DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

Interests

Research Interest(s): Professor Hurd studies the politics of religion in US foreign and immigration policy, the global politics of secularism and religious freedom, religion, politics and American borders, the US in the Middle East, and the intersections of critical political theory with political theology.

Program Area(s): Political Theory; International Relations; American Politics

Regional Specialization(s): United States; Middle East; Europe

Subfield Specialties: Critical Theory; Law and Politics

Joint Appointment

Middle East and North African Studies

Religious Studies

Biography

Elizabeth Shakman Hurd is Professor and Chair of Religious Studies and Professor of Political Science. She studies the politics of religion in U.S. foreign and immigration policy, the global politics of secularism and religious freedom, religion, politics, and American borders, the US and the Middle East, and the intersections of political theory and political theology. She co-directs the Global Religion & Politics Research Group, is a core faculty member in the MENA Studies program, and is a member of the French Interdisciplinary Group’s Sciences Po Partnership Advisory Committee.

Hurd teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on religion, race, and global politics; law and religion; American borders; politics of religious diversity; and the United States in the Middle East. She advises graduate students interested in these topics as well as other topics related to her interests in international political theory, political ethnography, methods in the study of religion and politics, and the politics of the Middle East.

Publications

Prof. Hurd's most recent book, Heaven Has a Wall: Religion, Borders, and the Global United States, will be published by the University of Chicago Press in 2025. She is the author of The Politics of Secularism in International Relations (2008) and Beyond Religious Freedom: The New Global Politics of Religion (2015), both published by Princeton University Press. She is co-editor, with Winnifred Fallers Sullivan, of At Home and Abroad: The Politics of American Religion (Columbia, 2021) and Theologies of American Exceptionalism (Indiana University Press, 2020), and also co-edited Politics of Religious Freedom (University of Chicago, 2015) and Comparative Secularisms in a Global Age (Palgrave, 2010). Her articles, book chapters, and public writing are available on her personal website.

• “Afterword: In the Eye of the Inquisitor: The Politics of Religious Asylum.” In Lena Rose and Ebru Öztürk, eds. Asylum and Conversion from Islam to Christianity in Europe: Interdisciplinary Approaches. London: Bloomsbury Academic, forthcoming 2024.
• “A Critical Approach to Religion in International Relations.” In Marta Íñiguez de Heredia, Ángela Iranzo e Itziar Ruiz-Giménez, eds. Teorías Críticas de Relaciones Internacionales, Madrid: UAM, forthcoming 2024.
• “The Politics of International Religious Freedom.” In Jeffrey Haynes, ed., Routledge Handbook of Religion & Politics (3rd ed.) London & New York: Routledge (2023): 139-154.
• “America Transcendent.” In Joshua Ralston & Ulrich Schmiedel, eds. The Spirit of Populism: Political Theologies in Polarized Times. Leiden: Brill, 2022: 70-81.
• “Freedom, Salvation, Redemption: Theologies of Political Asylum.” Migration and Society 4 (2021): 110-123.
• “Politics of Religious Freedom in the Asia Pacific: An Introduction.” Journal of Religious and Political Practice, 4 (1), 2018. 
• “Narratives of De-secularization in International Relations.” Intellectual History Review, 27 (1):  97-113.
• “Politics of Sectarianism: Rethinking Religion and Politics in the Middle East.” Middle East Law and Governance, 7, no.1 (Spring 2015): 61-75. 
• “Introduction to Politics of Religious Freedom: Case Studies.” Maryland Journal of International Law, vol. 29 (2015): 288-99, co-authored with Peter G. Danchin, Saba Mahmood & Winnifred Fallers Sullivan.
• “Thinking About Religion, Law, and Politics in Latin America.” Special Issue, “Religiones, Post-secularidad y Democracia en América Latina: Reconfiguraciones del Discurso y la Acción Política,” Revista de Estudios Sociales-RES, no. 51 (2015): 25-35. 
• “Alevis under Law: The Politics of Religious Freedom in Turkey.” Journal of Law and Religion 29, no. 3 (September/October 2014): 1-20.
• “Editors’ Introduction.” with Winnifred Sullivan, Symposium: “Re-thinking Religious Freedom,” Journal of Law and Religion, Vol. 29, no. 3. September/October 2014.
• “Religious Freedom, American-style.” Quaderni di Diritto e Politica Ecclesiastica, no. 1 (June 2014): 231-242.
• “The International Politics of Religious Freedom.” IIC Quarterly, Special issue on “Living with Religious Diversity,” Sonia Sikka and Lori G. Beaman, eds., 2014.
• “International Politics after Secularism.” Review of International Studies. Special Issue, “The Postsecular in International Relations,” Dec. 2012. PDF
• “Debates within a Single Church: Secularism and IR Theory.” Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen, Special Issue on “Religion and IR Theory,” (June 2010): 135-48.  
• “Iran, in Search of a Nonsecular and Nontheocratic Politics” Public Culture 22, no.1 (Winter 2010): 25-32.  PDF.

For works prior to 2010, see website.

