Usmon Boron

Usmon’s research and teaching broadly focus on entanglements between Islam and secular modernity. He is currently working on a book manuscript, In the Shadow of Tradition: Soviet Secularism and Islamic Revival in Kyrgyzstan, which sheds light on the rise of secularism in Soviet Central Asia and ethnographically examines how Soviet secular categories continue to shape the lives of Central Asian Muslims. His article developing this project appeared this year in Comparative Studies in Society and History. Usmon’s work has received support from the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the Global Religion Research Initiative, ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. At Penn, Usmon is expanding his research on contemporary Islam by exploring the trajectory and ethics of Tablighi Jamaat, one of the world’s most influential Islamic movements, in contemporary Central Asia.