Academic Milestones and Relevant Positions
08/2022
Researcher at Avicenna Institute for Middle Eastern Studies
03/2022
Researcher at the Institute for Social Anthropology (ISA), Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna
01/2022-12/2023
Coordinator of the Southeast Asia and the Islands of the Indian Ocean research group at ISA
02/2020-2022
Marie Curie Fellow at the Institute for Social Anthropology, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna
08/2014-01/2020
Postdoctoral Fellow, Middle East Institute (MEI), National University of Singapore
09/2018-12/2018
Guest Researcher, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies
09/2018-12/2018
Guest Researcher, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies
01/2016-07/2016
Visiting Assistant Professor, Gulf University for Science and Technology, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Kuwait
01/2014-07/2014
Lecturer, Institute for Postgraduate Studies, Universitas Islam Negeri Sunan Kalijaga, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
01/2014
Obtaining PhD at Utrecht University
03/2011-09/2013
Researcher, Utrecht University, Department of Religious Studies and Theology
09/2012-09/2013
Guest PhD researcher, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang
05/2009-12/2010
Researcher, Utrecht University, Department of Religious Studies and Theology
09/2008-12/2008
Visiting Fellowship at International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (ISIM)
Fellowships and Awards
2022
Research Project on the differences of Salafi and Muslim Brotherhood inspired Islamic activism, granted by the Vienna based Dokumentationstelle Politischer Islam
2019
Marie Currie Fellowship, European Commission, Brussels
2018
Grant for a Visiting Fellowship by the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA), Hamburg, Germany
2011
PhD grant, Netherlands Interuniversity School for Islamic Studies (NISIS), Netherlands
2009
Grant by the Dutch NGO FORUM to carry out a project on Islamic Transnationalism
2008
Grant for a Visiting Fellowship by the International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World, Leiden, Netherlands (ISIM)
2005
Scholarship of Syrian Arab Republic for education for 2 semesters at the University of Damascus, Department of History, Syria
2003
Scholarship of the Republic of Yemen for 10 months of language training at University of Sana’a, Yemen
Organization of Scientific Meetings
2024
Convener of the workshop “Muslim Studies in Thailand: Retrospective Assessment and Future (Research) Trajectories”, Prince of Songkhla University, Pattani, Thailand
2021
Convener of the Marie Curie International Seminar “Transnational Religious Flows Between the Middle East, Southeast Asia And Europe,” National University of Public Service, Budapest, Hungary
2018
Convener of MEI Political Economy Cluster Conference: “Philanthropy or Empire-Building: Charity Networks between Middle East and Southeast Asia”, Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore/Singapore
2017
Convener of “Invention or Rediscovery? The Emergence of Sunni Identity in the 21st Century”, workshop organized at the Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore/Singapore
2015
Convener of the Research Roundtable: Asia and the Middle East – Ideas, Translation and Ulama at the Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore/Singapore
Reviewing Activities
Reviewer, Israel Science Fund, Israel
Reviewer for Asian Journal of Social Sciences, Southeast Asian Studies, Middle East Journal,
Mediterranean Policy
Invited Presentations
2023
The Global and Local Dynamics in the Evolution of Post-Salafism, CERA conference organized by Dokumentationstelle Politischer Islam, Vienna, Austria
2018
“Approaches to the Strategic Competition in Asia”, Conference of the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, Bangkok, Thailand – “Salafism and Transnational Islamic Philanthropy: A Case Study from Kuwait”.
2017
“Who speaks for Political Islam? Islamist and Salafist Political Actors and the Relevance of Transnational Networks”, GIGA Research Platform Workshop, Berlin, Germany – “The Contradictions of a Salafi Transnational Political Project”.
2016
“Salafism in Lebanon: Local and Transnational Movements”, public lecture at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna.
2015
“Globalization and the Ties that Bind: Korea and the Gulf”, Seoul, South Korea. Workshop organized by the ASAN Institute for Policy Studies and the Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore – “The Local and the Global in Kuwaiti Salafism”
2015
“Salafi Networks between the Arabian Gulf and Southeast Asia”, Seoul, South Korea, Invited talk at the Asia Center, Seoul National University.
2014
“Islamism and its Alternatives in the GCC”, Seminar organized by Chatham House and the Gulf Studies Center at Qatar University, Doha
2013
“The Rising Wave of Salafism in the Middle East”, Invited talk at the National University of Singapore, Middle East Institute, 4 July 2013 – “The Rearrangement of Power Relations in Salafism”.
Conference Presentations
2023
Middle East Studies Association (MESA) Annual Meeting, Montreal, Canada, “Regenerating Ambiguity: Kuwaiti NGOs and Adapting Salafism to Cambodia’s Sociocultural Environment”
2022
The 12th Nordic Conference on Middle Eastern Studies, Reykjavik, “The Limitations of Imagining the Land of the Two Holy Mosques in Cambodia”
2022
European Association for Southeast Asian Studies biannual meeting, Paris, “Regenerating Ambiguity: Inserting Salafism in a Cambodian sociocultural environment”
2020
Congress of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES), Split, Croatia (online), “Arab encounters in a Malay dominated religious scene”
2015
The Second Annual Conference of the British Association of Islamic Studies, London,“The Construction of Salafi Religious Authority in Lebanon”
2015
IUAES 2015 Inter-Congress, ‘Re-imagining Anthropological Boundaries’, Thammasat University, Bangkok, “‘The Construction of the Authority of Lebanese Salafis”
2013
“Religion and the Politics of Development: Priests, Potentates and “Progress””, Singapore, conference, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore – “Between Ideology and International Politics: The Dynamics and Transformation of a Transnational Islamic Charity”.
2012
Netherlands InterUniversity School of Islamic Studies (NISIS) Spring School, Istanbul, “Salafi Discourse on the Shi’a in Kuwait: Excommunication or Acceptance”
2011
Netherlands Interuniversity School of Islamic Studies (NISIS) Autumn School, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, “Salafism and the Redefinition of Orthodoxy”
2011
Netherlands Interuniversity School of Islamic Studies (NISIS) Spring School, Rabat, Morocco
2010
Netherlands Interuniversity School of Islamic Studies (NISIS) Autumn School, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2010
Middle East Studies Association Annual Meeting, San Diego, California, “The Transformation of Religious Authority in Kuwait”
2010
Dutch Association for the Academic Study of Religion International Conference, Soesterberg, The Netherlands, “The religious Authority of Salafism”
Teaching Activities
2016
Visiting Assistant Professor – History, Gulf University for Science and Technology, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Kuwait
2013-2014
Lecturer – Anthropology, Social Sciences, Institute of Postgraduate Studies, Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
2012
PhD Candidate – Islamic Studies, with Welmoet Boender, Utrecht University, Department of Religious Studies and Theology, Netherlands
Education
05/2009-09/2013
Utrecht University, The Netherlands, Department of Theology and Religious Studies, PhD Student in ‘Comparative Studies of Contemporary Muslim Societies’ (degree received on 14 January 2014)
09/2001-06/2007
Eotvos University, Budapest, Hungary, Faculty of Philosophy, Department of Semitic Philology and Arabic Language (Major in Arabic studies)
09/2002-06/2007
Eotvos University, Budapest, Hungary, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Political Science and International Studies (Minor in political science)
09/2005-06/2006
University of Damascus, Syria, Department of History
09/2003-06/2004
University of Sana’a, Yemen, Department of Arabic Language
Language Skills
Hungarian
native
Arabic
advanced
Indonesian/Malay
advanced
English
advanced
German
basic