New Muslim public figures and changing Muslim socialities in Africa

In this comparative research project, I am exploring contemporary reformulations of Islam and emergent socialities, particularly among new Muslim public figures, public intellectuals, and their audiences, how one can live according to the religion (however interpreted) and reconcile it with modernity, globalization, and the vagaries of the contemporary historical moment. A major objective is to build an analytical model for understanding contemporary ways of being Muslim in dialogue with the leading social scientific research on Islam and Muslim societies, which almost completely ignores sub-Saharan Africa.