Warwick academics win prestigious award for book on Muslim women and politics
Muslim Women and Power: Political and Civic Engagement in West European Societies by Dr Khursheed Wadia and Professor Danièle Joly has won the prestigious W.J.M. Mackenzie Prize, awarded annually by the Political Studies Association (PSA) to the best book published in political science. The book explores how Muslim women participate in western civic and political life and develop their capacity for action.
Dr Wadia and Professor Joly argue that understanding Muslim women’s engagement with their communities, wider society and the state is crucial at a time when western societies seek to define, and redefine, themselves against an emergent Islam worldwide - whether caliphates in the Middle East, migrations considered ‘conveyor belts’ of terror, or against ‘home-grown terrorism’ in the name of Islam; all within a context of economic uncertainty and austerity-inspired political agendas.
The book addresses the question of how Muslim women participate in politics in France and the United Kingdom, drawing on multiple sources of original data from media reports to in-depth interviews and structured surveys.
Dr Wadia and Professor Joly were presented with the prize by PSA Chair Professor Angelia Wilson at the PSA’s annual conference dinner, in Nottingham, on 16th April 2019.
Dr Wadia said: “It’s brilliant to have won this prize and we thank the judges for recognising our book as the best. In the 30-year history of the prize, bar one exception, all the winners have been men! So it's hugely pleasing that a book by women, about women, which interprets politics and ‘doing politics’ in its broadest, most inclusive and non-elite sense, has won this award”.
Describing the book as a “unique insight into a highly important and topical political problem,” the jury agreed that Muslim Women and Power makes a major contribution to political studies, advancing disciplinary and interdisciplinary debate, while offering original insights and contributing to wider social and political debates of significance for citizens.
Dr Khursheed Wadia is Associate Professor in the Centre for Lifelong Learning and the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick. Professor Danièle Joly is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Warwick and an Associate Fellow at the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Paris.
- Muslim Women and Power: Political and Civic Engagement in West European Societies by Dr Khursheed Wadia and Professor Danièle Joly is published by Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 978-1-137-48062-0