ODID alumnus Mark Gilks publishes MSc thesis on the nexus between Islamophobia and security
ODID alumnus Mark Gilks recently published his thesis from the MSc in Global Governance and Diplomacy in the journal Critical Studies on Terrorism, where he analysed the nexus between Islamophobia and security from a socio-political perspective.
The Security-Prejudice Nexus: “Islamist” Terrorism and the Structural Logics of Islamophobia in the UK examines the discourses of governance institutions including the media, the political elite and security professionals, to learn how they individually, and collectively, stigmatise ‘Muslim’ identity.
The study argues that the structural emergence (or institutionalisation) of Islamophobia in the UK takes place largely at the intersection between the individual and the collectivity of institutions, as they constitute and respond to a ‘threat’. The study shows that each individual institution has a particular set of biases and incentives that predispose it to securitise Muslim identity. It then highlights how these biases are structured in a way that does not directly consider the outcome of this stigmatisation.
Gilks’ analysis reveals the structural complexity of Islamophobia and its relation to security, and exposes the processes due to which institutionalised Islamophobia emerges. Understanding these structural logics has tangible implications for how Islamophobia is to be understood and dealt with, facilitating more effective security outcomes.
Mark Gilks received his Master’s degree in Global Governance and Diplomacy from the University of Oxford with distinction, and he received an award for the best dissertation. He is currently a PhD student at the Brussels School of International Studies where in his primary research he aims to develop an interpretivist theory to understand the experiences of soldiers in war.