RESEARCH FELLOWS
Hande Gür
Hande Gür is a PhD student at the University of Alberta, Department of Anthropology with a specialization in the anthropology of Islam, spirituality, gender, and religious and social movements. Her doctoral research is an ethnographic study of the rise of Sufi—or mystical Islamic— practices among mainly young, middle-class women of Turkish origin living both in Turkey and in the West. Gür brings to this research a solid record of academic research and publishing, including her M.S. thesis (METU, 2018) on contemporary Mevleviye in Turkey, and M.A. dissertation (Hacettepe Institute of Population Studies, 2020). that was focused on using sequential mixed methods in the study of spirituality. Hande Gür published her first solo article on this research in the Journal of Empirical Theology in 2020 and co-wrote a Turkish book entitled “Spiritual Seeking in Turkey” (Türkiye’de Spiritüel Arayışlar) in 2021. Currently Hande Gür is a graduate research fellow of the Non-Religious Beliefs and Practices in Turkey (NBPT) research project.
Saqib Hafiz Khateeb
Saqib Hafiz Khateeb is a visiting research fellow with the Nonreligious Beliefs and Practices in Turkey (NBPT) research project. He is pursuing his Ph.D. in Religious Studies at the University of Ottawa (Canada), where he is a member of the Student Caucus for the Nonreligion in a Complex Future (NCF) Project, led by Professor Lori Beaman. His doctoral research focuses on the exploration of nonreligion and nonreligious lifestyles among Arab populations residing in Türkiye. Saqib graduated with a Master of Arts in Islamic Studies, specializing in Islamic Law, from SOAS-University of London (UK). He holds another Master’s degree in Islamic Finance from Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU, Qatar) and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Madinah (KSA), majoring in Islamic Law and Jurisprudence. Throughout his academic career, Saqib has worked as a Research Fellow at HBKU, contributing to various research projects at the intersection of Finance and Islamic Law. His career includes roles as a Graduate Research Assistant in the Law Department at SOAS and at the Research Division at HBKU, and as a Legal Assistant at a Law firm in London.
Emirhan Özdal
Emirhan Özdal is a student research member of the Non-Religious Beliefs and Practices in Turkey (NBPT) research project. He is a sociology BA student at Ankara University and the vice president of Ankara University, Sociology Society. His research interests focus on Sociology of Religion, Urban Sociology and Sociology of Knowledge. |