Book launch: Rethinking Islam and Space

How and why does thinking spatially help us understand the production and representation of Islam in Europe, and the creative tactics of Muslims which shape it?

That was the key question behind a 2017 conference “Religious? Secular? Re-thinking Islam and space in Europe”, sponsored by the Cambridge Research Hub for German Studies (DAAD) with additional support from Cambridge Interfaith Programme and the Religion and International Studies Institute. The two-day event featured a dozen research papers, together with keynote talks from Dr Marian Burchadt (Leipzig) and Professor Riem Spielhaus (Göttingen). Professor Kim Knott of Lancaster University gave a public lecture, “Thinking spatially about Islam in Europe”, on the evening of the first day.

Organisers, Adela Taleb, Chris Moses and Tobias Müller, are delighted to launch the book Rethinking Islam and space in Europe: the politics of race, time and secularism, a collection of empirical studies drawing on that conference. The collection was first published as a special issue of the journal Ethnic and Racial Studies (2021). Its republication as a standalone book shows the vitality of this research and its ongoing relevance for academics, advanced students, and researchers engaged with politics, sociology, geography, anthropology and religious studies.

Professor Esra Özyürek (Academic Director, Cambridge Interfaith Programme) will be joined by Professor Sarah Bracke (University of Amsterdam), acting as discussants at the launch. Their reflections will precede an open discussion between editors and contributors, with audience Q&A.

This event will take place online, via Zoom. Those planning to attend are asked to register via Eventbrite.