She is the author of The Varieties of Religious Repression: Why Governments Restrict Religion (Oxford University Press, 2015), and her work has appeared in academic journals including Democratization, Politics and Religion, and the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. Her research has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX), and the John Templeton Foundation. Sarkissian is also an Associate Scholar of the Religious Freedom Project at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, Georgetown University. At MSU, she is a core faculty member of the Muslim Studies Program. Sarkissian earned her Ph.D. in 2006 in political science from UCLA and joined MSU in 2007.