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 is a professor of economics and political science and is the Gorter Family Professor of Islamic Studies at Duke University.

His most recent book is on the historical reasons why the Middle East is the world’s most repressive region: Freedoms Delayed: The Political Legacy of Islamic Law in the Middle East (forthcoming in early 2023).  Among his other publications are  (Princeton University Press),  (Princeton University Press), and  (Harvard University Press),  all translated into multiple languages. The last book provides a theory of how preference falsification, the act of misrepresenting one’s wants under perceived social pressures, shapes collective decisions, orients structural change, sustains social stability, distorts human knowledge, and conceals political possibilities. He is at work on a sequel to this book, which focuses on the role that preference falsification plays in political polarization in the United States and elsewhere.

Kuran currently directs the Association for Analytic Learning about Islam and Muslim Societies (); co-edits a book series for Cambridge University Press, ; co-edits the  and serves on numerous editorial boards.

Kuran earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Princeton University and a Master of Arts degree and Ph.D. from Stanford University,  all in economics.