Sarah Tobin’s work explores transformations in religious and economic life, identity construction, and personal piety. She also examines the intersections with gender, Islamic authority and normative Islam, public ethics, and Islamic authenticity. Ethnographically, her work has focused to a large degree on Islamic piety in the economy, especially Islamic Banking and Finance. Dr. Tobin also explore these questions in times of economic shifts, such as during Ramadan, in contested fields of consumption such as the hijab, and the Arab Spring.

Her latest research projects examine these questions with Syrian refugees in Jordanian camps of Za`atari, Azraq, and Cyber City, and in Results-Based Financing in Tanzania.

Dr. Tobin’s recent books are Everyday Piety: Islam and Economy in Jordan (Cornell University Press, 2016) and The Politics of the Headscarf in the United States with Bozena C. Welborne, Aubrey L. Westfall, Ozge Celik-Russell.

For more information on Sarah Tobin: https://cmi-norway.academia.edu/SarahTobin

Most recent publications

Blog post | Jan 2025

Breaking barriers: How Muslim immigrant entrepreneurs in Norway navigate financial exclusion

Sarah Tobin

Journal Article | 2024

Unexpectedly Sudanese Syrians: Issuing passports and the challenges of integration

Sarah A Tobin (1), Salam Kanhoush (2)

Migration Studies

Conference Paper / Presentation | 2024

Breaking the Barriers: The Search for Presence of Muslim Entrepreneurship in Europe

Mari Norbakk,Sarah A Tobin

Journal Article | 2024

Moving Money: Syrian Refugees Surviving Displacement in Jordan

Sarah A. Tobin

Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

Book Chapter | 2024

Introduction

Are John Knudsen, Sarah Ann Tobin

Urban Displacement: Syria's Refugees in the Middle East

Book Chapter | 2024

At the Intersection of Economic and Family Networks: Female Syrian Refugees from Homs in Mafraq, Jordan

Sarah Ann Tobin

Urban Displacement: Syria's Refugees in the Middle East

Edited Book | 2024

Urban Displacement : Syria's Refugees in the Middle East

Are John Knudsen and Sarah Tobin (Eds.)

Journal Article | 2022

‘The war has divided us more than ever’: Syrian refugee family networks and social capital for mobility through protracted displacement in Jordan

Sarah Ann Tobin (1), Fawwaz Momani (2), Tamara Al Yakoub (2)

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies

Conference Paper / Presentation | 2022

Being a Muslim Entrepreneur in an Environment without Islamic Finance

Mari Norbakk,Sarah A Tobin

Journal Article | 2022

The invisible ceiling: Muslim immigrant entrepreneurs navigate Norway’s financial environment

Mari Norbakk,Sarah A Tobin

Conference Paper / Presentation | 2022

The Invisible Ceiling: Muslim Immigrant Entrepreneurs Navigate Norway’s Financial Environment

Sarah A Tobin

CMI Report | 2021

Direct Financing of Health Facilities. Experiences from financing reforms in Tanzania.

Ottar Mæstad, Jo Borghi, Farida Hassan, Eskindir Shumbullo Loha, John Maiba, Iddy Mayumana, Vincent Somville, Sarah Tobin, Peter Binyaruka

Sarah A Tobin

Breaking barriers: How Muslim immigrant entrepreneurs in Norway navigate financial exclusion

Unexpectedly Sudanese Syrians: Issuing passports and the challenges of integration

Breaking the Barriers: The Search for Presence of Muslim Entrepreneurship in Europe

Moving Money: Syrian Refugees Surviving Displacement in Jordan

Introduction

At the Intersection of Economic and Family Networks: Female Syrian Refugees from Homs in Mafraq, Jordan

Urban Displacement : Syria's Refugees in the Middle East

‘The war has divided us more than ever’: Syrian refugee family networks and social capital for mobility through protracted displacement in Jordan

Being a Muslim Entrepreneur in an Environment without Islamic Finance

The invisible ceiling: Muslim immigrant entrepreneurs navigate Norway’s financial environment

The Invisible Ceiling: Muslim Immigrant Entrepreneurs Navigate Norway’s Financial Environment

Direct Financing of Health Facilities. Experiences from financing reforms in Tanzania.

