tufts University and joined the faculty of the sociology and anthropology department at the University of Mississippi in 2006 where he is also affiliated with the Croft Institute for International Studies. He teaches courses on international studies, cultural anthropology, ethnic and religious identity politics in Europe, and Muslims in Europe and the United States.

During his M.A. studies at the University of Denver, Ahmet Yukleyen developed an interest in the role of Islamic movements in civil society and socio-political development of Middle Eastern countries. This interest grew into pursuing a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology at Boston University, where his dissertation fieldwork focused on comparing Turkish Islamic communities in Germany and the Netherlands. Ahmet continues to visit his fieldwork sites in the summers during his years at the University of Mississippi since 2006. This research focuses on the Salafist movement as an emerging Islamic movement in Western Europe, especially among the youth.