Academic Publications

Takhayyul Working Papers

(editors
Sertaç Sehlikoglu & Erol Sağlam)

Further publications of the Takhayyul project will be announced on this website and made open access.

The Project’s Main Theory Paper

Edited Volume

Special Issues

  1. Sehlikoglu, Sertaç (Ed.) (forthcoming). Imperial Dreams: The New Populisms and the Interconnectivity of Religious Imagination in World Politics. Critical Research on Religion.

  2. Kayıkçı, Merve and Sertaç Sehlikoglu (Eds.) (2025) Heritage in the Margins: Forgetting, Remembering, Rewriting. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 31(9). Link to the Full Issue.

  3. Sehlikoglu, Sertaç (Ed.) (2025). Islamic Politics and the Imaginative: Intangibility and Critique. History and Anthropology, 36(3). Link to the Full Issue.

  4. Sehlikoglu, Sertaç & Mashuq Kurt (Eds.) (2024). Islam, Critique, and the Canon. Contemporary Islam, 18(1). Link to the Full Issue.

  5. Sadeghi, Fatemeh, & Sertaç Sehlikoglu (Eds.) (2024). Fieldwork in the Global South: Methodology, Agency, and Care. Allegra Lab: Anthropology for Radical Optimism. Link to the Full Issue.

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

  1. Sehlikoglu, Sertaç. (2026). Decolonial Muqaddimah: Why Does Ibn Khaldun Matter Now?. History of the Present, 16(1), 132-137. https://doi.org/10.1215/21599785-12235357

  2. Sehlikoglu, Sertaç & Shabani, Samet (2026). Conquering Hearts? Valley of the Wolves and Transnational Muslim Imagination in Kosovo and North Macedonia. (Takhayyul IGP Working Paper Series, eds Sertaç Sehlikoglu and Erol Sağlam). UCL Institute for Global Prosperity: London, UK. https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10222607/

  3. Sehlikoglu, Sertaç. (2026). Imaginative encounters: Turkish neo-Ottomanist dreams in the Balkans and the Muslim minorities. Critical Research on Religion, https://doi.org/10.1177/20503032261416049

  4. Boutieri, Charis (2025). Beyond words: non-dialogical public reason in (post) revolutionary Tunisia. Journal of Royal Anthropological Institute, https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.14317

  5. Kalia, S., & Jackson, G. (2025). Organizing Civility: Bridging Practices in Islamic Welfare Organization. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/08997640251387984

  6. Kayıkçı, Merve, & Sertaç Sehlikoglu (2025). Introduction to Heritage in the Margins: Forgetting, Remembering, Rewriting. International Journal of Heritage Studies,31(9). https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2025.2543747

  7. Sehlikoglu, Sertaç (2025). Inheritance without the heritage: fig trees and the ecological effects of imaginative attachments to fetih (conquest). International Journal of Heritage Studies,31(9). https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2025.2496873

  8. Sehlikoglu, Sertaç (2025). Imaginative Landscapes of Islamist Politics: An Introduction to Takhayyul. History and Anthropology, 36(3). https://doi.org/10.1080/02757206.2025.2486805

  9. Sehlikoglu, Sertaç, Caron, James, & Polat, Ayşe (2025). Introduction to 'Islamic politics and the imaginative: intangibility and critique'. History and Anthropology, 36(3). https://doi.org/10.1080/02757206.2025.2460787

  10. Aydin, Hazal (2024). Diriliş: Resurrection theme in the populist regime of 'New Turkey'. Open Research Europe,4(55). https://doi.org/10.12688/openreseurope.16751.1

  11. Caron, James (2024). Kārwān's talking forest: Materiality, poetic imagination, and the metaphysics of war violence. History and Anthropology, 36(3). https://doi.org/10.1080/02757206.2024.2435662

  12. Aydın, Hazal (2024). The Transformative Potential of Intimacy: Turkish Coffee Talk and Ethnographic Listening. Allegra Lab: Anthropology for Radical Optimism. https://doi.org/10.65268/QOQU8777

  13. Kalia, Sumrin (2024). The Ethics of Researching the Far-Right in the Global South. Allegra Lab: Anthropology for Radical Optimism. https://doi.org/10.65268/QLNT7043

  14. Sehlikoglu, Sertaç (2024). Ethics without the Ethics: The Institutionalized Committees and the Question of Integrity. Allegra Lab: Anthropology for Radical Optimism. https://doi.org/10.65268/HIIM9814

  15. Qato, Mezna (2024). On Commitment. Allegra Lab: Anthropology for Radical Optimism. https://doi.org/10.65268/XOUB6183

  16. Sadeghi, Fatemeh, & Sehlikoglu, Sertaç (2024). Introduction: Conducting Ethnographic Fieldwork in the Global South. Allegra Lab: Anthropology for Radical Optimism. https://doi.org/10.65268/XOGY4528

  17. Sadeghi, Fatemeh (2024). Street Books in Tehran: Collective Mentality and Decolonizing Research Engagement. Allegra Lab: Anthropology for Radical Optimism. https://doi.org/10.65268/LYJJ7702

  18. Sehlikoglu, Sertaç (2024). Genealogy, critique, and decolonization: Ibn Khaldun and moving beyond filling the gaps. Open Research Europe, 4(14). DOI: 10.12688/openreseurope.16148.1

  19. Sehlikoglu, Sertaç, & Kurt, Mashuq (2024). Islam, critique, and the canon: an introduction. Contemporary Islam, 18(1).DOI: 10.1007/s11562-024-00555-y

