Patricia Sohn [also published as Woods] is Associate Professor of Political Science and Jewish Studies, University of Florida; she is Affiliated with the Center for Global Islamic Studies. She has published regarding comparative and international religion and politics, judicial institutions, gender politics, religious-secular tensions or conflicts, micro-level politics, and qualitative case studies & field methods. She is trained in the politics of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) through an Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program (UW-2001) with courses and training in the following departments and/or centers: Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (NELC, including courses in Islamic law); International Studies (ethnicity and nationalism, political sociology); Middle East Studies (Modern Period, beginning 1650, Middle East politics, societies, and cultures); Political Science (comparative politics, historical institutionalism, state-society relations, law and society); Women’s Studies (qualitative methods, and women in comparative and international institutions, rights, and social mobilizations); and Geography (political geography and qualitative methods). She received graduate Certificates in Comparative Law and Society Studies, and in Women’s Studies (comparative and international focus). Four of her five graduate mentors were political scientists (two of whom political theorists), and one sociologist of social and international political economy; she was listed as an honorary graduate placement by Political Science when she began working at UF in 2001. Her qualifying research languages for NELC advancement to dissertation stage were (four-to-five years of study, each): French, Hebrew, and Arabic; and, in place of two-years of a fourth language, elementary intensive language training in Turkish, German, and Palestinian colloquial languages. Her qualifying examinations were in: comparative politics (historical and sociological); MENA; ethnicity and nationalism; and women and politics in comparative and international perspective.
Dr. Sohn addresses some cases in Europe and Asia. She has ongoing interests in international human rights and national-level civil rights in comparative and international context, particularly relating to religious freedom, freedom of religious practice, freedom of conscience (including freedom from religion), and women’s rights. She is currently completing a short project on Italy relating to resistances to anti-Semitism; and she is beginning a new book project on Asian film and perspectival politics in which the analysis centers upon ritual politics, political theatre, and (perhaps surprising, and certainly interesting) perspectives on major political figures, events, and/or ritual through Asian popular film.
Dr. Sohn is Guest Editor for a Special Issue of Religions entitled, “Religion and Politics: Ritual, Performativity, and (Political) Theatre in Comparative-Historical and International Perspective” (contact her for more information, or submit directly to the journal at the link). She is co-editor of Beyond the Death of God: Religion in 21st Century International Politics, edited by Simone Raudino and Patricia Sohn (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan, 2022); and author of Judicial Power and National Politics: Courts and Gender in the Religious-Secular Conflict in Israel, Second Edition (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2017; First Edition 2008). She was founder and Curator of the blog, “Subaltern States,” for E-International Relations, October 2016 to February 2019. She has published in disciplinary and thematic journals: Political Research Quarterly; Field Methods (Anthropology’s top field methods journal); Droit et Société (France’s top political sociology of law academic journal); Religions; Studies in Law, Politics, and Society, and other journals. She has published chapters in edited volumes published by university presses including Cambridge University Press, Stanford University Press, New York University Press, and others. She received fellowships from the Social Science Research Council (IDRF, NMERTA, and a competitive special-topics dissertation workshop in Morocco); and the National Science Foundation (USA) (SES#9906136, Woods, Co-Pi). She has been a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University, as well as a number of international and domestic universities (see curriculum vitae). Links to her books, below. For additional information regarding her research, please see ORCID, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2564-9722.
Dr. Sohn is happy to advise graduate students on themes relating to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA, Morocco to Pakistan, Israel, and Palestinians), and, in comparative and international perspective: religion and politics; judicial institutions (institutional formation and practices, comparative law and society, and rights); and gender politics. She works in qualitative methods and has concerted interests in linking material analysis with concept formation as a means of developing theory. In that, she is influenced by scholars such as Weber, Durkheim, Bourdieu, Buber, Levinas, and others. She is especially interested in interviews, case studies, and political ethnography. Within comparative politics, her research is historical-institutionalist, micro-level, culturalist, society-focused, and she maintains an interest in the power of Ideas and of the grassroots. She has developing research interests within these themes in Europe, South Asia, and East Asia. She is pleased to advise undergraduate students regarding related research interests, and/or interests in graduate school, law school, and similar. See office hours.
