Dr. K.D. Thompson

Anthropologist of Language and Religion

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I'm honored to receive an Honorable Mention in the 2026 LGBTQ-RAN Educational Resource Prize for my syllabus Queer(ing) Religion, which I’ll teach again this Fall.

I'm grateful to the LGBTQ Religious Archives Network for recognizing work that helps bring LGBTQ+ religious histories into our classrooms and public conversations. Congratulations to Siufung Law, whose syllabus Transing Religion: Gender Beyond the Binary received this year's prize.

(Link is to the press release.)

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Read in July 2026

Açıkgöz, Şahin. 2024. “Archiving Religious Piety and Trans Identity: Notes toward a Nonsecular Transfeminism in Turkey.” QTR: A Journal of Trans and Queer Studies in Religion 1 (1): 77–95.

Boellstorff, Tom. 2007. A Coincidence of Desires: Anthropology, Queer Studies, Indonesia. Duke University Press.

Bompani, Barbara. 2026. “From Sinner to ‘Un-Sinned’: Faith and Religious Experiences in the Everyday Life of LGBTQ+ Displaced People in Nairobi.” In East African Queer and Trans Displacements.

Boyarin, Daniel. 2007. “Against Rabbinic Sexuality: Textual Reasoning and the Jewish Theology of Sex.” In Queer Theology: Rethinking the Western Body, edited by Gerard Loughlin. Blackwell.

Browne, Kath. 2010. “Dyke Spiritualities at Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival.” In Queer Spiritual Spaces: Sexuality and Sacred Places, edited by Kath Browne, Sally Munt, and Andrew K. T. Yip. Routledge.

Domenack, Damien Pascal. 2025. “Afro-Diasporic Dance, Queer Kinship, and the Praxis of Care: Sociopoetic Forces of Embodied Liberation.” CrossCurrents 75 (1): 5–22.

Fader, Ayala. 2020. Hidden Heretics: Jewish Doubt in the Digital Age. Princeton University Press.

Fine, Julia C. 2020. “#MagicResistance: Anti-Trump Witchcraft as Register Circulation.” Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 30 (1): 68–85.

Gilley, Brian Joseph. 2006. Becoming Two-Spirit: Gay Identity and Social Acceptance in Indian Country. University of Nebraska Press.

Gumede, Tracey Maswazi. 2025. “Izitabane Zingabantu Ubuntu Theology: Amplifying Voices of South African Izitabane.” In The DARE Primer on Global Queer Theologies.

Haney, Zaccary. 2025. “Into Queer Silence: Resisting the Theological Voice.” In The DARE Primer on Global Queer Theologies, edited by Lisa Isherwood and Hugo Córdova Quero. SCM Press.

Hossain, Adnan. 2018. “De-Indianizing Hijra: Intraregional Effacements and Inequalities in South Asian Queer Space.” TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 5 (3): 321–31.

Jaspal, Rusi, and Marco Cinnirella. 2010. “Coping with Potentially Incompatible Identities: Accounts of Religious, Ethnic, and Sexual Identities from British Pakistani Men Who Identify as Muslim and Gay.” British Journal of Social Psychology 49 (4): 849–70.

Kalra, Drishti. 2026. “Beyond the Binary: Sex Change and Gender Fluidity in Buddhist Narratives.” In Queer Intersectionality: Voices, Struggles, and Identities in South Asia, edited by Nizara Hazarika and Pathak Namrata. Routledge.

Kaoma, Kapya. 2016. “‘I Say, We Must Talk, Talk, Mama!’: Introducing African Voices on Religion, Ubuntu and Sexual Diversity.” Journal of Theology for Southern Africa 155 (July): 16–27.

Knappert, Jan. 1971. Swahili Islamic Poetry. Brill.

Laing, Marie. 2018. “Conversations with Young Two-Spirit, Trans and Queer Indigenous People about the Term Two-Spirit.” M.A., University of Toronto (Canada). ProQuest.

Lefevor, G. Tyler, Sydney A. Sorrell, Grace Kappers, et al. 2020. “Same-Sex Attracted, Not LGBQ: The Associations of Sexual Identity Labeling on Religiousness, Sexuality, and Health Among Mormons.” Journal of Homosexuality 67 (7): 940–64.

Mair, David. 2010. “Fractured Narratives, Fractured Identities: Cross-Cultural Challenges to Essentialist Concepts of Gender and Sexuality.” Psychology & Sexuality 1 (2): 156–69.

Onanuga, Paul Ayodele. 2022. “Navigating Homophobia and Reinventing the Self: An Analysis of Nigerian Digital pro-Gay Discourse.” Gender and Language 16 (1): 75–97.

Pérez, Elizabeth. 2021. “‘You Were Gonna Leave Them Out?’: Locating Black Women in a Transfeminist Anthropology of Religion.” Feminist Anthropology 2 (1): 94–111.

Rashid, Hussein. 2011. “The Name Game: Understanding Tensions in Identity and Muslim Homosexuality.” Muslim LGBT Inclusion Project Final Report (New York).

Siraj, Asifa. 2016. “Alternative Realities: Queer Muslims and the Qur’an.” Theology & Sexuality 22 (1–2): 89–101.

Smithers, Gregory. 2022. Reclaiming Two-Spirits: Sexuality, Spiritual Renewal & Sovereignty in Native America. Beacon Press.

Vimala, Bhikkhu/nī, and Bee Scherer. 2025. “Coming to Terms with Trans- and Queerness in Buddhist Texts.” In The Palgrave Handbook of Queer and Trans Studies in Religion, edited by Melissa M. Wilcox. Springer Nature Switzerland.

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Between Shop and Archive

by K.D. Thompson When Tom Hinnebusch retired from UCLA in 2004, he gave me a box of Swahili-language booklets he had collected over his deca

I’m excited to share a new essay I just published with Collecting Religion.

It’s about the space between the shop and archive and what that reveals about how religion gets collected, handled, and lived. I’m grateful to James Bielo for the invitation to write this, and to him and Matthew Hayes for their generous and sharp feedback on an earlier draft.

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Amanullah DeSondy reviews Muslims on the Margins

I'm grateful to DeSondy for this close reading of my book, Muslims on the Margins (NYU, 2023): "This important book does not discuss theological debates but places a spotlight on the lived experience of those who believe they can be fully Muslim and queer."

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Read in June 2026

Alagunfon, Sulaiman Adewale. The Classical Arabic Maqāma in Yorubaland, Nigeria: Texts, Contexts, and Scholars. Brill, 2025.

Ali, Rashid Othman. “Unyanyasaji Kihaji.” In Mji Wa Kambare. Mkuki na Nyota Publishers, 2022. https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.21819442.33.

Amakobe, Guillit, Kat Dearham, and Po Likimani. “Gender Theatre: The Politics of Exclusion and Belonging in Kenya.” In Envisioning Global LGBT Human Rights: (Neo)Colonialism, Neoliberalism, Resistance and Hope, edited by Nancy Nicol, Adrian Jjuuko, Richard Lusimbo, et al. University of London Press, 2018. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv5132j6.21.

