Research Interests

Professor Diwan researches political economy, the politics of the Middle East, and Islam and politics. She is an expert on Islamic Banking and Finance, and  has presented papers on Islamic Banking, Islamist-Liberal politics in Kuwait, and cultural resistance to economic integration.  Her current research interest revolves around the social and institutional origins of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Gulf

Professional Presentations

• Gulf Culture Wars:  Liberals, Islamists, and the Urban-Bedouin Divide, presented at Princeton University, September 2009
• Islamic Finance and Islamist Mobilization, presented at The Institute for Middle East Studies, George Washington University, April 2008
• Islamist Mobilization in the Petro-Welfare States, presented at the Middle East Studies Association, November 2008
• Two Ironies:  Sovereign Wealth Funds in Saudi Arabia, presented at Cornell Workshop on Sovereign Wealth Funds, November 2008
• Political Reform in the Arabian Peninsula:  The Perils of Partial Openings, presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association (APSA), September 2008
• Islamic Finance and the Renewal of Awqaf, presented at The Eighth Annual Harvard University Forum on Islamic Finance, May 2008
• The Impetus for Building the Islamic Legal/Regulatory Framework and the Course it has Taken, presented at the London Middle East Institute, SOAS, May 2006
• Islamic Banking and the Politics of International Financial Harmonization, presented at The Sixth Annual Harvard University Forum on Islamic Finance, May 2004
• Global Finance from Below, presented at the American Political Science Association, 2004
• Kuwait in the Balance:  Islamist-Liberal politics in the wake of September 11^th, presented at the American Political Science Association, Boston, 2002

• Economic Integration and Cultural Resistance, presented at the Middle East Studies Association, 2002

• Culture and Capital:  the Political Economy of Islamic Finance in Kuwait, presented at the Third Mediterranean Social and Political Research Meeting, European University Institute, March 2002

• Islamizing the Economy:  Sayyid Abul ‘Ala Al-Mawdudi’s Compromise with Modernity, presented at the Conference on Globalization, Post-Modernism, and Islam, 1999

• State-directed Democracy: the Case of Kuwait, presented at the annual meeting of the Middle East Studies Association, 1998

  
  
  
  
  

Work In Progress

• "From Petrodollars to Islamic Dollars:  Islamic Finance in the Arab Gulf"  book manuscript
• "Gerrymandering Citizenship:  Naturalization and Voting Rights in the Arab Gulf" - upcoming journal article

Selected Publications

BOOK CHAPTERS

• “Islamic Banking and the Politics of International Financial Harmonization,” in Nazim Ali, ed., Islamic Finance:  Current Legal and Regulatory Issues (Cambridge:  Harvard Law School, 2005):  167-187.

• “Kuwait Finance House and the Islamization of Public Life in Kuwait,” in Clement H. Moore and Rodney Wilson, eds., The Politics of Islamic Finance (Edinburgh:  Edinburgh University Press, 2004):  168-190.

JOURNAL ARTICLES

• "Sovereign Dilemmas:  Sovereign Wealth Funds in Saudi Arabia," Geopoliltics, Volume 14, Number 2, April 2009 , pp. 345-359.

• “Divided Government in Kuwait:  The Politics of Parliament since the Gulf War,” Digest of Middle East Studies, (Summer 1999):  1-18.    

• "The Gulf Comes Down to Earth,"  with Fareed Mohamedi, Middle East Report,No. 252 (Fall 2009)

• "A Tale of Two Kuwaits," Middle East Report, No. 252 (Fall 2009)

• “The U.S. and Political Reform in the Arabian Peninsula:  The Perils of Partial Openings,” Forum on Advice for the new U.S. President, Middle East Policy 15, no. 4 (December 2008).

• "Kuwait:  Islamist-Liberal Politics," Forum on the Impact of 9-11 on the Middle East, Middle East Policy 9, no. 4 (December 2002):  94-95.

Honors, Awards, and Fellowships

• Fulbright Grant
• Mellon Fellowship
• Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship
• Social Science Research Council NMERTA Grant