2008 PhD Sociology, University of Michigan
Mucahit Bilici is Associate Professor of Sociology at John Jay College and CUNY Graduate Center. He is the author of Finding Mecca in America: How Islam Is Becoming an American Religion (University of Chicago Press, 2012) and co-author of Following Similar Paths: What American Jews and Muslims Can Learn from One Another (University of California Press, 2024), with Samuel Heilman. His research interests include American Islam, Muslim Studies, Kurdish identity and Turkish society. Among his numerous Turkish publications is Hamal Kurt: Turk Islami ve Kurt Sorunu [Kurd the Porter: Turkish Islam and the Kurdish Question] (Istanbul: Avesta Publishers, 2017). Bilici is a faculty fellow at the CUNY Dispute Resolution Center and a frequent commentator and public speaker on Kurdish and Muslim issues in the contemporary Middle East.
American Sociological Association, Zahra Institute
Books:
Following Similar Paths: What American Jews and Muslims Can Learn from One Another (University of California Press, 2024), with Samuel Heilman
Finding Mecca in America: How Islam Is Becoming an American Religion (University of Chicago Press, 2012)
https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Mecca-America-Becoming-American/dp/0226049574
Selected Publications:
Bilici, Mucahit. 2022. “Turkish Islam and Kurdish Difference,” HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 12 (1).
Bilici, Mucahit. 2021. “Ehmedê Xanî’s Political Philosophy in Mem û Zîn” in Kurds and Yezidis in the Middle East: Shifting Identities, Borders and the Experience of Minority Communities, ed. G. M. Tezcur. London: IB Tauris.
Bilici, Mucahit. 2020. “Kurds between Ethnicity and Universalist Ideologies,” Kurt Arastirmalari / Kurdish Studies 3 (May 2020).
Bilici, Mucahit. 2019. “Muslims and the American Constitution: From the First Amendment to the Second?” In Muslims and US Politics Today: A Defining Moment, ed. M. H. Khalil. (Mizan Series / Harvard University Press).
Bilici, Mucahit. 2018. “The Crisis of Religiosity in Turkish Islamism,” Middle East Report 288, Fall 2018.
Bilici, Mucahit. 2018. “Said Nursi: Dehanin Ehlilestirilmesi ve Imanizm” [“Said Nursi: Domestication of Genius and Reform in Islam”] in Kürt Tarihi ve Siyasetinden Portreler [Portraits in Kurdish History and Politics], eds. Y. Cakmak and T. Sur. Istanbul: Iletisim Yayinlari. [Turkish]
Bilici, Mucahit. 2017. Hamal Kürt: Türk İslamı ve Kürt Sorunu [Kurd, the Porter: Turkish Islam and the Kurdish Question]. Istanbul: Avesta Yayinlari, 2017. [Turkish]
Bilici, Mucahit. 2016. “American Muslims between Legal Citizenship and Public Exclusion,” The Immanent Frame, Oct. 2016, http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/the-politics-of-national-identity/
Bilici, Mucahit. 2016. İslamda Savaş Bitmiştir [War is Over in Islam]. Istanbul: Avesta Yayinlari, 2016. [Turkish]
Bilici, Mucahit. 2016. “Insan Haklari ve Insan Haysiyeti: Din ve Esitligin Kokeni” [“Human Rights and Human Dignity: Religion and the Origins of Equality”] in Ayrimcilik: Din ve Insan Haklari Perspektifinden [Religious and Human Rights Perspectives on Discrimination], eds. Akyesilmen et al. Ankara: Orion. [Turkish]
Bilici, Mucahit. 2011. “Being Targeted, Being Recognized: The Impact of 9/11 on Arab and Muslim Americans,” Contemporary Sociology 40 (2):133-137.
Bilici, Mucahit. 2011. “Homeland Insecurity: How Immigrant Muslims Naturalize America in Islam,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 53 (3): 595-622.
Bilici, Mucahit. 2010. “Muslim Ethnic Comedy: Inversions of Islamophobia.” In Islamophobia/Islamophilia: Beyond the Politics of Enemy and Friend, ed. A. Shryock. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Bilici, Mucahit. 2009. “Black Turks, White Turks: On the Three Requirements of Turkish Citizenship,” Insight Turkey 11 (3): 23-35.
Bilici, Mucahit. 2008. “Said Nursi’s Moral Philosophy,” Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 19 (1): 89-98.
Khalil, M. H. and Mucahit Bilici. 2007. “Conversion out of Islam: A Study of Conversion Narratives of Former Muslims,” The Muslim World 97 (January 2007): 111-124.
Bilici, Mucahit. 2006. “The Fethullah Gulen Movement and Its Politics of Representation in Turkey,” The Muslim World 96 (January): 1-20.
Bilici, Mucahit. 2006. “Ummah and Empire: Global Formations after Nation.” In Blackwell Companion to Contemporary Islamic Thought, ed. Ibrahim AbuRabi. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing.
Bilici, Mucahit. 2005. “American Jihad: Representations of Islam in the United States after 9/11,” American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences (AJISS) 22(1): 50-69.
Bilici, Mucahit. 2003. “Forgetting Gramsci and Remembering Nursi: Parallel Theories of Gramsci and Nursi in the Space of Eurocentrism.” In Islam at the Crossroads: On the Life and Thought of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, ed. Ibrahim Abu-Rabi. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.