Muslim Women; British Islam; Digital Religion; ‘Non-religion’; Children in Care; Minoritisation; Methodology

Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor is Professor in the Sociology of Islam at the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry University, UK. She is Chair (2020-2025) of the Muslims in Britain Research Network (MBRN) and is editor of the Review of Social and Scientific Study of Religion.

Her research emphasises collaborative methodologies that work with and for research participants. As a feminist sociologist of religion, she has a keen interest and appreciation of the power dynamics within knowledge production and the implications of the processes and systems of knowledge on society as a whole.

Her portfolio of research critically interrogates how we ‘do’ knowledge while also giving voice to lesser-heard and harder-to-reach sections in society. Feminist, Pragmatist and Decolonising methodologies are central to her methods toolkit. Her research has been funded by the AHRC, ESRC, Leverhulme Trust, British Academy and a number of UK foundations and charities (total value c. £2.9 million). Her publications include Muslim Women in Britain: Demystifying the Muslimah (Routledge 2012), Religion or Belief, Discrimination and Equality: Britain in Global Contexts (Bloomsbury 2013), Islamic Education in Britain: New Pluralist Paradigms (Bloomsbury 2015), Digital Methodologies in the Sociology of Religion (Bloomsbury 2015), Islam on Campus: Contested Identities and the Cultures of Higher Education (OUP 2020), Muslim Women in Britain, 1850 to 1950: 100 Years of Hidden History (Hurst 2023), a number of journal articles, book chapters and mass-media articles. 

Her work has evolved through partnership with a number of civil society organisation including the Peace Train Foundation, Penny Appeal, Together in Action Trust (Coventry), Coventry Sacred Space, CoramBAAF and others. She welcomes every opportunity to ensure that her research is relevant to everyday lives.

In her spare time she travels, bakes, tries to garden by not killing her plants and writes poetry.

Her ongoing externally-funded research projects include:

• Co-Investigator | British Academy | ‘Faithful’ Mothers and the Politics of Nurturing Future Secular Citizens (2025)
• Director of Studies | AHRC M4C CDA |  The Coventry Muslim History Project (2025-2029)
• Principal Investigator | British Council | Women in Space Leadership Programme India (2024-2025)
• Principal Investigator | Barnados | Safe Spaces for Black Children (2024-2025)
• Principal Investigator | Heritage Lottery Fund | Black Social Workers’ Oral History Project (2023-2025)
• Co-Investigator | ESRC | Digital British Islam (2022-2025)
• Co-Investigator | CHANSE | Digital Islam across Europe (2022-2025)
• Co-Investigator | Halley Stewart Trust | Interfaith Learning in Christian and Muslim Higher Education College (2023-2025)
• Principal Investigator | Nuffield Foundation | Expressions of Self: Care-Experienced Children’s Narratives of Intersectional Identity (2022-2023)
• Co-Investigator | Rethinking Security | Alternative Security Review (2021-2024)
• Principal Investigator | AHRC GCRF | Minorities on Campus in India (2020-2022)
• Director of Studies: AHRC M4C CDA | Uncovering the History of Inter-religious Relations in Post-War Coventry (2021 – 2025)

PhD Supervision

She learns from and is inspired by the scholarship that her doctoral students produce and welcomes expressions of interest from potential future students:

Completions:

1. Dr Jennifer Verson used performance for inter-faith peace-building
2. Dr Ola Alkahloutproblematised lived experiences of Zakat in Contemporary Qatar
3. Dr Samra Mursaleen interrogated the impact in Britain of Pakistani Muslim Scholar Dr Tahir Ul Qadri's scholarship on preventing violent extremism
4. Dr Hafza Iqbal produced original theorisation around Islamic Practical Theology, in the context of contemporary and hybrid British Sufisms
5. Dr Shilpa Kunti explored South Asian women's experiences of trauma and accessing support services
6. Eko Nur Cahyo examined the meaning of management and good governance of Waqf in the context of Islamic Education in Indonesia
7. Imam Pamungas questioned how Islamic Education can challenge radical narratives of Islam
8. Leli Lismay decolonised English, for Islamic Studies teaching in Indonesia
9. Ulya Fuhaidah demystified Salafism in Jambi

Current Students

1. Meryem Abdelhafid is showcasing the lived experiences and feminism of religious Algerian women, living in Britain
2. Dinesh Passi is uncovering the history of South Asian migrants and inter-religious relations in post-War Coventry
3. Alfi Abdurrahman is thinking about ethical forms of Islamic Leadership
4. Siti Nur Baya is exploring Muslim women's modest fashion choices in Indonesia

I am inspired by the everyday lives, experiences and conversations of people. In our society, popular metanarratives around immigration, radicalisation and austerity seem to suggest that our communities are ‘broken’. Yet in examining the everyday, it seems that ordinary people are contributing much more to the resilience of British communities than media narratives would have us believe – they are not just fostering tolerance of the different other, but are establishing relationships of respect, trust and equality. As a sociologist specialising in the study of lived religion, I believe it is imperative to examine the issues and problems that underpin the disconnections within our societies. But I believe it is probably even more important to uncover what communities and individuals are already doing to find shared space, common values and practical solutions. At CTPSR, I hope to be able to do this - to find solutions and to recognise the good practice within our communities, to replicate this in policy and practice, and to thus advance social justice and equality in Coventry, Britain and beyond.