Monday 2 November 2026 8:15pm to 9:30pm
Online
Sample “Three voices of joy” from Dr Stefan Williamson Fa’s 2026 book, Sonic Relations: Devotion and Community in Turkey’s Eastern Borderlands—themes include masculinity, calendar-keeping & fostering intra-communal relations.
The cover of Sonic Relations: Devotion and Community in Turkey's Eastern Borderlands.
About
Due to unforeseen circumstances, this event has been postponed until Monday 2 November and will now run online. Registration will reopen on 1 October. The sample reading has also been amended.
Through vivid ethnographic vignettes, analysis, and audiovisual examples, Dr Stefan Williamson Fa’s 2026 book, Sonic Relations: devotion and community in Turkey’s Eastern borderlands, offers an intimate look at how Twelver Shii Muslims forge bonds of love, faith, and community within Turkey and across borders. It invites readers to rethink religion, not as belief alone, but as a sensory, relational, and deeply embodied experience.
Join us as we discuss a sample chapter, “Sonorous circuits: Mediatized devotion and transnational connections””. The chapter examines how audio recordings, cassettes, CDs, and later social media transformed Shiʿi devotional life among Azeri-Turkish-speaking communities in eastern Turkey and across the wider region. Conversation will include chance to reflect on how the encounters recorded in Sonic Relations resonate with or differ from your own experience.
About the author
Dr Stefan Williamson Fa is based on the Centre of Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge, where he serves as a Research and Outreach Associate. An anthropologist, his research focuses on the intersection of Islam and the senses, particularly sound and taste, across Turkey, the Caucasus, Iran, and Europe.
He completed his PhD in Social Anthropology at University College London in 2019, following a Masters in Ethnomusicology from SOAS, University of London, in 2014. He has previously held research positions at the University of Birmingham, Lund University, and the University of Oxford.
Practicalities
To support in-depth discussion, the indicated reading will be provided to those registered two weeks prior to the session.
Places are limited and registration is required. (Booking will re-open on 1 October.)
A Cambridge Interfaith Programme event (Religion in Society strand).