John Bowen

John Bowen is a Dunbar-Van Cleve Professor in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. He is a member of the Pluralism Advisory Group and has conducted ethnographic studies in Indonesia, France, and England. His current research focuses on comparative social studies of Islam across the world, and how Muslims work across plural sources of norms and values, including diverse interpretations of the Islamic tradition, law, codes and decisions, and local social norms. His publications include Can Islam Be French? Pluralism and Pragmatism in a Secularist State and “How the French State Justifies Controlling Muslim Bodies: From Harm-based to Values-based Reasoning.”