BRINFAITH RELIGION AND EMPIRE PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES The Universal Enemy: Jihad, Empire, and the Challenge of Solidarity ABSTRACT No contemporary figure is more demonized than the Islamist foreign fighter who wages jihad around the world. Spreading violence, disregarding national borders, and rejecting secular norms, so-called jihadists seem opposed to universalism itself. In a radical departure […]

BRINFAITH RELIGION AND EMPIRE PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES The Politics of Muslim Infrastructure in Tanzania ABSTRACTKariakoo is an old residential area in the city of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. In recent decades, it has transformed into a super-dense commercial district. Droves of people converge in its streets every day to trade goods which go on […]

BRINFAITH RELIGION AND EMPIRE PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES The New Faith Roads in Southeast Asia: Dynamics of a Circulatory Missionary Process ABSTRACTThis lecture on proselytizing to/from Southeast Asia is a critical reflection on a major shift in the world’s religious balance, with geopolitical, sociological and economic implications. Our mapping of religious mutations and issues in Southeast […]

BRINFAITH RELIGION AND EMPIRE PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES Circulations and Convergences: Mecca in the Conceptions and Mobilities of Chinese Muslim Diasporas in Saudi Arabia ABSTRACTMecca is often viewed through the angles of the pilgrimage, empires, Saudi foreign policy, and a source of religious movements elsewhere. While building on such transnational angles, this talk proposes to view […]

BRINFAITH RELIGION AND EMPIRE PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES Making the Muslim World in the Age of Britain’s Steam and Print Initiative ABSTRACTEuropean Imperialism during the long 19th century was characterized by increasing connectivity and mobility across Asia due to infrastructure grid of steamships and trains, telegraph lines and printing press. Symbolized by the opening of the Suez […]

BRINFAITH RELIGION AND EMPIRE PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES History Written in Advance: The Temporal Politics of Learning Mandarin for Jehovah’s Witnesses in Zambia ABSTRACTOver the last decade, there have been a proliferating number of Mandarin-language Jehovah’s Witnesses congregations in Zambia. These congregations are almost exclusively composed of local Zambians who have learned Mandarin as a second […]

BRINFAITH RELIGION AND EMPIRE PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES Infrastructure and Connectivity across the Karakoram-Pamir Watershed, since 1918 ABSTRACTLocated at the crossroads of Central, East, and South Asia, the watershed that divides the Karakoram and Pamir mountains today also serves a geopolitical function in marking the territorial boundary between the People’s Republic of China and Pakistan. This […]

BRINFAITH RELIGION AND EMPIRE PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES Reflecting on Maritime Transportation as the Sinew of Commerce and Conflict ABSTRACTIn this talk, drawing from her recent book, Sinews of War and Trade, Professor Laleh Khalili will discuss the centrality of maritime transport infrastructures to the making of capitalism in the Arabian Peninsula. She will highlight histories of […]

BRINFAITH RELIGION AND EMPIRE PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES New Visions for the New Globality: China’s BRI vs. Russia’s Greater Eurasian Space ABSTRACTThe Belt and Road Initiative has caused a lot of controversy in Russia’s expert discussion. Formally, Moscow is very enthusiastic about the BRI project and considers it a positive factor in international relations. Russian-Chinese relations […]