Global Politics and Religion

 

Religion is a space, concept, and realm of social and political life rather than separate from it. Consequently, struggles over authority, power, and political order shape the contours and meanings of religion. By the same token, analyzing changes in such meanings and understandings is a valuable way of gaining insight into the political structures that characterize a particular time and place.

Religion allows us to study the constitution and dynamics of contemporary and historical political orders. In my primary project, I showed how various attempts to conceptualize, institutionalize, and manage religious difference in South Asia and the Middle East structured the state-making processes of Pakistan and Israel and the conflicts following them. I argued that recognition along the lines of religion – in terms of border making, representation, or demography – came with considerable costs.

This project studies the politics, conditions, and costs of recognizing religion in both the practice of global politics and in international political theory and asks what kinds of politics become possible, which actors are authorized and empowered, what relations are strengthened, or undermined, and which actions and institutions are legitimated by such understandings of religion? In other words, to what and to whom does the concept of religion refer, what does its use do, and how do these dynamics change?

 

  • Organized

    [2022] Panel at the International Studies Association: What’s next? Religion and politics after the critique of secularism", Nashville, USA, March 28-April 2.

    [2020] Panel at the LSE Millennium conference: Entangled Empires: The transnational history of Pakistan and Israel, London, UK, Oct. 22-24

    [2018] Panel at the Annual Conference of the European International Studies Association: Moving Empire. Transnational circulations within and beyond the British Empire, Prague, Czech Republic, Sept. 12-15

    [2016] Workshop: Is the Crisis of Religion also the Crisis of Culture, with Olivier Roy, University of Oslo, Norway, March 31

    [2015] Conference: International Politics, Diplomacy, and Religion, European University Institute, Florence, Italy, May 4-5

    – Conference: Perspectives on Religious Pluralism, UCL, London, UK, and European University Institute, Florence, Italy, Jan 19-20

    [2013] Conference: Beyond Critique, European University Institute, Florence, Italy, May 31-June 1

    [2013] Panel at the Annual Conference of the International Studies Association: Power, Politics, and Authority in International Relation, San Francisco, USA (with Helge Årsheim), April 3-6

    [2011] Workshop: Theoretically Found, Conceptionally Lost: How to (not) Study Religion and Politics, European University Institute, Florence, Italy, June 3-4

    Contributed

    [2022] Religion and Global Politics after the Critique of Secularism, Paper presented at the annual Convention of the International Studies Association (ISA), March 28-April 2

    [2020] Imperial Relations. British India, Mandate Palestine and the Formation of Religious Difference, Paper presented at the Annual Millennium Conference, London, UK, Oct. 22-24

    [2019] Colonial Religion and Global Order, Paper presented at the Workshop: The Global Rise of the International, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), London, May 21, 2019

    [2019] Religion and the History of World Order, Roundtable at the annual Convention of the International Studies Association (ISA), Toronto, March 27-30, 2019

    [2018] Moving Empire, Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the European International Studies Association (EISA), Prague, September 12-15, 2018

    – Cultural Coherence and Postcolonial State Power, Paper presented at the Workshop: Instruments of State Power (IPSO), Lund, May 31- June 1, 2018

    [2017] Recognition, Reification and Colonial Religion, Paper presented at Conference: Critique of Religion: Framing Jews and Muslims in Public Debate and Political Theory Today, in the Light of the Genealogies of such a Framing, University of Amsterdam, June 21-24, 2017

    [2015] Postcolonial Independence with a Colonial Aftertaste: The Entangled History of Palestine and Indian Partition, Paper presented at the European Conference on International Relations (EISA), Giardini Naxos, Sicily, 23-26 September 2015

    [2014] Refusing Minority and Claiming the Nation: The Israeli Reference of Pakistani Independence, Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the International Studies Association (ISA), Toronto

    [2013] Following critique: A genealogically sensitive approach to religion in International Relations, Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the International Studies Association (ISA), San Francisco

    – Pluralism and pluralization: Why IR should not recognize religion, Paper presented at the European Conference of International Relations (EISA), in Warsaw

    – Subverted by Zion: Postcolonial independence and the reification of religion, Paper presented at the Millennium conference, London School of Economics, London

    – The Formatting Effect of Public Involvement for Religious Communities and its Consequences, with Kristina Stoeckl, Paper presented at the ECPR General Conference, 4-7 September, Bordeaux

    [2012] The Politics of Religion in International Relations, Paper presented at Crossroads in Cultural Studies, Paris

    [2011] Bound by recognition: Narrating religion in International Relations, Paper presented at the ECPR General Conference, 25-26 August, Reykjavik


  • Global Epistemological Politics of Religion (GLOREL)

    The Global Epistemological Politics of Religion research group explores concepts and debates informing contemporary social and political theory and practice concerning the dynamics and relations between religion, politics and order. Through the detailed study of various cases we explore the histories and political logics of various attempts to conceptualise and institutionalise social, religious and cultural difference, including the rule of law, the practices of knowledge and non-knowledge, and the recognition and protection of religious minorities. Questions to be discussed include: How does modern law and political practice regulate the spaces within which individuals and groups live out their cultural and religious lives? What are the histories and politics of modern constructs of religion in relation to the nation, technology and across different networks? The group is explicitly interdisciplinary drawing social and political theory, global politics, anthropology, history, and sociology of religion, and law. For more information click here.

  • [2021] Theoretically Found, Conceptionally Lost: Collegium Generale: Interdisciplinarity, Münchenwi. Seminar, Bern, May 7
    [2018] Keynote: Foundations of Diversity, Conference of Religious Actors in the International Sphere, SciencesPo, Paris, December 3.
    [2017] Recognition, Reification, and Religion: Cultural Diversity and International Order, Social Trends Inst., Barcelona, Spain, March 30.