Laila H. Noureldin earned a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago. Her research interests include racialized religion and identity construction among both immigrant and incarcerated American Muslim populations.
In her 130-interview dissertation, “From Incarceration to Imancipation: How Blackamerican Muslim Male Converts Access and Use New Religious Networks During Incarceration and Reentry,” she uses Islamic conversion as an opportunity to study how identity change and the creation of self-narratives mitigates the effects of incarceration stigmas on formerly incarcerated individuals by examining its effect on reentry outcomes (e.g., employment, housing, health, and social networks) in a comparative framework across religious traditions. While assessing how conversion while incarcerated impacts reentry outcomes for African American Muslim converts, she pays particular attention to how these individuals make sense of their newly acquired religious identity and juggle multiple marginalized identities.
Additionally, Noureldin has conducted vital research on American Muslim integration, which has significant policy implications for immigration, national security, and diplomacy. In a paper currently under review by a peer-reviewed journal, Laila uses the nationally representative sample of American Muslims conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2011 and 2017 to examine the association between religiosity and primary self-identification using binomial logistic regression and correspondence analysis to investigate whether American Muslim national and religious identities are complementary or combative. Laila has independently designed and conducted several award-winning survey research projects on American Muslim racialization and immigration that have been recognized by prestigious organizations such as The Population Association of America, The Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, and The Midwest Sociological Society.