Kabir Tambar
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Bio
Kabir Tambar is a sociocultural anthropologist, working at the intersections of politics, language, and religion. He is broadly interested in the politics of history, performances of public criticism, and varieties of Islamic practice in Turkey.
Tambar’s first book is a study of the politics of pluralism in contemporary Turkey, focusing on the ways that Alevi religious history is staged for public display. More generally, the book investigates how secular states govern religious differences through practices of cultural and aesthetic regulation. Tambar is currently working on a new project that examines the historical imagination in contexts of political closure, both at the end of the Ottoman empire and during periods of emergency rule in the era of the nation-state.
Academic Appointments
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Associate Professor, Anthropology
Honors & Awards
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Hellman Faculty Fellowship, Hellman Fellows Fund (2014)
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Member, School of Social Sciences, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ (2011)
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Sakip Sabanci International Research Award, First Prize, Sabanci University, Istanbul, Turkey (2009)
Professional Education
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Ph.D., University of Chicago, Anthropology (2009)
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M.A., University of Chicago, Anthropology (2003)
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B.A., State University of New York at Buffalo
2024-25 Courses
- Political Anthropology
ANTHRO 324 (Win) - Theory of Cultural and Social Anthropology
ANTHRO 90B (Win) -
Independent Studies (12)
- Directed Individual Study
ANTHRO 451 (Aut, Win, Spr, Sum) - Directed Individual Study
ANTHRO 96 (Aut, Win) - Graduate Internship
ANTHRO 452 (Aut, Win, Spr, Sum) - Graduate Teaching
ANTHRO 440 (Aut, Win, Spr, Sum) - Independent Study for Honors or Senior Paper Writing
ANTHRO 95B (Aut, Win, Spr, Sum) - Internship in Anthropology
ANTHRO 97 (Aut, Win, Spr, Sum) - Master's Project
ANTHRO 441 (Aut, Win, Spr, Sum) - Qualifying Exam Preparation in Anthropology
ANTHRO 455 (Aut) - Qualifying Examination: Area
ANTHRO 401B (Aut, Win, Spr, Sum) - Qualifying Examination: Topic
ANTHRO 401A (Aut, Win, Spr, Sum) - Research Apprenticeship
ANTHRO 450 (Aut, Win, Spr, Sum) - Research in Anthropology
ANTHRO 95 (Aut, Win, Spr, Sum)
- Directed Individual Study
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Prior Year Courses
2022-23 Courses
- History of Anthropological Theory, Culture and Society
ANTHRO 301 (Aut) - Islam and the Idea of Europe
ANTHRO 20N (Spr) - Prefield Research Seminar
ANTHRO 93 (Spr) - Tradition
ANTHRO 332B (Win)
2021-22 Courses
- Anthropological Research Methods
ANTHRO 306 (Win) - Reading Group
ANTHRO 442 (Aut) - Religion and Politics in the Muslim World
ANTHRO 132 (Spr) - Tradition
ANTHRO 332B (Win)
- History of Anthropological Theory, Culture and Society
Stanford Advisees
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Doctoral Dissertation Reader (AC)
Byron Gray, Emilia Groupp, Saad Lakhani, Jameelah Morris, Shikha Nehra, Adela Zhang -
Doctoral Dissertation Advisor (AC)
Noor Amr, Miray Cakiroglu -
Doctoral (Program)
Noor Amr, Miray Cakiroglu, Shikha Nehra, MyKayla Williamson
All Publications
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Professions of Friendship Revisiting the Concept of the Political in the Middle East
COMPARATIVE STUDIES OF SOUTH ASIA AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST
2019; 39 (2): 249–63
View details for DOI 10.1215/1089201X-7586775
View details for Web of Science ID 000478804200004
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The Uncanny Medium: Semiotic Opacity in the Wake of Genocide
Current Anthropology
2017; 58 (6): 762-784
View details for DOI 10.1086/694761
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BROTHERHOOD IN DISPOSSESSION: State Violence and the Ethics of Expectation in Turkey
CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
2016; 31 (1): 30-55
View details for Web of Science ID 000371260400003
- The Reckoning of Pluralism: Political Belonging and the Demands of History in Turkey Stanford University Press. 2014
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Historical Critique and Political Voice after the Ottoman Empire
HISTORY OF THE PRESENT
2013; 3 (2): 119-139
View details for DOI 10.5406/historypresent.3.2.0119
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Islamic reflexivity and the uncritical subject
JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE
2012; 18 (3): 652-672
View details for DOI 10.1111/j.1467-9655.2012.01781.x
View details for Web of Science ID 000307310100008
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Iterations of lament: Anachronism and affect in a Shi'i Islamic revival in Turkey
AMERICAN ETHNOLOGIST
2011; 38 (3): 484-500
View details for DOI 10.1111/j.1548-1425.2011.01318.x
View details for Web of Science ID 000292446400005
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The Aesthetics of Public Visibility: Alevi Semah and the Paradoxes of Pluralism in Turkey
COMPARATIVE STUDIES IN SOCIETY AND HISTORY
2010; 52 (3): 652-679
View details for DOI 10.1017/S0010417510000344
View details for Web of Science ID 000279512700008
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Secular Populism and the Semiotics of the Crowd in Turkey
PUBLIC CULTURE
2009; 21 (3): 517-538
View details for DOI 10.1215/08992363-2009-006
View details for Web of Science ID 000271176400006