The Invisible Ceiling

Urban Displacement, Development and Donor Policies in the Middle East (URBAN3DP)

TRAFIG Transnational Figurations of Displacement

Assisting Regional Universities in Sudan (ARUS)

Performance-based financing of health services in Tanzania

ARUSS: Assisting regional universities in Sudan and South Sudan

Unexpectedly Sudanese Syrians: Issuing passports and the challenges of integration

Moving Money: Syrian Refugees Surviving Displacement in Jordan

‘The war has divided us more than ever’: Syrian refugee family networks and social capital for mobility through protracted displacement in Jordan

Family Networks and Syrian Refugees' Mobility Aspirations

Islamic Neoliberalism for Jordan's Islamic Action Front in Islamic Banking and Finance

Self-Making in Exile: Moral Emplacement by Syrian Refugee Women in Jordan

Vernacular Politics, Sectarianism, and National Identity among Syrian Refugees in Jordan

Urban Displacement : Syria's Refugees in the Middle East

The Politics of the Headscarf in the United States

At the Intersection of Economic and Family Networks: Female Syrian Refugees from Homs in Mafraq, Jordan

Introduction

Modelling exile: Syrian women gather to discuss prophetic examples in Jordan

MAKING ISLAMIC FINANCE “ISLAMIC”:AUTHENTICITY IN ISLAMIC BANKING AND FINANCE INSTITUTIONS

Women, Corruption and Wasta in Jordan – A Case Study in Female Elected Representatives

Direct Financing of Health Facilities. Experiences from financing reforms in Tanzania.

No Longer a Guest: Permitting Syrians in Sudan

Capacity building for politicians in contexts of systemic corruption: Countering ‘wasta’ in Jordan

Beyond the work permit quotas. Corruption and other barriers to labour integration for Syrian refugees in Jordan

The invisible ceiling: Muslim immigrant entrepreneurs navigate Norway’s financial environment

The New Lost Boys of Sudan

Breaking the Barriers: The Search for Presence of Muslim Entrepreneurship in Europe

Being a Muslim Entrepreneur in an Environment without Islamic Finance

The Invisible Ceiling: Muslim Immigrant Entrepreneurs Navigate Norway’s Financial Environment

Moral Economy in Scandinavia

The Invisible Ceiling: Muslim Immigrant Entrepreneurs Navigate Norway’s Financial Environment

Profit-And-Loss Sharing Through Impact Investment Funds: Possibility for Breaking the Invisible Ceiling with Muslim Immigrant Entrepreneurs in Norway

The Invisible Ceiling: Muslim Immigrant Entrepreneurs Navigate Norway’s Financial Environment

Okkupasjonen på gateplan

Sudans nye ‘Lost Boys’

Direct health financing in Tanzania (RBF and HBF-DHFF)

RBF / HBF-DHFF study. Preliminary findings

Direct Health Financing in Tanzania. Final report.

Breaking barriers: How Muslim immigrant entrepreneurs in Norway navigate financial exclusion

Contact

Anthropologist focusing on Islam, economic anthropology, and displacement/migration in the Middle East and East Africa.

Breaking barriers: How Muslim immigrant entrepreneurs in Norway navigate financial exclusion

Unexpectedly Sudanese Syrians: Issuing passports and the challenges of integration

Breaking the Barriers: The Search for Presence of Muslim Entrepreneurship in Europe

Moving Money: Syrian Refugees Surviving Displacement in Jordan

Introduction

At the Intersection of Economic and Family Networks: Female Syrian Refugees from Homs in Mafraq, Jordan

Urban Displacement : Syria's Refugees in the Middle East

‘The war has divided us more than ever’: Syrian refugee family networks and social capital for mobility through protracted displacement in Jordan

Being a Muslim Entrepreneur in an Environment without Islamic Finance

The invisible ceiling: Muslim immigrant entrepreneurs navigate Norway’s financial environment

The Invisible Ceiling: Muslim Immigrant Entrepreneurs Navigate Norway’s Financial Environment

Direct Financing of Health Facilities. Experiences from financing reforms in Tanzania.