Current and Recent Research Projects
Progressive Islamic thought and social movements in Indonesia
- Greg Barton
- This project examines progressive Islamic intellectuals and activists in Indonesia, related Non-Governmental Organizations and associated institutions of learning.
Radical Islamist thought and social movements in Indonesia
- This broad project tracks and analyses the ideas and activism of a variety of radical Islamist groups in Indonesia, including Jemaah Islamiyah and Hizbut Tahrir. Greg Barton, Mokhammad Yahya and Linda Hindasyah
The Gülen Movement in Turkey and around the world
- Greg Barton, D Tittensor
- This project seeks to study and understand the rapidly developing international social movement inspired by the contemporary Turkish Islamic intellectual Fethullah Gülen. It examines the work of the Gülen movement, or hizmet – as it refers to itself, in Turkey, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia, North America and Europe.
Muslim youth in Melbourne
- Pete Lentini, Joshua Roose
- This project focuses upon the processes of political identity construction in Muslim youth aged 18-29 in Melbourne, Australia.
Understanding Australian-born Muslims
- R. Woodlock
- This research looks at the hopes and concerns of, and influences on, Australian-born Muslim women. It is particularly concerned with the everyday hopes, aspirations, concerns and worries of religiously observant women; looks at influences (such as charismatic preachers, local imams, family beliefs etc.) on their religious beliefs; and asks whether and how they modulate their religious practices to facilitate movement and/or acceptance in the wider Australian society.
Managing Religious Diversity in the Asia Pacific
- A Halafoff
- This project explores the ways in which government agencies and community religious groups negotiate policy formulation and implementation.
- S Akbarzadeh & B MacQueen
- This project explores how reformist Muslim thinkers have tried to bridge the gap between Islam and the West in relation to human rights. This project is a collaboration with scholars in the United States, United Kingdom, Indonesia and Malaysia
The Human Rights of Muslim Women in Iran: Resolutions at the Global-Local Nexus
- R Barlow (Pol Scholarship)
- This project explores tensions between the universalistic nature of women's human rights, and the local conditions of their realization in Muslim societies. It engages with Islamic and secular feminisms and contends that the successful establishment of women's human rights in Muslim societies is contingent on the vibrancy of a "third space" - somewhere between the extreme poles of these two movements. This project pays special attention to Shirin Ebadi, winner of the Nobel Peace prize 2003.
Testing the Limits of Islamism in the West
- K Baxter
- This project explores the rise and fall of al-Muhajiroun, a London-based Islamist organisation. It traces the ideological roots of Islamism in the United Kingdom and its response to the perceived inconsistency between UK citizenship and Muslim identity.