Dr. Hammer holds an MA and PhD in Islamic studies from Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany. She specializes in the study of Muslims in America, contemporary Muslim thought, women and gender in Islam, and Sufism. Dr. Hammer has previously taught at Elon University and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, as well as at Princeton University. She was also a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University and a research fellow in Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University.

Her publications include Palestinians Born in Exile: Diaspora and the Search for a Homeland (University of Texas Press, 2005), a co-edited volume on “Critiques of the West in Iran, Turkey and Japan” in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 26:3 (Fall 2006), and another volume on Muslims and Media in Contemporary Islam (Fall 2009), as well as articles in Islam and Muslim-Christian Understanding, the Muslim World, and Contemporary Islam.

Current Research

Hammer is currently working on a book manuscript examining the discourses surrounding the woman-led Friday prayer in New York in 2005 (University of Texas Press).