  20. Sadeghi, Fatemeh (2023). The Murshids and the Messiahs: Popular Messianism as a grassroots political movement in Contemporary Iran. Politics, Religion & Ideology, 24(1). DOI: 10.1080/21567689.2023.2190890

  21. Sehlikoglu, Sertaç (2024). "Traitor over a night": on critique and the fragility of privilege in the aftermath of Turkey's coup attempt. Contemporary Islam, 18 (1). DOI: 10.1007/s11562-023-00549-2

  22. Uddin, Layli (2023). Casteist demons and working-class prophets: subaltern Islam in Bengal, circa 1872–1928. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, First View. DOI: 10.1017/s1356186323000366

  23. Uddin, Layli (2023). Red Maulanas: Revisiting Islam and the Left in twentieth-century South Asia. History Compass, 21(11). DOI: 10.1111/hic3.12787

  24. Sadeghi, Fatemeh (2021). Post-Islamism: From Making Islam Democratic to the Politics of Myth. Manchester Journal of Transnational Islamic Law and Practice, 17(1). Link

  25. Sehlikoglu, Sertaç (2021). Global far right and imaginative interconnectivities. Social Anthropology, 29(2). DOI: 10.1111/1469-8676.13039

Book Chapters

  • Sehlikoglu, Sertaç, & Kütük-Kuriş, Merve (2024). Locating Women and the Expansion of Islamic Morality in the New Turkey: Anthropological and Sociological Perspectives. In The Oxford Handbook of Religion in Turkey. DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197624883.013.27

Review Articles

  1. Sadeghi, Fatemeh (2023). Book Review: The Age of Counter-revolution: States and Revolutions in the Middle East by Jamie Allinson. Journal of Middle East Women's Studies, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.1215/15525864-10256211

  2. Kostadinova, Zora (2023). Book Review: "Say What Your Longing Heart Desires: Women, Prayer, and Poetry in Iran" by Niloofar Haeri. Journal of Middle East Women's Studies, 19(1).https://doi.org/10.1215/15525864-10256239

  3. Kostadinova, Zora (2021). Book Review: "The Universal Enemy: Jihad, Empire, and the Challenge of Solidarity" by Darryl Li. The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology, 39(1). https://doi.org/10.3167/cja.2021.390111

Conference Proceedings

  1. Üstündağ, Nazan. (2025). Imagining Freedom in the Kurdish Women Freedom's Movement. IGP Takhayyul Working Paper Series. UCL Institute for Global Prosperity. https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10211762/

  2. Özbilgin, F. Mustafa, Erbil, Cihat & Gundogdu, Nur. (2026). Neuroinclusion as imagination: from 'knowing for' to 'imagining with'. IGP Takhayyul Working Paper Series. UCL Institute for Global Prosperity.

  3. Shabani, Samet & Sehlikoglu, Sertaç. (2026). Conquering Hearts? Valley of the Wolves and Transnational Muslim Imagination in Kosovo and North Macedonia. IGP Takhayyul Working Paper Series. UCL Institute for Global Prosperity.

  4. Aydın, Hazal. 2026. Fetih Across Istanbul: A District-Level Mapping of Neo-Ottomanist Naming and the Politics of Belonging. IGP Takhayyul Working Paper Series. UCL Institute for Global Prosperity.

  5. Saglam, Erol. (Under Review) Conspiracist Politics in the 21st Century: New Appeal, Dynamics and Effects. IGP Takhayyul Working Paper Series. UCL Institute for Global Prosperity.

  6. Tashjian, Y. & Sehlikoglu, S. (Under Review) Beyond Soft Power—Turkey’s Ambiguous Influence in Lebanon. IGP Takhayyul Working Paper Series. UCL Institute for Global Prosperity.

Non-Academic Publications

See below a selection of non-academic entries that our team members have also authored.

Blogs, Reflections & Other Articles

  • Sehlikoglu, Sertaç (2025). “Expanding Imaginaries: Collaborations of Archival, Ethnographic, and Performative Studies”. Link.

  • Sehlikoglu, Sertaç (2025). “Why Imagination Matters, Why Takhayyul Matters: The Transformative Power of Social Imaginaries". Link

  • Karakaş, Fahri - CITE Scholar (2023). “Reflections on Imperial Threads Workshop Series at the IGP” Link.

  • Rae, Lauralai (2023). “Imperial Threads: The Artist’s Reflection”. Link

  • Sehlikoğlu, Sertaç (2023). Book Review: “The New Turkey and its Discontents” by Simon Waldman and Emre Caliskan. Link.

  • Sadeghi, Fatemeh & Narain, Vrinda (2022). “Iran on fire: Once again, women are on the vanguard of transformative change” Link.

  • Sağlam, Erol - CITE Scholar (2022). “What do Imaginations of Haunted Landscapes tell us about Everyday Politics?” Link.

  • Sadeghi, Fatemeh (2022). “Women of the Land of Sun” Link.

  • Qato, Mezna (2022). “At the South” Link.

  • Kalia, Sumrin (2022). “The Populist Rage” Link.

  • Kalia, Sumrin (2022). “Drowning Pakistan” Link.

  • Kostadinova, Zora (2021). “Religion, Prosperity, and Imagining Bosnian Islam” Link.

  • Kostadinova, Zora (2021). Book Review: “Empires of Memory” by Jeremy Walton. Link.

  • Sadeghi, Fatemeh (2021). “A World not Theirs” Link.