The educational contexts of Islamist activism: Elite students and religious institutions in Egypt
The literature on student activism finds that protesters come from prestigious universities and from the social sciences and humanities. Studies of political Islam, however, emphasize the prominence of engineering and medical students from secular institutions. Contributing to both literatures, this...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Journal article |
| Published: |
Mobilization
2017
|
| _version_ | 1797106017263157248 |
|---|---|
| author | Ketchley, N Biggs, M |
| author_facet | Ketchley, N Biggs, M |
| author_sort | Ketchley, N |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | The literature on student activism finds that protesters come from prestigious universities and from the social sciences and humanities. Studies of political Islam, however, emphasize the prominence of engineering and medical students from secular institutions. Contributing to both literatures, this paper investigates Islamist students targeted by security forces in Egypt following the coup of 2013. Matching 1,352 arrested students to the population of male undergraduates, it analyzes how the arrest rate varied across 348 university faculties. We find that activists came disproportionately from institutions that provided a religiously inflected education. This contradicts the conventional emphasis on secular institutions. Most importantly, we find that Islamists tended to come from faculties that required higher grades and that admitted students who studied science in secondary school. Controlling for grades, engineering and medicine were not especially prominent. These findings suggest that Islamist students conform to the more general pattern: political activism attracts the academic elite. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T06:55:42Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:fe15fde7-c3f3-44df-93c1-dcc37bb8ab91 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T06:55:42Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | Mobilization |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:fe15fde7-c3f3-44df-93c1-dcc37bb8ab912022-03-27T13:33:33ZThe educational contexts of Islamist activism: Elite students and religious institutions in EgyptJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:fe15fde7-c3f3-44df-93c1-dcc37bb8ab91Symplectic Elements at OxfordMobilization2017Ketchley, NBiggs, MThe literature on student activism finds that protesters come from prestigious universities and from the social sciences and humanities. Studies of political Islam, however, emphasize the prominence of engineering and medical students from secular institutions. Contributing to both literatures, this paper investigates Islamist students targeted by security forces in Egypt following the coup of 2013. Matching 1,352 arrested students to the population of male undergraduates, it analyzes how the arrest rate varied across 348 university faculties. We find that activists came disproportionately from institutions that provided a religiously inflected education. This contradicts the conventional emphasis on secular institutions. Most importantly, we find that Islamists tended to come from faculties that required higher grades and that admitted students who studied science in secondary school. Controlling for grades, engineering and medicine were not especially prominent. These findings suggest that Islamist students conform to the more general pattern: political activism attracts the academic elite. |
| spellingShingle | Ketchley, N Biggs, M The educational contexts of Islamist activism: Elite students and religious institutions in Egypt |
| title | The educational contexts of Islamist activism: Elite students and religious institutions in Egypt |
| title_full | The educational contexts of Islamist activism: Elite students and religious institutions in Egypt |
| title_fullStr | The educational contexts of Islamist activism: Elite students and religious institutions in Egypt |
| title_full_unstemmed | The educational contexts of Islamist activism: Elite students and religious institutions in Egypt |
| title_short | The educational contexts of Islamist activism: Elite students and religious institutions in Egypt |
| title_sort | educational contexts of islamist activism elite students and religious institutions in egypt |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT ketchleyn theeducationalcontextsofislamistactivismelitestudentsandreligiousinstitutionsinegypt AT biggsm theeducationalcontextsofislamistactivismelitestudentsandreligiousinstitutionsinegypt AT ketchleyn educationalcontextsofislamistactivismelitestudentsandreligiousinstitutionsinegypt AT biggsm educationalcontextsofislamistactivismelitestudentsandreligiousinstitutionsinegypt |