Bailey Ulbricht

Bailey Ulbricht has a M.A. in Islamic Law from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), where she won the Doreen Hinchcliffe Prize for best overall performance in Islamic Law. She is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Islamic Studies at SOAS, where she is a Marshall Scholar. Interested in how Islamic Law informs political decision-making of Islamist groups, her current work focuses on the definition of apostasy among contemporary state and non-state Islamist actors, examining how the jurisprudential definition of apostasy is used to justify varied political ends. She also has a B.A. in International Relations from Carleton College, where she graduated magna cum laude. Bailey was a 2015-2016 Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Turkey, a 2015 Davis Projects for Peace Fellow, and a 2013 TEDx speaker. Bailey is also the Founder and current Executive Director of Paper Airplanes (www.paper-airplanes.org), a nonprofit providing remote language and professional skills instruction to people affected by conflict in the Middle East.