New Books Network

About Kristian Petersen

Kristian Petersen is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy & Religious Studies at Old Dominion University. You can find out more about his work on his website, follow him on Twitter @BabaKristian, or email him at kpeterse@odu.edu.

NBN Episodes hosted by Kristian:

Islamic Studies July 16, 2021

Islam Through Objects

Anna Bigelow et al.

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
Islam through Objects (Bloomsbury, 2021) represents the state of the field of Islamic material cultural studies. With contributions from scholars of religion, anthropologists, art historians, folklorists, historians, and other disciplines …
Islamic Studies June 11, 2021

Islamophobia and the Novel

Peter Morey

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
In an era of rampant Islamophobia, literary representations of Muslims and anti Muslim bigotry tell us a lot about changing concepts of cultural difference. In Islamophobia and the Novel (Columbia …
Islamic Studies May 28, 2021

Quranic Schools in Northern Nigeria

Everyday Experiences of Youth, Faith, and Poverty

Hannah Hoechner

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
In a global context of widespread fears over Islamic radicalization and militancy, poor Muslim youth, especially those socialized in religious seminaries, have attracted overwhelmingly negative attention. In northern Nigeria, male …
Islamic Studies April 23, 2021

Fear in Our Hearts

What Islamophobia Tells Us about America

Caleb Iyer Elfenbein

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
In Fear In Our Hearts: What Islamophobia Tells Us about America (NYU Press, 2021), Caleb Iyer Elfenbein, Associate Professor at Grinnell College, examines Islamophobia in the United States, positing that …
Religion March 29, 2021

Concepts and Methods for the Study of Chinese Religions

A Discussion with Stefania Travagnin

André Laliberté and Stefania Travagnin

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
The study of religion in China has a long history across a number of interrelated disciplines. In recent years, scholars have been reassessing past scholarship and synthesizing it in new …
Islamic Studies March 26, 2021

Islam and the Culture of Modern Egypt

From the Monarchy to the Republic

Mohammad Salama

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
Egypt is often the focus of religious and political histories of early twentieth century. The striking hardening of nationalist and Islamic movements within Arab societies during this period is frequently …
Islamic Studies February 26, 2021

Terror Epidemics

Islamophobia and the Disease Poetics of Empire

Anjuli Fatima Raza Kolb

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
Terrorism is a cancer, an infection, an epidemic, a plague. For more than a century, this metaphor has figured insurgent violence as contagion in order to contain its political energies …
Islamic Studies January 29, 2021

Muslim American City

Gender and Religion in Metro Detroit

Alisa Perkins

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
The call to prayer breaks the hustle and bustle of an urban sonic landscape in unique ways. For Muslims living in Hamtramck, Michigan broadcasting the adhān was one way of …
Islamic Studies December 31, 2020

Muhammad and the Empires of Faith

The Making of the Prophet of Islam

Sean Anthony

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
Contemporary historians have searched for the historical Muhammad along many paths. In Muhammad and the Empires of Faith: The Making of the Prophet of Islam (University of California Press, 2020) …
Islamic Studies October 30, 2020

Interrogating Secularism

Race and Religion in Arab Transnational Art and Literature

Danielle Haque

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
In many popular accounts of contemporary “Western” society there is an inherent contradiction between the principles underlying liberal secularism and Islam. This type of binary discourse about “religion” and “secular” …
Religion October 19, 2020

Jezebel Unhinged

Loosing the Black Female Body in Religion and Culture

Tamura Lomax

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
One of the central threads in the public discourse on Black womanhood is the idea of the “Jezebel.” This trope deems Black women and girls as dishonorable and sexually deviant …
General History October 9, 2020

Al Rashid Mosque

Building Canadian Muslim Communities

Earle H. Waugh

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
In the early 20th-century Muslims, primarily with roots in Lebanon, began to settle in Canada’s interior plains. In 1938, the small community in Edmonton opened the first mosque in the …
Biography September 4, 2020

Aurangzeb

The Life and Legacy of India's Most Controversial King

Audrey Truschke

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
For many, the history of the Mughal empire looms heavy over contemporary South Asian social imaginaries. The lightning rod figure within modern day myths about the past is the Mughal …
American Studies August 14, 2020

With Stones in Our Hands

Reflections on Racism, Muslims and US Empire

Sohail Daulatzai and Junaid Rana

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
In this current moment it has become increasingly clear that US society is deeply entangled in racist policies and logics of white supremacy. While this affects numerous communities, anti-Muslim racism …
General History August 5, 2020

Reimagining Hagar

Blackness and Bible

Nyasha Junior

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
Popular culture helps shape how audiences imagine Biblical personalities in our contemporary moment. For many, Warner Sallman’s portrait of Jesus fixes him as white, others envision Moses as Charlton Heston …
Literary Studies July 17, 2020

Poetry in Praise of Prophetic Perfection

A Study of West African Arabic Madih Poetry and its Precedents

Oludamini Ogunnaike

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
Around the world Muslims praise the Prophet Muhammad through the recitation of lyrical poetry. In West Africa, Arabic praise poetry has a rich history informed by local literary, spiritual, and …
Middle Eastern Studies June 26, 2020

Muslim Qurʾānic Interpretation Today

Media, Genealogies and Interpretive Communities

Johanna Pink

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
Qurʾanic interpretation in contemporary societies is shaped in a multitude of ways. There are educational institutions that inform how one understands the text, linguistic hurdles for readers and commentators, publicly …
Critical Theory May 22, 2020

Radical Skin, Moderate Masks

De-radicalising the Muslim and Racism in Post-racial Societies

Yassir Morsi

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
Muslims living in locations like Australia, Europe, or North America exist within a context dominated by white racial norms and are forced to grapple with those conventions on a daily …
Anthropology May 21, 2020

Method as Identity

Manufacturing Distance in the Academic Study of Religion

Christopher M. Driscoll and Monica R. Miller

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
In the study of religion there are various camps that each approach their subjects in unique ways. Each method is shaped by particular interpretive choices, such as to be objectively …
General History May 1, 2020

Governing Islam

Law, Empire, and Secularism in Modern South Asia

Julia Stephens

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
As British colonial rulers expanded their control in South Asia legal resolutions were increasingly shaped by the English classification of social life. The definitional divide that structured the role of …
American Studies April 24, 2020

Teaching Islamic Studies in the Age of ISIS, Islamophobia and the Internet

Courtney M. Dorroll

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
Islamic Studies classrooms have grown significantly over several generations. While once we could only find courses on the tradition in the most prestigious of institutions now Islam classes are taught …
Art April 17, 2020

The Praiseworthy One

The Prophet Muhammad in Islamic Texts and Images

Christiane Gruber

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
In our most recent public memory, images of the Prophet Muhammad have caused a great deal of controversy, such as satirical cartoons of Muhammad in French magazine Charlie Hebdo, or …
Literary Studies March 13, 2020

Hallaj

Poems of a Sufi Martyr

Carl W. Ernst

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
“I am the Real,” is the ecstatic statement often associated with the early Sufi poet Mansur al-Hallaj. In popular narratives about Hallaj this declaration of absolute unity with God is …
African American Studies January 31, 2020

American Prisons

A Critical Primer on Culture and Conversion to Islam

SpearIt

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
America has the largest incarcerated population in the world. This staggering and troubling fact has driven a great deal of scholarship. Much of this research has shown that mass incarceration …