Berkley Center

Timur Kuran is Gorter Family Professor in Islamic Studies and professor of economics and political science at Duke University. Kuran’s research focuses on social change and the economic and political history and modernization of the Middle East. His books, which have been translated into several languages, include The Long Divergence: How Islamic Law Held Back the Middle East (2010), Islam and Mammon: The Economic Predicaments of Islamism (2005), and Private Truths, Public Lies: The Social Consequences of Preference Falsification (1997). Kuran directs the Association for Analytic Learning about Islam and Muslim Societies and is a member of the executive committee of the International Economic Association. From 2014 to 2016, he was an associate scholar with the Berkley Center's Religious Freedom Project. After completing his secondary education in Turkey, Kuran received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University and Ph.D. from Stanford University.