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. 

My PhD dissertation studies how peaceful political competition among civilians transforms into violent polarization. More concretely, I study the 2011 Egyptian Revolution to understand why competition among civilian revolutionary allies became violently polarized after they overthrew the head of the existing order.

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 ideological change in revolutionary times and music and culture in poor urban neighborhoods. 

My peer-reviewed articles have been published in 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.