Courses taught

• The American Border: Politics, Policy, Theology (Political Science 101)
• America and the World (Political Science 378)
• Politics of Religious Diversity (Political Science 390, Religious Studies 379)
• Religion & Politics: Global Perspectives (PoliSci 390, Religious Studies 382)
• Religion, Race and Global Politics (Political Science 390, Religious Studies 471)
• International Politics of the Middle East (Political Science 395)

Public Engagement

• "How the US is making it illegal for students to disagree with Israel." Chicago Tribune. December 5, 2023.
• "The Wall Between Church and State is Blocking our View on Abortion Rights." Chicago Tribune. July 2022. 
• Witness, Hearing on “The State of Religious Freedom Around the Globe.” Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, U.S. House of Representatives. Washington, D.C.: July 13, 2021. 
• "It’s Time to De-emphasize Religion in U.S. Foreign Policy." The Hill, July 19, 2021.
• "Is There a Right to Heresy?" (with Nadia Marzouki). Boston Review, March 8, 2021.
• "The Paradox of Free Religion." Berkley Forum, January 12, 2021.
• "Religious Freedom, Public Health, and the Limits of Law." Canopy Forum, December 21, 2020.
• "Defund the Border Police: Racial Justice and the American Border." Canopy Forum, July 13, 2020. Podcast.
• "Islam in America: Review of America & Islam: Soundbites, Suicide Bombs and the Road to Donald Trump." Cairo Review of Global Affairs 36, Winter 2020.
• "Why Did a Muslim Civil Rights Group Oppose Democrats’ Plans to Confront White Nationalism?" (with Brannon Ingram). Rewire. November 15, 2019.
• "Three Myths About Religion and Politics." Canopy Forum: On the Interactions of Law & Religion (3 parts). Oct. 2-4, 2019.
• "Dangerous Logic at the Border: Religion and the Travel Ban." Religion & Politics. July 2, 2019.
• "The Conflation of Antisemitism and Israel Criticism Isn’t Unique, But it is a Problem." Rewire. March 19, 2019.
• "The Border President." Boston Review. June 28, 2018.
• Introduction to "Controversy over French Proposal to Edit the Koran: A Transatlantic Perspective" (with Nadia Marzouki), The Immanent Frame. June 25, 2018.
• "Does Religious Freedom Favor Some Religions Over Others?" U.S. Catholic. January 31, 2018.

For works prior to 2018, see website.

Awards

• Member, American Society for the Study of Religion, 2024-
• Northwestern Buffett Faculty Collaboration Grant - “Insubordinate Religiosities, Social Protests and Uneasy Democracies Today.” With Carlos Manrique, Universidad de los Andes. April 2024.
• Northwestern Weinberg Center for International & Area Studies - “Global Epistemological Politics of Religion: Works in Progress.” Symposium Grant. June 2023.
• Northwestern Weinberg College Covid-19 Research Recovery Grant - “American Border Religion.” 2023.
• Congressional testimony - Hearing on ‘The State of Religious Freedom Around the Globe.” U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C., July 2021.
• International Relations/Buffett Institute International Classroom Partnering Grant, “Global Conversations on Religion, Race, & Politics,” 2020-21; 2021-22.
• Northwestern Buffett Virtual Visitorship Grant, hosting Dmytro Vovk - Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University, Kharkiv, Ukraine, 2022.
• ACLS/Luce Fellowship in Religion, Journalism and International Affairs. 2019-2020. Project: “Religion on the Border.”
• “Talking Religion: Publics, Politics, and the Media.” PI with Brannon Ingram. Luce/ACLS Program in Religion, Journalism & International Affairs, 2018-2020.
• Law and the Politics of Religious Diversity.” Daniel I. Linzer Grant for Innovation in Diversity and Equity, 2018.
• Buffett Faculty Fellowship. Buffett Institute for Global Studies, Northwestern, 2016-2019.
• “Politics of Religion at Home and Abroad.” PI with Winnifred Sullivan. Luce Initiative on Religion & International Affairs, 2016-2019.
• “Big Ideas” Faculty Innovation Grant, Research Group on Global Politics & Religion. Northwestern Buffett Institute for Global Studies, 2015.
• Faculty Fellow. Kaplan Institute for the Humanities. “Religion and Politics Beyond Freedom and Violence.” Northwestern, 2015-16.
• “Politics of Religious Freedom: Contested Norms and Local Practices.” PI with Saba Mahmood, Winnifred Fallers Sullivan & Peter Danchin. Luce Foundation Initiative on Religion & International Affairs, 2011-2014.
• “Thinking about Religion, Law, and Politics.” Workshop Grant with Winnifred Sullivan and Robert Orsi. Luce Foundation Initiative on Religion & International Affairs, July 2014.
• 2014 Weber Award for the best paper in religion and politics presented at the 2013 APSA meeting. “The ‘Religious Offensive’: The Politics of Religious Engagement.”
• Equality, Development and Globalization Studies Speaker Series Grant. Series on “Religion, Law, and Politics,” 2014-15.
• Hewlett Faculty Fellowship. Northwestern course development grant, “Politics of Religious Diversity,” 2014-15.
• Content Consultant. Radio series: “God and Government: How Fourteen Nations Mix Religion and Government.” Nationally syndicated public radio show hosted by Maureen Fiedler and Amber Khan. Luce Foundation Initiative on Religion & International Affairs, 2013-2015; renewed 2016-2018.
• 2016 Religion News Association (RNA) Award for Excellence in radio or podcast religion reporting for “God and Government: China: An Atheist Country, Embracing Buddhism.”
• 2014 Religion Communicators Council (RCC) Wilbur Award for Interfaith Voices –“God and Government: Egypt in Crisis” in Category (7A): Single Program–part of series. Fellow. Public Voices Thought Leadership Fellowship Program, Northwestern University and the OpEd Project, 2012-2013.
• Visiting Fellow. Institute for Human Sciences (Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen). Vienna, 2010.
• Visiting Research Professor, Center for the Study of Religion & Conflict, Arizona State University, Spring 2010.
• Postdoctoral Fellowship. Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, University of Virginia, 2004-05.
• European-American Young Scholars’ Institutes Program. Summer Institute on Secularization and Religion, convened by José Casanova and Hans Joas. Erfurt, 2003.