Periodic Reporting for period 2 - MeMuRu (Places of Remembrance in Muslim Russia: Islamic Heritage and Moral Landscapes)
Berichtszeitraum: 2021-10-01 bis 2022-09-30
Since the fall of the USSR, a fledgling body of literature has emerged on the topic of Islam in the post-Soviet realm. However, few theoretically advanced works specifically concerning Muslim communities in the Russian Federation have been published, and almost none with an ethnographic focus on the Volga Tatars. This is the gap I intend to address with this research project, which lies at the intersection of social anthropology, Islamic and Russian studies, cultural geography, and critical theory.
A study of grassroots Islam in Russia is important on a number of levels. In the context of analysing Islam in Europe, the centuries-old Sunni ethnic community of the Volga-Ural region offers a valuable case study for comparison with more recently established Muslim communities further west. Russia’s long and unique history of interconfessional coexistence, marred by colonialism but also characterised by forms of interethnic collaboration, is of considerable interest to audiences worldwide. Furthermore, the post-Soviet Islamic revival finds points of resonance with the global context: the emergence of scripturalist movements has linked Russia's Muslims to the global Muslim Ummah, raising hopes and concerns in the eyes of the Russian state and civil society.
Exploring the vicissitudes of Russia’s Muslims can open a unique window into the pulsations of civic life not only in Russia, a particularly urgent task nowadays, but in the global ecumene at large. To this end, this project brings the methodologies and conceptual frameworks of anthropology and neighbouring disciplines to bear on Islamic moral landscapes in the Volga region, exploring key sites of Muslim life: places, such as mosques and memory-laden historical monuments, practices, such as halal consumption and pilgrimage, and political processes, such as the mushrooming of piety milieus, their interactions with state institutions, and the regimentation of remembrance.
Although Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine partly disrupted plans to conduct fieldwork in Russia, the wealth of data that was already in my possession thanks to my long-term engagement with the Volga-Ural region meant that such disruptions did not critically affect MeMuRu's goals. This project allowed me successfully to document a variety of social, cultural, religious, and political dynamics at play among Volga-Ural Muslims. Particularly, I have focused on Muslims' relationships with state institutions, the capitalist marketplace, and the puglic at large, through an analysis of the main nodes in the Volga-Ural region's sometimes contested Islamic landscape, from heritage sites to halal infrastructures. I published six (for now) contributions between journal articles, book chapters, and commentaries aimed at different readerships, as well as writing a monograph that I expect to publish soon. I have disseminated my project's results at more than a dozen events, ranging from intimate specialist workshops, to large academic conferences, to public lectures - and I intend to keep engaging with interested parties both whithin and outside academia.
I have also advanced theoretical contributions the scope of which extends beyond my specific case-study. Building on ongoing conversations on religion, ethics, and human ecology, my publications advance innovative conceptual tools such as 'ethical form-of-life,' ‘pietskscape,’ and ‘piety infrastructure’. The monograph in preparation proposes a highly original theoretical framework that brings Continental political philosophy in conversation with my Muslim case-study. I am optimistic that these work will have an impact even beyond the domains of Russian or Islamic studies.
MeMuRu speaks to different audiences. Through this project, I hope to furnish the social-scientific community with empirical and conceptual material that may allow us to better understand not only Muslim milieus and Russian society, but the politics and logistics of religion at large. Furthermore, I expect to contribute to a better understanding of internal dynamics (demographic, political, cultural) within the Russian Federation, a particularly urgent task in light of the critical current geopolitical situation. Such insight might benefit not only social scientists, but also decision-makers, investors, and other observers beyond academica. More idealistically, I hope this project aspires to work towards civil society empowerment and interethnic/religious understanding in a range of settings, including Russia, Italy, the EU, and the US.