Anderson, Samuel D. The French Médersa: Islamic Education and Empire in Northwest Africa. Cornell University Press, 2026. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501784637.

Behrend, Heike. “Photography as Unveiling: Muslim Discourses and Practices on the Kenyan Coast.” In Religion, Media, and Marginality in Modern Africa, edited by Felicitas Becker, Joel Cabrita, and Marie Rodet. Ohio University Press, 2018.

Belal, Youssef. The Life of Shari’a: A Comparative Anthropology of Law. University of California Press, 2024.

Bolton, Caitlyn. “The Cosmopolitan Madrasa: Education and Islamic Reform in Zanzibar Between Africa and the Indian Ocean, Nineteenth Century—Present.” In Handbook of Islamic Philosophy, edited by Terence Lovat. Springer Nature, 2026.

Bujra, Janet M. “Class, Gender and Capitalist Transformation in Africa.” Africa Development / Afrique et Développement 8, no. 3 (1983): 17–42.

Ciancanelli, Penelope. Exchange, Reproduction and Sex Subordination Among the Kikuyu of East Africa. 1980.

Crawford, Mary, and Annie Fox. “From Sex to Gender and Back Again: Co-Optation of a Feminist Language Reform.” Feminism & Psychology 17, no. 4 (2007): 481–86. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353507084333.

Dancer, Helen. “Doing Justice in Women’s Claims: Haki and Equal Rights.” In Women, Land and Justice in Tanzania, NED-New edition. Boydell & Brewer, 2015. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7722/j.ctt13wzsvr.12.

Dramé, Aly. The Institutionalization of Islam in Southern Senegal: Intermarriage, Qur’anic Education, and Jihad. University of Michigan Press, 2025. https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11535757.

Durrani, Shiraz, and Kimani Waweru, eds. “Otsieno Godrick: Njia Panda Ya Uhuru Wa Kenya Mkinzano Baina Ya Ubepari Na Usosholisti 1963.” In The Kenya Socialist Volume 6. Vita Books, 2023. https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.8784616.6.

Edgerton, Robert B. “Pokot Intersexuality: An East African Example of the Resolution of Sexual Incongruity.” American Anthropologist 66, no. 6 (1964): 1288–99.

Fay, Franziska. “Gender, Islam, and Child Protection.” In Disputing Discipline. Child Protection, Punishment, and Piety in Zanzibar Schools. Rutgers University Press, 2021. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv2v55kzd.9.

Hodgson, Dorothy L. “Criminalizing Culture: Human Rights, NGOs, and the Politics of Anti-FGM Campaigns.” In Gender, Justice, and the Problem of Culture. From Customary Law to Human Rights in Tanzania. Indiana University Press, 2017. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt2005s9m.7.

Hunt, Nancy Rose. “Placing African Women’s History and Locating Gender.” Social History 14, no. 3 (1989): 359–79.

Imam, Ayesha M. “Gender Analysis and African Social Sciences in the 1990s.” Africa Development / Afrique et Développement 15, no. 3/4 (1990): 241–57.

Kalmbach, Hilary E. “Islamic Authority and the Study of Female Religious Leaders.” In Women, Leadership, and Mosques: Changes in Contemporary Islamic Authority, edited by Masooda Bano and Hilary E. Kalmbach. Brill, 2011.

Khalili, Ombito Elizabeth, Mamai Margaret Nasambu, Inyani Simala, Leonard Chacha, and Miriam Osore. “Ufundishaji Wa Kiswahili Sekondari: Nafasi Na Changamoto Za Vitabu Vya Kiada.” In Miaka Hamsini Ya Kiswahili Nchini Kenya. Twaweza Communications, 2014. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvgc60vs.12.

Kitunga, Demere, and Marjorie Mbilinyi. “Rooting Transformative Feminist Struggles in Tanzania at Grassroots.” Review of African Political Economy 36, no. 121 (2009): 433–41.

Liljeström, Rita. “On Vertical Differentiation of Sex Roles: Age Classes among the Nyakusa and Patterns of Interaction in Swedish Children’s Books.” Acta Sociologica 14, no. 1/2 (1971): 13–23.

Maitaria, Joseph Nyehita, Inyani Simala, Leonard Chacha, and Miriam Osore. “Dhima Ya Methali Za Kiswahili Katika Kuelimisha Jamii Kuhusu Uwiano Na Utangamano Wa Kitaifa.” In Miaka Hamsini Ya Kiswahili Nchini Kenya. Twaweza Communications, 2014. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvgc60vs.17.

Maregesi, Enock. “Kikao Cha Dharura.” In Kolonia Santita. Laana Ya Panthera Tigrisi. Mkuki na Nyota Publishers, 2022. https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.21931888.8.

Marsh, Wendell H. Textual Life: Islam, Africa, and the Fate of the Humanities. Columbia University Press, 2025.

Marwick, M. G. “The Social Context of Cewa Witch Beliefs.” Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 22, no. 2 (1952): 120–35. https://doi.org/10.2307/1156239.

Merriam, Alan P. “The Concept of Culture Clusters Applied to the Belgian Congo.” Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 14, no. 4 (1959). https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/soutjanth.15.4.3628900.

Meyerowitz, Joanne. “A History of ‘Gender.’” The American Historical Review 113, no. 5 (2008): 1346–56.

Mfaume, Mfaume Hamis. “Elimu Ya Jinsia.” In Sinaye Baba. Mfaume Hamis Mfaume. Mkuki na Nyota Publishers, 2022. https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.21761176.54.

Ngom, Fallou. Beyond African Orality: The ’Ajami Poetry of Sëriñ Mbay Jaxate. Oxford University Press USA : Oxford University Press, 2025.

Nyamsenda, Sabatho. “Umajumui Wa Afrika: Kurunzi La Mapambano Ya Wanyonge (2021).” In Essays on Pan-Africanism, edited by Shiraz Durrani and Noosim Naimasiah. Vita Books, 2022. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv2gvdmbt.9.

Pedler, Frederick. “Universities and Polytechnics in Africa. The Twelfth Lugard Memorial Lecture.” Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 42, no. 4 (1972): 263–74. https://doi.org/10.2307/1158495.

Quarshie, Nana Osei. African Pharmakon: The Asylum as Shrine from Slavery to the Return. The University of Chicago Press, 2025.

Rettová, Alena. “A Solitary War? Genre, Community and Philosophy in Swahili Culture.” Journal of African Cultural Studies 28, no. 2 (2016): 209–24.

Riley, Emily Jenan. Teraanga Republic: Women’s Authority and Politics in Senegal. Indiana University Press, 2025. https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/3/monograph/book/134536.

Robertson, Claire. “Developing Economic Awareness: Changing Perspectives in Studies of African Women, 1976-1985.” Feminist Studies 13, no. 1 (1987): 97–135. https://doi.org/10.2307/3177839.

Strobel, Margaret. “African Women.” Signs 8, no. 1 (1982): 109–31.

