She received her B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley in Near Eastern Studies/Arabic, and her M.A. and Ph.D. from U.C. Santa Barbara in Religious Studies, with a focus on women and Islam. She specializes in contemporary Islamic movements. She has published various scholarly articles, and wrote and co-edited a number of books. She is also the author of the "Roots of the Turkish Crisis" article recently published in the Democracy Journal, where she provided insight into what’s brought Turkey to this point – and where it may head from here.