Asef Bayat

About

Asef Bayat is a Professor of Sociology and the Catherine and Bruce Bastian Professor of Global and Transnational Studies at the Department of Sociology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. His academic career includes teaching at the American University in Cairo and serving as the director of the International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (ISIM), holding the Chair of Society and Culture of the Modern Middle East at Leiden University in the Netherlands. He has also held visiting positions at the University of California, Berkeley, Columbia University, Oxford, and Brown University. His research interests encompass Political Sociology, Social Movements and Social Change, Religion and Public Life, Urban Life and Politics, Islam and Modernity, and the Contemporary Middle East. His recent work focuses on understanding the Arab revolutions—particularly the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions—from historical, comparative, and sociological perspectives, emphasizing the role of popular classes and subaltern groups in these upheavals. His publications include notable books such as 'Revolution without Revolutionaries' and 'Life as Politics,' which explore themes of social movements, political Islam, and the dynamics of change in the Middle East. Bayat's contributions have been recognized through various honors, including election to prominent academic chairs and fellowships from institutions like the Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and Guggenheim…

Research topics

• Political Science
• Law
• Sociology
• History
• Mechanical engineering
• Geography
• Political economy
• Engineering

Selected publications

• Life as Politics

  Stanford University Press eBooks · 2020 · 452 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  DOI

• Revolution without Revolutionaries

  Stanford University Press eBooks · 2020 · 168 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  The revolutionary wave that swept the Middle East in 2011 was marked by spectacular mobilization, spreading within and between countries with extraordinary speed. Several years on, however, it has caused limited shifts in structures of power, leaving much of the old political and social order intact. In this book, noted author Asef Bayat—whose Life as Politics anticipated the Arab Spring—uncovers why this occurred, and what made these uprisings so distinct from those that came before. Revolution…

  DOI

• Is Iran on the Verge of Another Revolution?

  Journal of democracy · 2023-04-01 · 25 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  How do we make sense of Iran’s “Women, Life, Freedom,” the extraordinary political uprising that came into being following the death of the Kurdish Mahsa Zhina Amini in September 2022 in police custody following her arrest for wearing an “improper” hijab? This is neither a “feminist revolution” per se, nor simply the revolt of the new generation, nor is it merely about the mandatory hijab. This is a movement to reclaim life, a struggle to liberate free and dignified existence from an internal co…

  PublisherDOI

• The Arab Spring and Revolutionary Theory: An Intervention in a Debate

  Journal of Historical Sociology · 2021-06-01 · 22 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract The so‐called Arab Spring of the 2010s that toppled six dictators has spurred productive debates about the character of these political happenings and their implications for revolutionary theory broadly. One such debate that appeared recently on the pages of Historical Sociology questions whether or not we are moving into a fifth‐generation revolutionary theory. This essay is an attempt to partake in this conversation, not only because my work is under discussion but because I wish to e…

  PublisherDOI

• 10. Everyday Cosmopolitanism

  Stanford University Press eBooks · 2020-12-31 · 17 citations

  book-chapterOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Perpetrated by the media and policy circles, the language of clash currently dominates interreligious and intercultural relations, overlooking the more common human practices based upon association and cooperation. It is therefore high time to invoke the notion of “everyday cosmopolitanism” both as a scholarly inquiry and an ethical project.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Linda Herrera

  16 shared

• Nong Zhang

  4 shared

• Ruud L. E. G. Aspers

  4 shared

• Robin Teufel

  University of Basel

  4 shared

• Xinhui Su

  Zhejiang University

  4 shared

• Z. Wu

  4 shared

• David S. Meier

  4 shared

• Jan Rossmeisl

  University of Copenhagen

  4 shared

Awards & honors

• Ford Foundation Fellow
• MacArthur Fellow
• Open Society Fellow
• Guggenheim Fellow
• Wissenschaftskolleg Fellow, Berlin

Similar researchers at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

• Paolo Gardonih-61
• Richard Akreshh-36
• Brian Allanh-29