Tayob, Abdulkader. “Reform in the Discourse of Islam and the Making of Muslim Subjects.” In Routledge Handbook of Islam in Africa. Routledge, 2021.

Wanja, Grace, Miriam Osore, Inyani Simala, and Leonard Chacha. “Tathmini Ya Tafsiri Ya Pendekezo La Katiba Ya Kenya 2010.” In Miaka Hamsini Ya Kiswahili Nchini Kenya. Twaweza Communications, 2014. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvgc60vs.22.

Wanyonyi, John W. “Sura Ya 14.” In Safari Ya Matumaini. Mkuki na Nyota Publishers, 2022. https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.21570595.17.

Zurbriggen, Eileen L., and Aurora M. Sherman. “Reconsidering ‘Sex’ and ‘Gender’: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back.” Feminism & Psychology 17, no. 4 (2007): 475–80. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353507084331.

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"The point of convergence of liberation theology, Islamic mysticism, and engaged Buddhism is the sense of love that leads to commitment and involvement with the world, and not a turning away from the world." — bell hooks

[katrinadalythompson]

Read in May 2026

“Gender and Knowledge: Contribution of Gender Perspectives to Intellectual Formations.” Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics, no. 19 (1999): 6–7.

Baden, Sally, and Anne Marie Goetz. “Who Needs [Sex] When You Can Have [Gender]? Conflicting Discourses on Gender at Beijing.” Feminist Review, no. 56 (1997): 3–25.

Beckmann, Nadine. “Pleasure and Danger: Muslim Views on Sex and Gender in Zanzibar.” Culture, Health & Sexuality 12, no. 6 (2010): 619–32.

Beckmann, Nadine. “Pleasure and Danger: Muslim Views on Sex and Gender in Zanzibar.” Culture, Health & Sexuality 12, no. 6 (2010): 619–32.

Bender, Courtney. “Practicing Religions.” In The Cambridge Companion to Religious Studies, edited by Robert A. Orsi. Cambridge Companions to Religion. Cambridge University Press, 2011. https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL9780521883917.015.

Bielo, James S. “Urban Christianities: Place-Making in Late Modernity.” Religion 43, no. 3 (2013): 301–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/0048721X.2013.798160.

Bockover, Mary I. “A Response to Nzegwu’s ‘How (If At All) Is Gender Relevant to Comparative Philosophy?’” Journal of World Philosophies 1 (2016): 83–87.

Bockover, Mary I. “Counter Responses: Bockover’s Response to Nzegwu’s Response: How (If At All) Is Gender Relevant to Comparative Philosophy?” Journal of World Philosophies 1 (2016): 101–6.

Bronner, Simon J., ed. “Introduction: Framing Jewish Culture.” In Framing Jewish Culture: Boundaries and Representations. Liverpool University Press, 2014.

Bruinhorst, Gerard C. van de. “‘I Didn’t Want to Write This’: The Social Embeddedness of Translating Moonsighting Verses of the Qur’an into Swahili.” Journal of Qur’anic Studies 17, no. 3 (2015): 38–74.

Bukagile, Godfrey Rutta. Civics for Secondary Schools: Book Four. Nyambari Nyangwine Publishers, 2008.

Capdevila, Rose. “Redefinition Reviewed: What `Toward a Redefinition of Sex and Gender’ Can Offer Today.” Feminism & Psychology 17, no. 4 (2007): 465–69. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353507084328.

Chaudhuri, Maitrayee. “Gender: The Limits and Possibilities of the Category.” Journal of World Philosophies 1 (2016): 88–92.

Chidester, David. “Already There: Categories, Formations, and Circulations in the Future of the Study of Religion.” Religion 50, no. 1 (2020): 40–45. https://doi.org/10.1080/0048721X.2019.1681084.

Chidester, David. “Beyond Religious Studies? The Future of the Study of Religion in a Multidisciplinary Perspective.” NTT Journal for Theology and the Study of Religion 71, no. 1 (2017): 74–85. https://doi.org/10.5117/NTT2017.71.074.CHID.

DeRogatis, Amy. Saving Sex: Sexuality and Salvation in American Evangelicalism. Oxford University Press, 2015.

Ekanem, Ekanem Asukwo. “Al Shabaab and Its Violent Extremism in Kenya.” Saudi Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 7, no. 5 (2022): 188–204.

Femenías, María Luisa. “‘How (If At All) Is Gender Relevant to Comparative Philosophy?’ A Response to Nzegwu.” Journal of World Philosophies 1 (2016): 93–96.

Ganzevoort, R. Ruard, and Johan Roeland. “Lived Religion: The Praxis of Practical Theology.” International Journal of Practical Theology 18, no. 1 (2014): 91–101.

Gearhart, Rebecca. “Forming and Performing Swahili Manhood: Wedding Rituals of a Groom in Lamu Town.” In Gendered Lives in the Western Indian Ocean: Islam, Marriage, and Sexuality on the Swahili Coast, edited by Erin E. Stiles and K. D. Thompson. Indian Ocean Studies. Ohio University Press, 2015.

Gomm, Roger. “Harlots and Bachelors: Marital Instability Among the Coastal Digo of Kenya.” Man 7, no. 1 (1972): 95–113. https://doi.org/10.2307/2799858.

Guest, Mathew. Neoliberal Religion: Faith and Power in the Twenty-First Century. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022. https://www.torrossa.com/it/resources/an/5262497.

Hood-Williams, John. “Goodbye to Sex and Gender.” The Sociological Review 44, no. 1 (1996): 1–16.

Https://Aarweb.Org/. “Addressing Race in the Classroom: A Trauma-Informed Communal Embodied Practice - AAR.” Accessed May 1, 2026. https://aarweb.org/news/addressing-race-in-the-classroom-a-trauma-informed-communal-embodied-practice/.

Keefe, Susi K. “‘Looking Outside the Marriage:’ Polygyny, Infidelity, and Divorce in Coastal Tanzania.” Gendered Perspectives on International Development: Working Papers (East Lansing, United States) 314 (February 2019): 1–20.

Keefe, Susi K. “Being a Good Muslim Man: Modern Aspirations and Polygynous Intentions in a Swahili Muslim Village.” In Gendered Lives in the Western Indian Ocean: Islam, Marriage, and Sexuality on the Swahili Coast, edited by Erin E. Stiles and Katrina Daly Thompson. Indian Ocean Studies. Ohio University Press, 2015.

Kimball, Meredith M. “Adding Gender to the Mix: A Commentary on `Toward a Redefinition of Sex and Gender’.” Feminism & Psychology 17, no. 4 (2007): 453–58. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353507084326.

Knight, Michael Muhammad. Sufi Deleuze: Secretions of Islamic Atheism. Fordham University Press, 2023. https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/93/monograph/book/109722.

Knight, Michael Muhammad. The Supreme Wisdom Lessons: A Scripture of American Islam. Comparative Islamic Studies. Equinox, 2024.

