Event

Join us for two practice talks by PhD candidates who will be presenting their work at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion. Talk titles and abstracts below. 

Aditya Bhattacharjee

Googling Ganesha: Sculpting Siddhivinayaka on Siamese Social Media

The connections between religious communities and digital media have become an especially salient topic of discussion as scholars imagine what forms religious life may take in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic. My presentation draws upon this body of scholarship to explore the emergence of Facebook groups focused on circulating knowledge about the deity Ganesha among Thai internet users. My main question: How do virtual platforms like the Facebook group accommodate and transform devotion towards Ganesha?  Rao Rak Phra Phikhanet and Thevalai Phra Phikhanesuan, two Thai Facebook groups dedicated to Ganesha with thousands of members, function as community spaces where users can post Ganesha photos, list icons for sale, and share anecdotes of excursions to local Ganesha temples or miraculous events in their lives attributed to Ganesha. I argue that social networking services help create new Thai religious publics centered on cultivating direct personal relationships between devotees and Ganesha.

Max Johnson Dugan

Devotional Resilience: Weathering Catastrophes with Islamic Tradition at a Halal Restaurant in North Philadelphia

The following paper analyzes the devotional resilience of a halal restaurant in North Philadelphia as Islamic practice. The techniques of resilience of my interlocutors are "devotional" insofar as their engagement with Islamic discourses, ethics, and social bonds orients them toward God and against asymmetric forces. This restaurant faces challenges that afflict food service business across Philadelphia. As a locally-oriented and Black-owned business in an under-resourced community, these struggles have been especially acute. But they are not entirely novel. Whether eminent domain in the past or, more recently, family tragedy and slimmer profit margins, this business has persisted by circulating Islamic discourse, providing clean food, and cultivating Islamic social bonds. Catastrophe in the form of COVID-19 and market logics have pushed this restaurant to the edge of viability. Their devotional resilience shows some U.S. Muslims practice Islamic tradition by confronting catastrophe, as well as the neoliberalism and racialization entangled in it.