Mehmet Asutay

Mehmet teaches and supervises research on Islamic Political Economy; Islamic Moral Economy, Banking and Finance; Political Economy of Middle East; Middle East Economy; Turkish Political Economy; Kurdish Political Economy.

He is the Programme Director for MA/MSc in Islamic Finance, a joint programme between the SGIA and the Durham Business School; and the Director of the Durham Islamic Finance Summer School.

Before moving to Durham University, Mehmet was a Lecturer in Economics and Social Theory at the Markfield Institute of Higher Education (affiliated to Loughborough University). He also tutored at the Department of Economics, University of Leicester.

Mehmet is the Managing Editor of the Review of Islamic Economics; and is an Associate Editor of the American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences. He is also the Honorary Treasurer of BRISMES (British Society for Middle East Studies) and of the International Association for Islamic Economics.

Current Research

Mehmet's recent research includes the construction of Islamic moral/political economy, which is considered as an incomplete project since early 1970s. By following the earlier contributions made by the founding fathers, Mehmet aims to systemise Islamic political economy as thedefining framework for the moral or social economy aimed at by Islamic economics, a term fall short of the aspirations.secondly, Mehmet develops the discourse around 'social and developmentalist failure' of Islamic banking and finance in relation to the expressed ideals of Islamic moral economy. In reflecting on the political economy nature of Islamic finance, he is also researching the political economy of (under)development of Islamic finance in Turkey.