Kresse, Kai. “On the Skills to Navigate the World, and Religion, for Coastal Muslims in Kenya.” In Articulating Islam: Anthropological Approaches to Muslim Worlds, edited by Magnus Marsden and Konstantinos Retsikas. Springer Netherlands, 2013.

Kresse, Kai. “On the Skills to Navigate the World, and Religion, for Coastal Muslims in Kenya.” In Articulating Islam: Anthropological Approaches to Muslim Worlds, edited by Magnus Marsden and Konstantinos Retsikas. Springer Netherlands, 2013.

Lehman, F. K. Review of Doctrine, Practice, and Belief in Theravāda Buddhism, by Melford E. Spiro. The Journal of Asian Studies 31, no. 2 (1972): 373–80. https://doi.org/10.2307/2052605.

Lumbard, Joseph E. B. “Islam and the Challenge of Epistemic Sovereignty.” Religions 15, no. 4 (2024): 406. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040406.

Manje, Isaac Wamalwa. “Role of Faith-Based Radio Programming in Strategic Peacebuilding During Kenya’s 2022 General Elections.” Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, 2025.

Mazrui, Alamin. “Swahili and the War on Terrorism.” In Swahili in Spaces of War: A Sociolinguistic Odyssey, edited by Alamin Mazrui and Kimani Njogu. Springer International Publishing, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-27338-4_7.

McMahon, Elisabeth. “The Value of a Marriage Missionaries, Ex-Slaves, and the Legal Debates over Marriage in Colonial Pemba Island.” In Gendered Lives in the Western Indian Ocean: Islam, Marriage, and Sexuality on the Swahili Coast, edited by Erin E. Stiles and K. D. Thompson. Indian Ocean Studies. Ohio University Press, 2015.

Mhoja, Monica E., Lucy P. Nambuo, Evod H. Mmanda, and Helen Kivo-Bisima. Kiongozi Cha Sheria: Hifadhi Ya Jamii, Mirathi, Ndoa, Haki Za Watoto. 2nd ed. Kituo cha Msaada wa Sheria kwa Wanawake, 1996.

Money, John. “Gender: History, Theory and Usage of the Term in Sexology and Its Relationship to Nature/Nurture.” Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy 11, no. 2 (1985): 71–79.

Neitz, Mary Jo. “Lived Religion: Signposts of Where We Have Been and Where We Can Go from Here.” In Religion, Spirituality and Everyday Practice, edited by Giuseppe Giordan and Jr. Swatos William H. Springer Netherlands, 2012.

Nichols, Brian J. “Bodily Contraction Arises with Dukkha: Embodied Learning to Foster Racial Healing.” Religions 12, no. 12 (2021): 1108. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12121108.

Nzegwu, Nkiru Uwechia. Family Matters: Feminist Concepts in African Philosophy of Culture. State University of New York Press, 2012.

Nzegwu, Nkiru. “How (If at All) Is Gender Relevant to Comparative Philosophy?” Journal of World Philosophies 1, no. 1 (2016): 75–82.

Nzegwu, Nkiru. “Nzegwu’s Response to the Commentators.” Journal of World Philosophies 1 (2016): 97–100.

Onsman, Harry Julian. “Creativity and Linguistic Theory: A Study of the Creative Aspect of Language.” University of Tasmania, 1982.

Openshaw, Jeanne. “The Web of Deceit: Challenges to Hindu and Muslim ‘Orthodoxies’ by ‘Bāuls’ of Bengal.” Religion 27, no. 4 (1997): 297–309.

Pagis, Michal, and Shlomo Guzmen-Carmeli. “Enacting Religious Submission: Between Doing Religion and Being Done by Religion.” Religion 56, no. 2 (2026): 359–79.

Pontzen, Benedikt. “Bōkā or How One Religion Sees Another: Islamic Discourses on ‘African Traditional Religion’ in West Africa.” Religion 52, no. 1 (2022): 67–85.

Raia, Annachiara, Fallou Ngom, Mayke Kaag, and Maarten Kossmann. “Introduction to Travelling Islam.” Islamic Africa 14 (October 2023): 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1163/21540993-20230011.

Ramphele, Mamphela, and Emile Boonzaier. “The Position of African Women: Race and Gender in South Africa.” In South African Keywords: The Uses and Abuses of Political Concepts, edited by Emile Boonzaier and John Sharp. David Philip, 1988.

Richardson, Diane. “Patterned Fluidities: (Re) Imagining the Relationship between Gender and Sexuality.” Sociology 41, no. 3 (2007): 457–74.

Richardson, Diane. “Patterned Fluidities: (Re) Imagining the Relationship between Gender and Sexuality.” Sociology 41, no. 3 (2007): 457–74.

Shillitoe, Rachael, and Anna Strhan. “‘Just Leave It Blank’ Non-Religious Children and Their Negotiation of Prayer in School.” Religion 50, no. 4 (2020): 615–35.

Simmer-Brown, Judith. “Opening the Heart in Anti-Racism Activism: Pema Chodron and the Lojong Teachings.” In Beacons of Dharma: Spiritual Exemplars for the Modern Age, edited by Christopher Patrick Miller, Michael Reading, and Jeffery D. Long. Lexington Books, 2020.

Stanford, Mark, and Harvey Whitehouse. “Why Do Great and Little Traditions Coexist in the World’s Doctrinal Religions?” Religion, Brain & Behavior 11, no. 3 (2021): 312–34.

Taira, Teemu. “Making Space for Discursive Study in Religious Studies.” Religion 43, no. 1 (2013): 26–45. https://doi.org/10.1080/0048721X.2013.742744.

Tamale, Sylvia, author. Decolonization and Afro-Feminism. Daraja Press, [2020] ©2020, 2020. https://search.library.wisc.edu/catalog/9913088625502121.

Unger, Rhoda K. “Toward a Redefinition of Sex and Gender.” American Psychologist 34, no. 11 (1979): 1085–94.

Urban, Hugh B. “The Extreme Orient: The Construction of ‘Tantrism’ as a Category in the Orientalist Imagination.” Religion 29, no. 2 (1999): 123–46.

Wekesa, Evelyn. “The Radio Programming and the Youth Preference in Nairobi, Kenya.” Scholars Bulletin 2, no. 7 (2016): 436–40.

Willems, Wendy and Winston Mano. “Decolonizing and Provincial Audience and Internet Studies: Contextual Approaches from African Vantage Points.” In Everyday Media Culture in Africa: Audiences and Users, edited by Wendy Willems and Winson Mano. Routledge Advances in Internationalizing Media Studies; Variation: Routledge Advances in Internationalizing Media Studies. Taylor and Francis, 2016.

Zetterberg, Hans L. “The Grammar of Social Science.” Acta Sociologica 49, no. 3 (2006): 245–56. https://doi.org/10.1177/0001699306067706.

Zombwe, Gervas M. Civics for Secondary Schools: Book Two. Nyambari Nyangwine Publishers, 2008.

