Nura A. Sediqe

Race. Identity. Politics.

Questions around racial identity, political behavior and policy preferences motivate my intellectual inquiry. I am completing my first appointment at Princeton University before joining the Department of Political Science at Michigan State University as an Assistant Professor in Political Science and Public Policy. I have a background in Political Science and Public Policy. I am formally trained as a Political Scientist, and have published in journals such as Cal Law Review, Politics and Gender; Politics Groups and Identities and written select book chapters.

I received my PhD in Political Science from Duke University, with a first field in behavior and identities; and second field in race and ethnic politics. My training at Duke also included the completion of the Graduate Certificate in African and African-American Studies. I was the Anne Firor Public Scott Fellow and coordinated the university's interdisciplinary Race Workshop in collaboration with the department of Sociology. I attained my Master in Public Policy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government as a Belfer IGA and Women and Public Policy Program Fellow. I received my B.A. from the Honors College at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.

Professionally, I have worked within the public policy arena, namely as Research Director at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. My public policy interests and work involve civil rights, voting rights and policies that affect immigrants. I currently serve as a Research Fellow for New American Leaders, a non-profit focused on assisting first and second-generation immigrants to run for elected office.

My primary research endeavor involves Muslims in the United States and how a faith-based community with a diverse collective of sub-groups reconciles the existing racial climate. My CV, linked research articles, and updates on my blog (forthcoming) offer more insight to my current and forthcoming research.

My personal upbringing has offered great texture to build the lens I have as an academic. My family is from two of the landmark cities in Afghanistan; Herat and Kabul. I was born in Kuwait and raised in Northwest Ohio, in one of the oldest Muslim communities in the United States. Coming from a Dari-speaking family that acclimated to a Muslim community with rich histories from Black Muslim and Arab Muslim communities has offered me a personal account to the rich and distinct histories that comprise Muslim life in the United States.

For my CV, please see here.