RESEARCH INTERESTS

Islamic activism and informal networks in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, the development of Salafism, transnational linkages between the Middle East and the Arab World

Ongoing research projects:

1.    Neo-traditionalism in Southeast Asia and the Middle East
2.    Islam in Cambodia and the impact of Middle Eastern Islamic movements and networks on the sociopolitical and socioreligious evolution of the Cambodian Muslim minority
3.    Political anthropology of the Islamic movements in Kuwait

EDUCATION

2009-2013: Utrecht University, The Netherlands, Department of Theology and Religious Studies, PhD Student in ‘Comparative Studies of Contemporary Muslim Societies’ (degree received on 14 January 2014)
2012-2013: Guest PhD researcher, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang
2001-2007: Eotvos University, Budapest, Hungary, Faculty of Philosophy, Department of Semitic Philology and Arabic Language (Major in Arabic studies
2005-2006: University of Damascus, Syria, Department of History
2003-2004: University of Sana’a, Yemen, Department of Arabic Language

FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARDS

2020-2022: Marie Curie Fellowship granted by the European Commission (started in February 2020)
2018: Grant for a Visiting Fellowship by the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA), Hamburg, Germany
2011-2013: PhD grant of the Netherlands Interuniversity School for Islamic Studies (NISIS), Netherlands
2009-2010: Grant by the Dutch NGO FORUM to carry out a project on Islamic Transnationalism
2008: Grant for a Visiting Fellowship by the International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World, Leiden, Netherlands (ISIM)
2005-2006: Scholarship of the Hungarian Scholarship Committee and the Syrian Arab Republic for education for 2 semesters at the University of Damascus, Department of History, Syria
2003-2004: Scholarship of the Scholarship of the Hungarian Scholarship Committee and the Republic of Yemen for 10 months of language training at University of Sana’a, Yemen

WORK EXPERIENCE

2025-: Senior Researcher, Institute for the Interregional Study of Constitutionalism, Faculty of Law, Charles University/Czechia
2022-2025: Researcher, Avicenna Institute for Middle Eastern Studies
2014-2020: Researcher, Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore
2013-2014: Lecturer, Institute for Postgraduate Studies, Universitas Islam Negeri Sunan Kalijaga, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
2009-2013: Researcher, Utrecht University, Department of Religious Studies and Theology

FIELDWORK

2025: 2 weeks of fieldwork in Kuwait, 3 weeks of fieldwork in Egypt
2024: 4 months of fieldwork in the Philippines, Thailand, and Cambodia, 2 weeks of fieldwork in Egypt
2023: 3 months fieldwork in Cambodia, Malaysia and Thailand
2022: 2 months fieldwork in Cambodia
2019: 4 months fieldwork in Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia
2018: 2 months fieldwork in Malaysia and Indonesia, 2 months fieldwork in Kuwait
2017: 2 months fieldwork in Cambodia
2016: 5 months fieldwork in Kuwait
2009-2012: 12 months fieldwork in Lebanon, Kuwait, Qatar, Sweden, Germany, and Netherlands for my PhD research
2006: 5 months fieldwork in Lebanon for my Master Thesis