Sultan Tepe

Sultan Tepe is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), affiliated with the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Her research bridges religion, politics, and authoritarianism, focusing on marginalized groups and under-researched contexts. She has held roles such as editor-in-chief of Politics and Religion and has been recognized with prestigious awards including the Choice Outstanding Academic Title and APSA Weber Best Research Paper.

Education: PhD in Political Science from the University of Texas at Austin (2002).

Research Interests:

• Methodological critiques of religion-politics studies
• Populism, polarization, and party moderation
• Urban governance and transnational religious minorities
• Gendered hierarchies in religious spaces
• Top-down urban renewal impacts on the urban poor

Publications reflect her interdisciplinary approach, analyzing cases from Israel, India, Turkey, and the U.S. Her work emphasizes global-local intersections and challenges Western-centric theories.

Awards:

• Choice Outstanding Academic Title Book award
• APSA Weber Best Research Paper
• Excellence in Graduate Mentoring
• Silver Circle Teaching Award

Mentoring and Teaching: Recognized for her dedication to graduate student development and teaching excellence. Her scholarship combines theoretical innovation with empirical rigor across multiple continents.