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New piece: “Negotiating Sitara: On the Ethics of Ethnographic Disclosure”

Just published in Chroniques du terrain, a reflection on what happens when a research interlocutor invokes the Islamic ethic of sitara (concealment) to shape how their work gets represented. Through my fieldwork at Radio Nuur, I work through the tensions between institutional protection and ethnographic transparency and the ways sitara operates differently depending on who is doing the concealing and what is being concealed. This feeds directly into the broader questions around gender, religious authority, and representation I consider in my book manuscript, Gendered Voices of Light.

Chroniques du terrain. Réflexions méthodologiques qui s’appuient sur des expériences de chercheur·e·s en sociolinguistique ethnographique cr

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We’re excited to finally share the cover of our forthcoming book, The Autonomous Language Learning Toolkit: A Guide for Learners, Educators, and Mentors, to be published by Routledge.

This book has been a long time in the making. It grew out of more than a decade of collaborative research with learners studying over thirty‑five languages—among them Swahili, Yoruba, Hmong, and many others—often in contexts where there is no traditional classroom and no teacher “in the room.” These were heritage speakers, graduate students, fieldworkers, and independent learners asking a common question, sometimes implicitly and sometimes very explicitly: How can I actually learn a language when I’m largely on my own?

The Autonomous Language Learning Toolkit is our attempt to answer that question in a grounded and practical way. Drawing on data from a multi‑year, U.S. Department of Education–funded study at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the book distills patterns from successful autonomous learners and translates them into tools others can use. Rather than offering a one‑size‑fits‑all method, the Toolkit is organized around six core questions that emerged from learners’ experiences:

How do successful autonomous learners set and revise goals?

Which strategies support sustained progress and real proficiency?

How do learners find, select, and evaluate materials?

What does productive mentorship look like outside a traditional classroom?

How can learners assess their own progress meaningfully?

How does creating resources—rather than only consuming them—deepen learning?

Each chapter moves between research findings and concrete practices, with examples designed to be adaptable across languages, institutional contexts, and learner goals. For educators and program directors, the book also includes an appendix that lays out a blueprint for building a self‑instructional language program from the ground up.

At its core, this book is about equity, flexibility, and sustainability in language education. Autonomous learning is often treated as marginal, improvised, or remedial. We argue instead that it deserves careful design, institutional support, and serious scholarly attention—especially for less commonly taught languages and learning contexts that fall outside standard curricular models.

We’re grateful to the learners who shared their time, experiences, and insights with us, and to the mentors and colleagues who shaped this project along the way. We’re looking forward to sharing more details as publication approaches—and to continuing the conversation with learners, educators, and mentors who are engaged in rethinking what language learning can look like.

[katrinadalythompson]

Read (and/or Re-read) in April 2026

Abou El Fadl, Khaled. 2001. And God Knows the Soldiers: The Authoritative and Authoritarian in Islamic Discourses.University Press of America.

Agamben, Giorgio. 2025. The Human Voice. Translated by Thomas Haskell Simpson. Seagull Books.

Allen, Jafari Sinclaire, and Ryan Cecil Jobson. 2016. "The Decolonizing Generation: (Race and) Theory in Anthropology since the Eighties." Current Anthropology, ahead of print, April 1. Chicago, IL. https://doi.org/10.1086/685502.

Ally, Zawadi. 2026. "Digital Divide and Financial Inclusion in Emerging Economies: The Mediating Role of Digital Payment Adoption—Evidence from Tanzania." African Journal of Economic Review 14 (1): 16–42.

Barchunova, Tatiana. 2020. "The Uneasy Transfer of Feminist Ideas and Gender Theory: Post-Soviet English-Russian Translations." In The Routledge Handbook of Translation, Feminism and Gender, edited by Luise von Flotow and Hala Kamal. Routledge.

Bernal, Dolores Delgado. 2001. "Learning and Living Pedagogies of the Home: The Mestiza Consciousness of Chicana Students." International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 14 (5): 623–39. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518390110059838.

Bullock, Julia. 2020. "A Tale of Two Translations: (Re)Interpreting Beauvoir in Japan, 1953–1997." In The Routledge Handbook of Translation, Feminism and Gender, edited by Luise von Flotow and Hala Kamal. Routledge.

Butler, Judith. 2021. "Gender in Translation: Beyond Monolingualism." In Why Gender?, edited by Jude Browne. Cambridge University Press.

Castro, Olga. 2013. "Introduction: Gender, Language and Translation at the Crossroads of Disciplines." Gender and Language 7 (1): 5–12. https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.v7i1.5.

Castro, Olga, and Emek Ergun. 2017. "Re-Envisioning Feminist Translation Studies: Feminisms in Translation, Translations in Feminism." In Feminist Translation Studies: Local and Transnational Perspectives, edited by Olga Castro and Emek Ergun. Routledge.

Chande, Abdin N. 1991. "Islam, Islamic Leadership and Community Development in Tanga, Tanzania." Doctoral dissertation, McGill University.

Chimerah, Rocha. 2018. "Kiswahili through the Ages: The Question of Lexicon." Mwanga Wa Lugha 2 (1): 127–50.

Eligedi, Rajkumar. 2020. "Volga as an International Agent of Feminist Translation." In The Routledge Handbook of Translation, Feminism and Gender, edited by Luise von Flotow and Hala Kamal. Routledge.

Embabi, Doaa. 2020. "Negotiation of Meaning in Translating 'Islamic Feminist' Texts into Arabic: Mapping the Terrain." In The Routledge Handbook of Translation, Feminism and Gender, edited by Luise von Flotow and Hala Kamal. Routledge.

Epprecht, Marc. 2018. "Gender and Sexuality." In Critical Terms for the Study of Africa, edited by Gaurav Desai and Adeline Masquelier. The University of Chicago Press.

Flotow, Luise von. (2005) 2015. "Tracing the Context of Translation: The Example of Gender." In Gender, Sex and Translation: The Manipulation of Identities, edited by Jose Santaemilia. Routledge.

Flotow, Luise von, and Joan W. Scott. 2016. "Gender Studies and Translation Studies: 'Entre Braguette' – Connecting the Transdisciplines." In Border Crossings: Translation Studies and Other Disciplines, edited by Luc van Doorslaer and Yves Gambier. John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Foster, Susan Leigh. 1998. "Choreographies of Gender." Signs 24 (1): 1–33.

Gilsaa, Søren. 2015. "Salafism(s) in Tanzania: Theological Roots and Political Subtext of the Ansār Sunna." Islamic Africa 6 (1–2): 30–59.

Goodness, Devet. 2024. "Kiswahili Community Speakers' Language Choice in Communicating Sexuality Issues." Cogent Arts & Humanities 11 (1): 2404303. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311983.2024.2404303.

Hassen, Rim. 2011. "English Translation of the Quran by Women: The Challenges of 'gender Balance' in and through Language." Monografías de Traducción e Interpretación 3: 211–30.

Henry-Tierney, Pauline. 2020. "At the Confluence of Queer and Translation: Subversions, Fluidities, and Performances." In The Routledge Handbook of Translation, Feminism and Gender, edited by Luise von Flotow and Hala Kamal. Routledge.

