Daniel Nilsson DeHanas joined King’s in September 2014. He completed his doctoral studies in sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, spending part of this time affiliated with the politics department at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. He has previously held research positions at the University of Bristol and the University of Kent, and as a Fulbright research fellow at the University of Tampere in Finland.

Research interests and PhD supervision

• Muslims in British and transnational politics
• Populism and religion
• London as a global city of migration
• Religion and secularity in theory and practice

Daniel Nilsson DeHanas studies how Muslims’ experiences as descendants of immigrants in North Atlantic contexts enrich our democratic politics while also sparking populist opposition. He has investigated a wide range of international cases, ranging from populist opposition to mosque construction, to the Muslim Atlantic as a cultural space of connection, to his current research on Gen Z Muslims at university.

In recent years DeHanas’ research has increasingly attended to the global rise of populism. In this body of work, he has argued that all populism builds from a notion of a ‘sacred’ people and thus the study of religion is core to understanding any populism.

DeHanas is co-editor of the international academic journal Religion, State and Society (Routledge). In this capacity he welcomes enquiries about publishing the findings of international research projects as well as proposals for thematic journal special issues at any intersection of religion and politics.

Teaching

Daniel Nilsson DeHanas teaches undergraduate modules in global comparative politics, religion in international relations, and religion and media. He also teaches on politics and religion at Masters-level and supervises PhD students in areas relating to his research interests.

Selected Publications

‘Populism and Religion in Europe’ (forthcoming 2025) in Alberta Giorgi and Effie Fokas (eds.) Routledge Handbook of Religion and Politics in Europe. London: Routledge.

 ‘The Spirit of Populism: Sacred, Charismatic, Redemptive, and Apocalyptic Dimensions’ (2024). Democratization, 31:4, pp. 831-851.

‘What is the Muslim Atlantic?’ (2020) in the ‘Muslim Atlantic’ issue of Critical Muslim, 35 (with Peter Mandaville). 

London Youth, Religion, and Politics (2016) Oxford: Oxford University Press. ‘

Olympic Proportions: The Expanding Scalar Politics of the London “Olympics Mega-Mosque” Controversy’ (2011). Sociology, 45:5, pp. 798-814 (with Zacharias Pieri).