Description:

In this talk, I consider the day-to-day lives of young Muslims on the island of Lamu (Kenya) who live simultaneously “on the edge and in the center.” They are situated at the edge of the (inter)national economy and at the margins of Western notions of modernity; yet they are concurrently the focus of (inter)national campaigns against Islamic radicalization and are at the center of Western, touristic imaginations of the untouched and authentic. I ask, what does it mean to be young, modern, and Muslim in this environment? And how is each of these denominators differently imagined and enacted by a range of social actors? By discussing how time, space, and material practices are imbued with moral value, I consider how seemingly mundane practices can become central tactics in the negotiation of social relations and moral values. I thereby offer a distinctly linguistic anthropological approach to discussions of ethical self-fashioning and everyday Islam.

Co-sponsored by the Kaplan Institute for the Humanities