Contemporary Religious Conflict: Ethnographic Approaches
MPhil Pathway in Religion and Conflict Lent Term Module
Module Coordinator 2022-2023: Dr Safet HadžiMuhamedović
This module introduces students to the anthropology of religion and conflict through a critical examination of ethnographic case studies and methodologies, as well as the key contemporary anthropological debates and theories. It raises questions about the role of religion in the production and justification of conflict, the various contestations over religious heritage during and after war, and the place of religious traditions and the supernatural in the aftermath of violence. Although speaking to the global entanglements of religion and violence, the module uses ethnographies to highlight the local repercussions of conflict in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Iraq, Syria, Vietnam and a number of other polities around the world.
The four sessions will focus on the following topics:
Seminar 1. Articulating Power: Religion, Racism and Empire
Seminar 2. From Designation to Erasure: Religion and the Making of Genocide
Seminar 3. Ghosts of War: Historical Imagination, Memory and Supernatural Encounters
Seminar 4. Contested Past: Religious Heritage During and After Conflict