Idea 03 // Religion, Race & Globalization
Research Idea | 03
Religion, Race & Globalization
This research traces the transnational movement of religious and ritual practices and their entanglement with race, culture, memory, African homelands, and contemporary claims to political sovereignty. It follows communities and traditions across borders, examining how religious worlds are reshaped through migration, diaspora, colonial histories, and globalization. Particular attention is given to the ways spiritual and cultural practices generate forms of belonging, authority, refusal, and political imagination that do not always conform to the territorial or institutional logics of the modern state.
Key Themes
- 01.Transnational Religious Practices
- 02.Diasporic Modes of Remaking
- 03.Geotemporality and the Making of Yoruba Communities
- 04.Religious Transnationalism
Ongoing Projects
Long-term fieldwork on transnational religious networks across West Africa and the Americas.
Selected Works & Publications
Books, chapters, and essays on sacred cosmologies, racial formation, and the politics of belonging.
Technical Reports
Technical Reports
Technical Reports
Books
Duke University Press, 2006. Essays tracing how global flows of people, media and capital transform the cultural production of Blackness.
Books
Duke University Press, 2004. An ethnography of transnational Yoruba revivalist networks, tracing how religious practice, heritage and diasporic belonging are produced across borders.
Events
Film screening of Beyond Inclusion, featuring the early formation of Black life in a Toronto high school, followed by a panel discussion on Black life work across urban, local, regional and transnational contexts. Chaired by Ann Lopez, with special reflections by Kamari Clarke (Film Director). Panelists: Funké Aladejebi, Carl E. James, Julie MacArthur, and Choltu Curlin.
Talks & Lectures