Hoek, Lotte. 2009. "'More Sexpression Please!' Screening the Female Voice and Body in the Bangladesh Film Industry." In Aesthetic Formations: Media, Religion, and the Senses, edited by Birgit Meyer. Palgrave MacMillan.

Jumuiya ya Taasisi za Dini kwa Ajili ya Maendeleo na Mapambano Dhidi ya Ukimwi Zanzibar, ed. 2015. Muongozo wa Afya ya Uzazi na Jinsia Kuhusiana na Mapambano ya Ukimwi kwa Mtizamo wa Kiislamu. Chapa ya pili. Jumuiya ya Taasisi za Dini kwa Ajili ya Maendeleo na Mapambano Dhidi ya Ukimwi Zanzibar.

King'ei, K. 2007. "Kiswahili in the Technical Age: Lessons from Kenya's Use of Kiswahili in the Legal and Parliamentary Registers." Lwati: A Journal of Contemporary Research 3 (1): 185–200.

Komba, Mercy M., and Gabriel V. Komba. 2024. "Internet Service Provision in Tanzania: An Examination of User Satisfaction, Package Pricing, and Service Challenges." African Quarterly Social Science Review 1 (4): 1–10.

Kraskowska, Ewa, and Weronika Szwebs. 2020. "Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own, Simone de Beauvoir's Le Deuxième Sexe, and Judith Butler's Gender Trouble in Polish." In The Routledge Handbook of Translation, Feminism and Gender, edited by Luise von Flotow and Hala Kamal. Routledge.

Lacunza Balda, Justo. 1993. "Swahili Islam: Continuity and Revival." Encounter (Pontificio Istituto Di Studi Arabi e d'Islamistica) 193/194 (December): 3–29. ATLAi9KZ180528001408.

Lessinger, Enora. 2020. "Le Président Est Une Femme: The Challenges of Translating Gender in UN Texts." In The Routledge Handbook of Translation, Feminism and Gender, edited by Luise von Flotow and Hala Kamal. Routledge.

Lowenkron, Laura, and Letícia Ferreira. 2014. "Anthropological Perspectives on Documents. Ethnographic Dialogues on the Trail of Police Papers." Vibrant: Virtual Brazilian Anthropology 11 (2): 76–112. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1809-43412014000200003.

Mazzuca, Claudia, Anna M. Borghi, Saskia van Putten, Luisa Lugli, Roberto Nicoletti, and Asifa Majid. 2024. "Gender Is Conceptualized in Different Ways across Cultures." Language and Cognition 16 (2): 353–79. https://doi.org/10.1017/langcog.2023.40.

Mehrez, Samia. 2007. "Translating Gender." Journal of Middle East Women's Studies 3 (1): 106–27.

Mellor, Philip A., and Chris Shilling. 2010. "Body Pedagogics and the Religious Habitus: A New Direction for the Sociological Study of Religion." Religion 40 (1): 27–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.religion.2009.07.001.

Meyer, Birgit. 2009. "Introduction: From Imagined Communities to Aesthetic Formations: Religious Mediations, Sensational Forms, and Styles of Binding." In Aesthetic Formations: Media, Religion, and the Senses, edited by Birgit Meyer. Palgrave MacMillan.

Mignanti, Cecilia. 2024. "Gender Politics and Politics in Gender in Iringa District (Tanzania)." Kervan. International Journal of African and Asian Studies 28 (1): 83–120.

Moffett, Helen. 2008. "Gender." In New South African Keywords, edited by Nick Shepherd and Steven Robins. Ohio University Press.

Moll, Yasmin. 2025. The Revolution Within: Islamic Media and the Struggle for a New Egypt. Stanford University Press.

Msanjila, Y. P. 2007. "Utumiaji wa Kiswahili na Lugha za Jamii Kijinsia Nchini Tanzania." Nordic Journal of African Studies 16 (1). https://doi.org/10.53228/njas.v16i1.48.

Ng'atigwa, Francis Xavier. 2020. "From Madrasas to Organised Iftar Culture: Current Trends of Islamisation in Tanzania." Utafiti 15 (2): 236–56.

Nittle, Nadra. 2023. Bell Hooks' Spiritual Vision: Buddhist, Christian, and Feminist. 1517 Media.

Oakley, Ann. (1972) 1985. Sex, Gender and Society. Gower/Maurice Temple Smith.

Ochieng, Dunlop. 2023. "English-Induced Semantic Expansion in Swahili." Kiswahili 86 (1). http://doi.org/10.56279/jk.v86i1.1.

Oyěwùmí, Oyèrónké. 1997. The Invention of Women: Making an African Sense of Western Gender Discourses. University of Minnesota Press.

Payne, Richard K. 2025. Tantra Across the Buddhist Cosmopolis. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/9780199709502.001.0001.

Qanbar, Nada. 2020. "Women in Audiovisual Translation: The Arabic Context." In The Routledge Handbook of Translation, Feminism and Gender, edited by Luise von Flotow and Hala Kamal. Routledge.

Rached, Ruth Abou. 2020. "Pathways of Solidarity in Transit: Iraqi Women Writers' Story-Making in English Translation." In The Routledge Handbook of Translation, Feminism and Gender, edited by Luise von Flotow and Hala Kamal. Routledge.

Razak, Arisika. 2021. "The Trauma of an American Untouchable." Lions Roar, March 5. https://www.lionsroar.com/the-trauma-of-an-american-untouchable/.

Rettová, Alena. 2023. "The Genres of Swahili Philosophy." Philosophy & Rhetoric 56 (1): 8–32. https://doi.org/10.5325/philrhet.56.1.0008.

Robinson, Morgan J. 2023. "When a Wonder Is Not a Wonder: Swahili, Translation, and the Communication of Knowledge." Isis 114 (2): 233–48.

Romano, Lindsay E., and Doris F. Chang. 2022. "Right Mindfulness in Teacher Education: Integrating Buddhist Teachings with Secular Mindfulness to Promote Racial Equity." Education Sciences 12 (11): 778. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci12110778.

Said, Edward W. 1983. The World, the Text, and the Critic. Harvard University Press.

Salem, Badredden Mohamed. 2013. "Usawiri wa Jinsia Katika Lugha ya Mashairi: Mifano kutoka Mashairi ya Shaaban Robert." Masters, The Open University of Tanzania.

Scott, Joan Wallach. (1988) 1999. Gender and the Politics of History. Columbia University Press.

Seesemann, Rüdiger. 2007. "Kenyan Muslims, the Aftermath of 9/11, and the 'War on Terror.'" In Islam and Muslim Politics in Africa, edited by Benjamin Soares and R. Otayek. Palgrave MacMillan.

Simmer-Brown, Judith. 2021a. "Spiritual Warriorship: Śāntideva on the Inner Journey of Transforming Anger." Buddhist-Christian Studies 41 (1): 185–93. https://doi.org/10.1353/bcs.2021.0019.

