Political development, civil society, democratization, political attitudes, the Middle East, and Arab and Muslim Americans are my major research concerns. In Barriers to Democracy: The Other Side of Social Capital in Palestine and the Arab World, I investigate the role of civic associations in promoting democratic attitudes and behavioral patterns in the Arab World. I argue that, in state-centralized environments, associations can just as easily promote civic qualities vital to authoritarian citizenship--such as support for the regime in power. Thus, any assessment of the influence of associational life on civic life must take into account political contexts, including the relationships among associations, their leaders, and political institutions. I also extend my research to the study of Muslim and Arab immigrants in the US. Unlike most immigrant communities who have made a transition from "non-white" to "white," Arab Americans historically have been rendered "white" and are increasingly come to be seen as "non-white." I (and Nadine Naber) explore this phenomenon in Race and Arab Americans Before and After 9/11: From Invisible Citizens to Visible Subjects. What is the relationship between U.S. imperialism in Arab homelands and anti-Arab racism? What are the relationships between religion, class, gender, and anti-Arab racism? Do “whiteness studies” offer any useful theoretical ideas for developing Arab-American studies? Currently, I am working on a book tentatively entitled: Islam and Ordinary Citizens in the Arab World. This book attempts to better understand the ways in which citizens link Islamic understandings to discourses that are either democratic or authoritarian. Islam and Ordinary Citizens relies on survey data collected in five Arab countries as part of the Arab Barometer project (arabbarometer.org) and close to 300 open-ended interviews in Morocco, Kuwait and Jordan. This project is supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. In 2005, I was named a Carnegie Scholar.