John O’Brien

Associate Professor of Social Research and Public Policy Affiliation: NYU Abu Dhabi
Education: BA Brown University; PhD UCLA

Research Areas: Culture; Religion; Social identity


John O’Brien is a sociologist whose research and teaching interests include culture, religion, social identity, immigration, ethnicity, and Islam and Muslims. His current research project is a three and a half year ethnographic study of a group of Muslim teenagers coming of age in post-9/11 America. His articles have been published in the journals Social Psychology Quarterly and Contexts, and his paper on Muslim American youth and hip-hop culture was recently awarded the Best Student Paper Award from the Association for the Sociology of Religion. At NYUAD, he teaches courses on Religion and Society, Islam and Society, and Ethnographic Fieldwork.

Courses Taught