Muhammad Amasha

Politics · Culture · Religion · Theory

I am a political and cultural sociologist who studies political solidarity, polarization, religion, intellectuals, and art, often in the Middle East.

Currently, I am a PhD candidate in Sociology at Yale University and a graduate policy fellow at the Yale Institution for Social and Policy Studies.

My PhD dissertation examines when and how political polarization becomes violent polarization. I study this empirically through the 2011 Egyptian Revolutionary coalition's trajectory from solidarity to violent polarization during the democratic transition.

My previous project (2018-2025) focused on the politics of intellectuals during revolutionary times. Through an abductive, in-depth study of religious intellectuals' Arab Spring politics, I propose a new theory explaining why people experience dilemmas and how these dilemmas lead intellectuals to political inconsistencies. My research also includes studies of moral change in revolutionary times and music and culture in poor urban neighborhoods. 

My peer-reviewed articles have been published in Sociology Compass, the American Journal of Islam and Society and the Journal for Islamic and Muslim Studies. I also write for the public in English and Arabic.