Home, mobility and translocality: Muslim identities between the post-Soviet space, Europe and Turkey

Institute for Social Policy and School of Sociology, HSE University, Moscow With support from the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Russia, Department of Labour, Social Affairs and Healthcare of the German Embassy in Moscow, and the French-Russian Research Center for Social Sciences in Moscow 24-25 October 2019. 

The workshop aims to bring together post-Soviet, European and Turkish Muslim experiences of home, mobility and translocality to explore commonalities and differences between these regions through the lens of space and belonging. By drawing comparisons, the workshop also seeks to interrogate current theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of Muslim identities.

A central concern that the workshop wants to address is the tension between a “lived” Islam and efforts to develop discursive, secular conceptions of a normative Islam. How does the legacy of rational, secularist ideals influence the way in which Muslims live and practice their religion? How are contemporary theoretical approaches to Islam, in particular the debate about everyday Islam, transposed in the particular post-Soviet context? Do we need new approaches to approach Muslim experiences in this region?

Another key area of exploration and comparison is the question of the local and transnational dimension of Islam. The workshop aims to investigate the formation or recreation of a Muslim space between the post-Soviet space, Europe and Turkey after the end of the Soviet Union in the form of connections and linkages established by networks of Muslim migrants, students and traders and religious organisations. What experiences and conceptions of regional Muslim identities emerge in these networks, for example in relation to the notion of a “Eurasian Islam”? How do post-Soviet Muslims relate to their religion while travelling for knowledge in countries such as Turkey or during migration experiences in European countries? How do Muslim transnational networks challenge or nurture the idea of a locally defined Islam? Finally, we aim to discuss the place of Islam in the current dichotomy between a “liberal West” and a “conservative East” (within the discussion about Russia and the West) and the way Muslims experience, react to and challenge this conceptual boundary.

Within the workshop a guided excursion to the Moscow Cathedral Mosque was held.

Within the workshop an evening of lectures “Urban Muslim Space. An Anthropological View” was held at the educational center of the Garage Museum. Three lectures delivered by German anthropologists focus on the study of urban Muslim space.

Manja Stephan-Emmrich’s field research is based around Tajik migrants’ vision of Dubai and the role of this city in the formulation and reformulation of Muslim identity. By explaining his investigation of practices and ideas associated with particular “places of worship”, Jeremy F. Walton will address the past and present of the Muslim communities of Thessaloniki, Zagreb, and Banja Luka. Finally, Katarzyna Puzon investigates the material and visual Muslim cultures of Berlin and Beirut—two seemingly diverse cities that in fact have a lot in common, inluding their military past, multiculti present, and an intense migratory history of yesterday and today. 

Organisers:

Lili Di Puppo (HSE University)

Dmitry Oparin (HSE University; Moscow State University)

List of participants

Marie-Laure Boursin (Aix en Provence University)

Lili Di Puppo (HSE University)

Iwona Kaliszewska (University of Warsaw)

Dmitry Oparin (HSE University)

Katarzyna Puzon (Humboldt University)

Eva Rogaar (Illinois University)

Jesko Schmoller (Perm State University / Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin)

Manja Stephan-Emmrich (Humboldt University)

Fabio Vicini (Istanbul 29 Mayis University / School of Religious Studies, McGill University)

Jeremy F. Walton (Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity)

Ahmet Yarlikapov (MGIMO)

Programm on the link