Simmer-Brown, Judith. 2021b. "The Four Noble Truths: A Buddhist Theology for Undoing Racism." Buddhist-Christian Studies 41 (1): 221–31. https://doi.org/10.1353/bcs.2021.0022.

Slavova, Kornelia. 2020. "Feminism in the Post-Communist World in/as Translation." In The Routledge Handbook of Translation, Feminism and Gender, edited by Luise von Flotow and Hala Kamal. Routledge.

Spurk, Christoph, and Abdallah Katunzi. 2024. "The Quality of Radio Journalism in Tanzania: Empowering Citizens or at a Crossroads?" Journalism 25 (9): 1977–98.

Widerberg, Karin. 1998. "Translating Gender." NORA - Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research 6 (2): 133–38.

Yu, Zhongli. 2020. "Translating Feminism in China: A Historical Perspective." In The Routledge Handbook of Translation, Feminism and Gender, edited by Luise von Flotow and Hala Kamal. Routledge.

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Read in March 2026

Adkins, Karen C. “The Real Dirt: Gossip and Feminist Epistemology: Social Epistemology: Vol 16 , No 3 - Get Access.” Social Epistemology, n.d. Accessed March 12, 2026. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0269172022000025598.

Akkaya, Aslihan. “Language, Discourse, and New Media: A Linguistic Anthropological Perspective.” Language and Linguistics Compass 8, no. 7 (2014): 285–300.

Alidou, Ousseina D. “Muslim Women, Rights Discourse, and the Media in Kenya.” In Gender and Culture at the Limit of Rights, edited by Dorothy L. Hodgson. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt3fhnvp.12.

Batchelor, Katherine, Kelli Rushek, and Julia Beaumont. “‘Spilling Tea’: A Critical Feminist Reclamation of Gossip in Literature and Media.” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 68, no. 1 (2024): 68–76.

Brennan, James R. “Islam, Politics and the Limits of Authority in Mainland Tanzania, 1955–1968.” In Governance and Islam in East Africa: Muslims and the State in Kenya and Tanzania, edited by Farouk Topan, Kai Kresse, Erin E. Stiles, and Hassan Mwakimako. Edinburgh University Press, 2024.

Chidester, David. Religion: Material Dynamics. 1st ed. University of California Press, 2018.

Dokman, Frans, and Evaristi Magoti Cornelli, eds. Beyond Bantu Philosophy: Contextualizing Placide Tempels’ Initiative in African Thought. Routledge, 2022.

Gal, Susan. “Language Ideologies Compared: Metaphors of Public/Private.” Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 15, no. 1 (2005): 23–37.

Hall, Bruce S. “Vernacular Media, Muslim Ethics, and ‘Conservative’ Critiques of Power in the Niger Bend, Mali.” In Religion, Media, and Marginality in Modern Africa, edited by Felicitas Becker, Joel Cabrita, and Marie Rodet. Ohio University Press, 2018.

Howland, Olivia, Dan Brockington, and Christine Noe. “Women’s Tears or Coffee Blight? Gender Dynamics and Livelihood Strategies in Contexts of Agricultural Transformation in Tanzania.” Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy 9, no. 2 (2020): 171–96.

Kamat, Vinay R. Silent Violence: Global Health, Malaria, and Child Survival in Tanzania. University of Arizona Press, 2013.

Kresse, Kai. “Beyond Vicious Circles in the Kenyan Post-Colony? On the Value of Discursive Space.” In Governance and Islam in East Africa: Muslims and the State in Kenya and Tanzania, edited by Farouk Topan, Kai Kresse, Erin E. Stiles, and Hassan Mwakimako. Edinburgh University Press, 2024.

Leach, Mary. “Feminist Figurations: Gossip as a Counterdiscourse.” In Working the Ruins. Routledge, 2000.

Loimeier, Roman. “Dynamics of Reform in Sub-Saharan Africa.” In Routledge Handbook of Islam in Africa, edited by Terje Østebø. Routledge, 2021.

Loimeier, Roman. “The Baraza: A Grass Root Institution in East Africa.” In Lieux de Sociabilité Urbaine En Afrique, edited by Laurent Fourchard, Odile Goerg, and Muriel Gomez-Perez. L’Harmattan, 2009.

Martinez-Cuadros, Rosa. “Negotiating Islam and Feminism: The Political and Social Participation of Muslim Women in Barcelona.” Journal of Contemporary Religion 39, no. 3 (2024): 407–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/13537903.2024.2405386.

Maryns, Katrijn, and Jan Blommaert. “Pretextuality and Pretextual Gaps: On de/Refining Linguistic Inequality.” Pragmatics 12, no. 1 (2002): 11–30.

Massumi, Brian. “The Autonomy of Affect.” Cultural Critique, no. 31 (1995): 83–109.

McKeown, Janet K. L. “The Hens Are Clucking: Women Performing Gossip in Their Leisure Lives.” Leisure Sciences 37, no. 5 (2015): 447–57.

Media Council of Tanzania. Challenging the Glass Ceiling: Study of Women in the Newsroom in Tanzania. Media Council of Tanzania, 2019.

Meyer, Birgit. Religious Sensations: Why Media, Aesthetics and Power Matter in the Study of Contemporary Religion. Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 2006.

Okafor, Stephen O. “‘Bantu Philosophy:’ Placide Tempels Revisited.” Journal of Religion in Africa 13, no. 2 (1982): 83–100.

Radway, Janice. “Reception Study: Ethnography and the Problems of Dispersed Audiences and Nomadic Subjects.” Cultural Studies 2, no. 3 (1988): 359–76. 76098653.

Saalfeld, Jannis. Before and Beyond Al-Shabaab: National Islamic Councils, Contentious Politics and the Rise of Jihadism in East Africa. INEF Report 113/2019. Institute for Development and Peace (INEF), University of Duisburg-Essen, 2019.

Star, Susan Leigh. “The Ethnography of Infrastructure.” American Behavioral Scientist 43, no. 3 (1999): 377–91. https://doi.org/10.1177/00027649921955326.

Taji, Julius. “A Morphosemantic Analysis of Personal Nicknames in Swahili.” Nomina Africana 38, nos. 1–2 (2024): 43–55. https://doi.org/10.2989/NA.2024.38.1.4.1382.

Tarrant, Duncan. “The Translocal Baraza and Its Zanzibari Imaginaries.” In Transoceanic and Transmedial Imaginaries in the Indian Ocean, edited by Ute Fendler and Clarissa Vierke. Routledge, 2025.

Temba, Pudenciana. “Tanzania.” In Up in the Air: The State of Broadcasting in Eastern Africa, edited by Lynne Muthoni Wanyeki. Panos Southern Africa, 2000.

Tsuruta, Tadasu. “African Imaginations of Moral Economy: Notes on Indigenous Economic Concepts and Practices in Tanzania.” African Studies Quarterly 9, nos. 1 & 2 (2006): 103–22.

Tweed, Thomas A. Crossing and Dwelling: A Theory of Religion. 2006. First Harvard University Press paperback edition. Harvard University Press, 2008.

