Research

1. Does the Muslim penalty in the British labour market dissipate after accounting for so-called ‘sociocultural attitudes’? 

Using multilevel modelling, this paper investigates ethno-religious penalties in unemployment and inactivity among men and women using the Understanding Society survey. The paper confirms previous findings of a Muslim penalty and a British labour market hierarchized by colour (ethnicity) and religion (culture). However, by including a greater range of ethnic groups the paper provides a corrective to accounts in the sociological literature that being White is not a protection against the Muslim penalty. Rather, while affiliation with the Muslim White British group does not appear to be associated with penalization, Muslim Arabs who traditionally identify as White are found to experience significant disadvantage. This suggests that the Muslim penalty might also be moderated by a person’s country of origin. The paper also finds that considerable penalties remain for Muslims even after adjusting for so-called “sociocultural attitudes”, challenging the assumption that value orientations offer a suitable explanation for the Muslim penalty. [Link]

+ Media Coverage: The Guardian, The National, Arab News, Morocco World News, Daily Sabah, Islam Channel, The Mirage, University of Bristol press release, ‘Read of the Day’ in The Bridge Initiative newsletter (Georgetown University), Muslim Women Network, and an in-depth television interview on Islam Channel.

2. A Job, But Not Necessarily a Good One: The Job Quality Penalty of Muslim Women in Britain [1st author; with Cheung, S. Y.]

This study examines job quality disparities among Muslim women in Britain, addressing a critical gap in the Muslim penalty literature by incorporating job quality as an axis of labor market inequality. Drawing on pooled data from 12 waves of the UK Household Longitudinal Study, we construct a multidimensional job quality index using exploratory factor analysis of 21 indicators encompassing both pay- and non-pay-related job attributes. Employing multilevel linear modeling, we control for key demographic, ethnic, and employment characteristics. Our findings reveal a robust Muslim penalty in job quality: Muslim women report significantly lower job quality scores compared to their Christian counterparts. This disadvantage is most pronounced in routine occupations. Similar negative effects are observed in intermediate roles; however, these differences do not reach statistical significance possibly due to sample size limitation. In managerial and professional roles, disparities are less pronounced and likewise not statistically significant. By furthering our understanding of the Muslim penalty in Britain, this study contributes to a more nuanced comprehension of religious stratification in Western labor markets, with implications that extend to other contexts where Muslim women, as a marginalized minority, face some of the most severe employment disadvantage.  [Under Peer-Review]

3. Broadening the Lens: Integrating Context and Intersectionality to Advance Global DEI Research in the Academy of Management [2nd author; with Tekeste, M.; Ozbilgin, M., and Frimpong, J.A.] 

Over the past four decades, scholars have increasingly recognized the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) within organizations. Although significant advancements have been made in understanding the predictors, dynamics, and outcomes of diversity, existing theoretical frameworks remain limited in their intersectional and cross-border scope. Much of the current literature has been developed from a predominantly Western perspective, raising concerns about its applicability across diverse national and historical contexts. This essay critically evaluates DEI research within the Academy of Management (AOM) journals, identifying its limitations and proposing a forward-looking agenda toward a more inclusive, contextual, and intersectional understanding of DEI. By doing so, we aim to foster a paradigm shift that moves beyond Global North or Western-centric frameworks, integrating the voices and experiences of the Global South while addressing overlooked dimensions such as religion, temporal dynamics, and intersecting identities.

We integrate insights from scholars who advocate for greater contextualization, and call for comparative, international analyses that challenge Eurocentric assumptions and highlight the voices and experiences from regions that are less examined. A key objective is to pave the way for future research that more accurately reflects the complexity and variability of DEI worldwide, ultimately guiding scholars and practitioners toward more effective and inclusive organizational practices. To this end, we focus on the study of gender, race, religion, and intersectionality within the body of research published by the AOM, and highlight the urgent need for DEI scholarship that is context-informed and globally inclusive. These dimensions of identity are deeply intertwined, shaping and shaped by social, cultural, economic, and historical contexts. Understanding their interplay is an essential step towards advancing DEI research that reflects the complexities of diverse organizational environments, and the individuals who operate in these settings . [Revise & Resubmit]

1. How Workplace Information Transmission Shapes Bullying Disclosure [1st author; with Makovi K., Shepherd H., and Frimpong, J.A.] 

Workplace bullying, affecting approximately 10–15% of employees globally, imposes serious personal and organizational costs. While much research focuses on the incidence of bullying, this study investigates a critical yet underexplored response: disclosure. Using a survey experiment involving 4,413 U.S. employees, we examine the conditions under which individuals disclose bullying and how workplace context, including information transmission and organizational culture, shapes this decision. Findings reveal that disclosure decisions are not significantly influenced by the manipulated characteristics of the aggressor or confidante. Instead, disclosure is strongly patterned by the respondent’s own race and gender. White men are most likely to disclose, while Black women are least likely—highlighting how perceived risks and benefits of disclosure are unequally distributed. Organizational context matters: formal policies and supportive environments increase likelihood of disclosure for some groups, but do not eliminate race-gender disparities. This research underscores the importance of both individual-level identities and organizational conditions in shaping responses to workplace bullying. Findings have implications for designing more inclusive and effective reporting systems that encourage disclosure across diverse employee populations. [Working Paper]

1. Not All Requests Are Equal: Religion, Recognition, and Inequality in Managerial Decision-Making [1st author; with Makovi K., and Frimpong, J.A.] 

