Berkley Center

Christopher Anzalone is a visiting scholar at the Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Islamic Studies at George Mason University, where he will be working on his book, Islamizing Rebel Governance: Jihadi Insurgencies and Symbolic Power, which examines the strategies and experiences of Islamist insurgent organizations pursuing proto-state governing regimes by setting up civil governance systems through which to interact with local civilian populations. His research focuses on Islamic political thought, Shiite Islam, religion and violence, and the intersection of social movement dynamics with ideology and symbolic power. Perviously, Anzalone was a research associate with the Berkley Center's Geopolitics of Religious Soft Power project and a predoctoral and a postdoctoral research fellow with the International Security Program at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. He received his Ph.D. in Islamic studies from McGill University, M.A. in near Eastern languages and cultures from Indiana University, Bloomington, and a B.A. in history and religious studies from George Mason University.