Wakota, John. “Ujamaa’s Villagization and Gender Dynamics in Selected Tanzanian Fiction.” Journal of African Cultural Studies 30, no. 1 (2018): 49–64.

Wang, Lang. “‘There Is No Truth About Women’: Narrating Truth, Gossip, and Women’s Discourse.” Women’s Studies 0, no. 0 (2025): 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/00497878.2025.2533166.

Waters, Tony. “A Cultural Analysis of the Economy of Affection and the Uncaptured Peasantry in Tanzania.” The Journal of Modern African Studies 30, no. 1 (1992): 163–75.

Williams, Beth Ann. “‘Bananas Are for Women, Coffee Is for Men’: Gendered Narratives of Agricultural Histories on Mount Meru, Tanzania.” African Studies Review 65, no. 1 (2022): 143–65.

[katrinadalythompson]

Issue 94:1 of the Journal of the American Academy of Religion is now out, and an image from my article is on the cover! 😊

https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfag003

[katrinadalythompson]

Interview with Professor KD Thompson, Spring 2026 As part of our ongoing commitment to highlighting the diverse experiences and organization

The Middle East Studies Program recently interviewed me about the formation of the UW Muslim & Muslim‑Allied Faculty and Staff group and the work we’ve taken on—from building community, to supporting student activism, to pushing back against Islamophobia and the policing of pro‑Palestinian speech on campus.

[katrinadalythompson]

“Africa is not what it is because of what it is like. Africa is what it is because of what the world is like, and vice versa. So we study Africa to understand the world.”

— Elísio Macamo

[katrinadalythompson]

Can self-improvement actually fix a rigged system? Nurhaizatul Jamil's Faithful Transformations follows Muslim women in Singapore as they navigate piety, productivity culture, and racial capitalism all at once — and the answer is complicated. I reviewed it for Reading Religion:

Faithful Transformations - Reading Religion

Malay Muslim women in Singapore cultivate piety by attending popular Islamic self-help classes. Nurhaizatul Jamil’s ethnographic study offer

[katrinadalythompson]

Read in February 2026

Adesubokan, Samuel K. 2023. “Performing the News: Yorùbá Oral Traditions on the Radio.” Journal of African Cultural Studies 35 (4): 422–36. https://doi.org/10.1080/13696815.2023.2264225.

Bhabha, Homi K. 1996. “Unsatisfied: Notes on Vernacular Cosmopolitanism.” In Text and Nation: Cross-Disciplinary Essays on Cultural and National Identities, edited by Laura García-Moreno and Peter C. Pfeiffer. Camden House.

Bosch, Tanja. 2014. “Social Media and Community Radio Journalism in South Africa.” Digital Journalism 2 (1): 29–43. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2013.850199.

Canagarajah, Suresh. 2012. Translingual Practice: Global Englishes and Cosmopolitan Relations. Routledge.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 2006. Report of the Sensitisation Workshop on Rural Radio for Policy and Decision Makers in East and Southern Africa, 26-29 April 2005, Lilongwe, Malawi. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/63734.

Fuad, Ai Fatimah Nur. 2021. “Female Religious Authority among Tarbiyah Communities in Contemporary Indonesia.” Archipel 102: 187–207.

Garfinkel, Harold. 1988. “Evidence for Locally Produced, Naturally Accountable Phenomena of Order, Logic, Reason, Meaning, Method, Etc. In and as of the Essential Quiddity of Immortal Ordinary Society, (I of IV): An Announcement of Studies.” Sociological Theory 6 (1): 103–9. https://doi.org/10.2307/201918.

Hassan, Mona. 2011. “Women Preaching for the Secular State: Official Female Preachers (Bayan Vaizler) in Contemporary Turkey.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 43 (3): 451–73. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020743811000614.

Hinnebusch, Thomas J. 1996. “What Kind of Language Is Swahili?” Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere 47 (Sept): 73–95.

Krause, Amanda E., and Heather Fletcher. 2025. “Radio Relationships: Perceptions on Listenership and Well‐being.” Australasian Journal on Ageing 44 (1): e70008. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajag.70008.

Kunreuther, Laura. 2010. “Transparent Media: Radio, Voice, and Ideologies of Directness in Postdemocratic Nepal.” Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 20 (2): 334–51.

Kunreuther, Laura. 2018. “Sounds of Democracy: Performance, Protest, and Political Subjectivity.” Cultural Anthropology 33 (1): 1–31.

Merritt, Marilyn, and Mohamed H. Abdulaziz. 1985. “Swahili as a National Language in East Africa.” In What Are National Languages Good For?, edited by Florian Coulmas. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED276268.

Moro, Fauziyatu, and Reginold A. Royston. 2025. “Deep Listening: Podcast Audiences and Affective Resonance in Urban Ghana.” African Studies Review 68 (4): 798–819.

Rosidi, Imron. 2025. “Negotiating Salafi Islam of Hang Radio: Responses of Active Muslim Audiences to Hang Radio in Batam, Indonesia.” Al-Jami’ah: Journal of Islamic Studies 62 (2): 387–408.

Roulston, Kathryn. 2020. “Ethnographic Interviewing.” In Sage Research Methods Foundations, edited by Paul Atkinson, Sara Delamont, Alexandru Cernat, Joseph W. Sakshaug, and Richard A.Williams. Ethnography. SAGE Publications Limited. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781526421036769245.

Rutherford, Danilyn. 2001. “Intimacy and Alienation: Money and the Foreign in Biak.” Public Culture 13 (2): 299–324.

Solomon, Eva. 2014. “Development Journalism and Gender: A Case Study of Broadcasting Media in Tanzania.” Dissertation, Freie Universität Berlin.

Topan, Farouk. 2024. “Introduction.” In Governance and Islam in East Africa: Muslims and the State in Kenya and Tanzania, edited by Farouk Topan, Kai Kresse, Erin E. Stiles, and Hassan Mwakimako, with Kai Kresse, Erin E. Stiles, and Hassan Mwakimako. Edinburgh University Press.

Werbner, Pnina. 2006. “Vernacular Cosmopolitanism.” Theory, Culture & Society 23 (2–3): 496–98. https://doi.org/10.1177/026327640602300291.

Willems, Wendy. 2013. “Participation – In What? Radio, Convergence and the Corporate Logic of Audience Input through New Media in Zambia.” Telematics and Informatics, The Digital Turn in Radio: Understanding Convergence in Radio News Cultures, vol. 30 (3): 223–31.

[katrinadalythompson]

I'm thrilled to congratulate my student Gengqi Xiao (Greyson) and his coauthors on the publication of their new article in the Journal of Sociolinguistics! 🎉

Beyond its empirical insights, this piece makes a meaningful contribution to second language acquisition (SLA) by showing how language learning is deeply shaped by social interaction, identity positioning, ideologies, and the lived realities of multilingual speakers. It’s a valuable reminder that acquiring a language involves navigating relationships, power, and the social worlds where language lives.

You can read the article here: 🔗 https://doi.org/10.1111/josl.70016 I'm proud of this important work and excited to see where Greyson's research goes next!