DIASPORAS: concepts, intersections, identities

Featuring essays by world-renowned scholars, Diasporas charts the various ways in which global population movements and associated social, political and cultural issues have been seen through the lens of diaspora.

Wide-ranging and interdisciplinary, this collection considers critical concepts shaping the field such as migration, ethnicity, post-colonialism and cosmopolitanism. It also examines key intersecting agendas and themes including political economy, security, race, gender, and material and electronic culture. Original case studies of contemporary as well as classical diasporas are featured, mapping new directions in research and testing the usefulness of diaspora for analyzing the complexity of transnational lives today.

Diasporas is an essential text for anyone studying, working or interested in this increasingly vital subject.

Kim Knott is professor of religious studies at the University of Leeds, UK, and director of Diasporas, Migration and Identities, a programme funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) that has brought scholars together from all over Britain and from a wide range of disciplines. She has worked on South Asian religious diasporas, particularly British Hindus, and on migration, ethnicity and identity, with publications including “Hindus in Leeds, My Sweet Lord: The Hare Krishna Movement, and Hinduism: A Very Short Introduction”. In conjunction with government and voluntary sector partners she has researched issues of religious and ethnic diversity and representation. In “The Location of Religion: A Spatial Analysis” and later articles, she has developed a spatial methodology for researching places, bodies and organizations in which controversies occur about matters of sacred concern, whether religious, secular or post-secular.

Seán McLoughlin is senior lecturer in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Leeds, UK. Trained in the study of religion, Islam and anthropology, he is an expert on various aspects of South Asian heritage Muslims in Britain and has worked on a number of public projects, as well as giving invited lectures across Europe and in the United States. Co-editor of “European Muslims and the Secular State”, most recently he was principal investigator on an AHRC Diasporas’ network, From Diaspora to Multi-Locality: Writing British-Asian Cities (2006 – 09). A related co-edited volume, “Writing the City in British-Asian Diasporas”, is in preparation, as is a single-authored book, “Representing Muslims: Religion, Diaspora and the Politics of Identity”.

“Diasporas” is an essential text for anyone studying, working or interested in this increasingly vital subject.