This study, based on an original experimental design involving U.S. managers, investigates how religious identity—specifically Islamic practice—triggers workplace exclusion, revealing overlooked mechanisms of organizational inequality. The paper identifies three forms of inequality: cultural fit (religious requests are viewed as less legitimate), institutional (legal protections fail to ensure support), and status (Muslim requesters are rated as less competent and promotable). By holding requester identity constant and varying only the nature of the request, the study isolates religion as the causal factor—independent of race or gender. These findings extend the literature on workplace inequality and the “Muslim penalty,” while also challenging dominant conceptions of Islamophobia that overemphasize racial frameworks and marginalize religion qua religion as a basis for exclusion. Ultimately, the study highlights the limitations of formal legal protections in fostering genuine inclusion and underscores the need to address religious bias as a distinct and consequential form of workplace discrimination. [Working Paper]

2. Anti-Religion or Anti-Islam? An Experimental Study of Employer Attitudes in the United States and France [1st author; with Makovi K., and Frimpong, J.A.]

This study examines whether managerial bias toward religious accommodation requests reflects a general aversion to religion or a specific bias against Islam. Using an original between-person experimental vignette design, we present U.S. and French managers with identical workplace scenarios in which a male employee requests time off for a religious holiday. The religious affiliation varies across three conditions, allowing us to assess responses across multiple faiths. By holding all other variables constant, the study isolates the effect of religious identity on managerial decision-making. This research contributes to scholarship on religious discrimination, the “Muslim penalty,” and secularism by clarifying whether Islam triggers uniquely exclusionary responses or whether such reactions reflect a broader pattern of religious aversion. The findings have implications for employment policy, organizational diversity practices, and theories of inclusion in Western democracies. [Working Paper]

1. Beyond Racism: Re-centering Religious Hostility in the Conceptualization of Islamophobia 

This paper challenges the prevailing Western framing of Islamophobia as primarily a form of racism. It argues that an overemphasis on a racial framing diminishes the significance of hostility toward Islam as a religion in our understanding of Islamophobia. Although anti-Muslim racism is undoubtedly an important facet of Islamophobia, empirical research shows that hostility toward Islam as a religion functions as a distinct yet interrelated phenomenon—an equally important dimension that existing scholarship either overlooks or treats as a relic of the past. To make the case for re-centering religious hostility in conceptualizations of Islamophobia, the paper begins with an overview and subsequent critique of the prevalent racism-centric approach. This critique identifies two key limitations. First, it highlights conceptual inadequacies in defining Islamophobia solely as racism, emphasizing that such a framework fails to adequately account for Islamophobia as anti-Islam bigotry and misrepresents the lived experiences of Muslims. Second, drawing on examples primarily from the United States but also from other Western contexts, it demonstrates how anti-Islam bigotry frequently manifests through explicitly theological or quasi-religious language, forms which cannot accurately be categorized as racism. Finally, the paper advances a revised definition of Islamophobia that re-centers hostility toward Islam qua Islam as a core dimension of the phenomenon. [Revise & Resubmit]

1. French Islamophobia: How Orthopraxy Is Conceptualized as a Public Peril [Equal contribution with Lienen, C.] 

For over two decades, France’s Muslim population has faced a series of legal measures and hostile public narratives aimed at problematizing their faith. Notable examples include the 2004 national ban on “ostentatious religious symbols” in state schools, which prohibits obligatory religious dress in various settings. These individual instances are compounded by more recent broader policies, decisions, laws, and executive statements that negatively impact Muslim life. This paper examines France’s trajectory from a new perspective: A Muslim legal viewpoint. It argues that the French approach constitutes a two-step process of institutionalized Islamophobia, understood here as hostility towards Islam as a faith. First, the state redefines mainstream Islamic orthopraxy as “extreme”, pitting ordinary religious practices against averred Republican values. Second, it seeks to promote an alternative concept of a “French Islam”—one that aligns with France’s secular principles and is stripped of its religious essence—positioning it as the only acceptable framework for Muslims to practice their faith in France. We argue that this process is not about upholding laïcité or state neutrality; rather, invoking the latter serves as a smokescreen for the state’s Islamophobia. [Link]

2. In Pursuit of Settler-Colonial Objectives: How Islamophobic Discourses Underpin Israel’s Genocide in Palestine 

By focusing on the Palestinian struggle and Israel’s ongoing genocide, this paper demonstrates how three enduring Western Islamophobic tropes—licentiousness, barbarity, and “Islamic anti-Semitism”—are strategically deployed to dehumanize Palestinians and justify their oppression and killing. In doing so, the study highlights how Islamophobia serves to further Israel’s status as a settler colonial enterprise. Although Islamophobia is a recurrent theme in public discourse surrounding the ongoing genocide in Gaza, such claims are often overly general and lack analytical depth. To address this gap, the manuscript is arranged into three main sections. First, this paper outlines the background of the situation in Gaza, and Palestine more generally, prior to October 7th. Second, it presents a conceptual framework that draws on Bazian (2016) to situate Palestine as a settler-colonial project and on Kumar (2012) to elucidate how structural Islamophobia is used to further imperial ambitions. Third, the study demonstrates how longstanding Western Islamophobic tropes are instrumentalized to legitimize Israel’s ongoing genocide, thereby reinforcing the foundational elements of a settler‐colonial strategy aimed at eliminating the indigenous population. [Working Paper]