Dr. K.D. Thompson

Anthropologist of Language and Religion

[katrinadalythompson]

"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.

[katrinadalythompson]

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.

[katrinadalythompson]

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.

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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.

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[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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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My new article in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion is out! "A Woman Is Not Created Mute: An Ethnography of Gender and Voice on Islamic Radio in Tanga, Tanzania."

This is my first published piece from several years of fieldwork at Radio Nuur FM—and my first publication with photographs! You can finally see the journalists, station staff, and listeners who've shared their stories with me.

The article explores how Muslims navigate theological debates about women's voices as 'awrah (that which should be covered) while working at and listening to a radio station where women are on the air daily—hosting programs, reading news, and taking calls.

What I found: gender norms are shifting through Islamic media, but the changes are uneven, contested, and require ongoing labor. Women at Radio Nuur aren't just being "given voice"—they're actively negotiating religious authority, professional identity, and what counts as appropriate public speech.

Stay tuned for the book, inshallah.

A Woman Is Not Created Mute: My First Article from Radio Nuur

I’m excited to share that my article “A Woman Is Not Created Mute: An Ethnography of Gender and Voice on Islamic Radio in Tanga, Tanzania” i

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Read in January 2026

Abdullah, Asilatul Hanaa. “Reconceptualizing Peace Through Fiqh Al-Ta’ayush: Lessons from Islamic Cosmopolitanism for Contemporary Political and Moral Uncertainty.” E-Journal of Islamic Thought & Understanding 8, no. 2 (2025): 1–10.

Alidou, Ousseina. Muslim Women in Postcolonial Kenya: Leadership, Representation, and Social Change. The University of Wisconsin Press, 2013.

Arvidsson, Adam. “The Potential of Consumer Publics.” Ephemera 13, no. 2 (2013): 367–91.

Bang, Anne K. “Zanzibari Islamic Knowledge Transmission Revisited: Loss, Lament, Legacy, Transmission – and Transformation.” Social Dynamics 38, no. 3 (2012): 419–34. https://doi.org/10.1080/02533952.2012.756724.

Bhojani, Ali-Reza, and Morgan Clarke. “Religious Authority beyond Domination and Discipline: Epistemic Authority and Its Vernacular Uses in the Shi’i Diaspora.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 65, no. 2 (2023): 272–95.

Bourdieu, Pierre. “Genesis and Structure of the Religious Field.” Translated by Jenny B. Burnside, Craig Calhoun, and Leah Florence. Comparative Social Research 13 (1991): 1–44.

Bourdieu, Pierre. “Legitimation and Structured Interests in Weber’s Sociology of Religion.” In Max Weber, Rationality and Modernity, edited by Scott Lash and Sam Whimster, translated by Chris Turner. 1971; Allen & Unwin, 1987.

Bunt, Gary. “Rip. Burn. Pray: Islamic Expression Online.” Religion Online: Finding Faith on the Internet (New York), 2004, 123–34.

Caliandro, Alessandro. “Digital Methods for Ethnography: Analytical Concepts for Ethnographers Exploring Social Media Environments.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 47, no. 5 (2018): 551–78.

Debenport, Erin. “Secrecy.” In A New Companion to Linguistic Anthropology, edited by Alessandro Duranti. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119780830.ch27.

Eickelman, Dale, and James P. Piscatori. Muslim Politics. 1996. 2nd ed. Princeton University Press, 2004.

Ellis, Carolyn. “Telling Secrets, Revealing Lives: Relational Ethics in Research With Intimate Others.” Qualitative Inquiry 13, no. 1 (2007): 3–29. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800406294947.

Göle, Nilüfer. “Islam in Public: New Visibilities and New Imaginaries.” Public Culture 14, no. 1 (2002): 173–90. https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-14-1-173.

Hine, Christine. “Towards Ethnography of Television on the Internet: A Mobile Strategy for Exploring Mundane Interpretive Activities.” Media, Culture & Society 33, no. 4 (2011): 567–82.

Hirsch, Susan F. “Language, Gender and Linguistic Ideologies in Coastal Kenyan Muslim Courts.” Working Papers on Language, Gender and Sexism 2, no. 1 (1992): 39–58.

Ibrahim, Barbara, and Dina H. Sherif. “Introduction: Arab Philanthropy in Transition.” In From Charity to Social Change: Trends in Arab Philanthropy, edited by Barbara Ibrahim and Dina H. Sherif. American University in Cairo Press, 2008.

Jansen, Wikke. Queer Mobilities in Indonesia: Religion, Activism and Everyday Life. Liverpool University Press, 2025. https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.21275910.

Jones, Graham M. “Secrecy.” Annual Review of Anthropology 43, no. 1 (2014): 53–69. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-102313-030058.

Kupari, Helena. “Lived Religion and the Religious Field.” Journal of Contemporary Religion 35, no. 2 (2020): 213–30.

Lapidus, Ira M. “Knowledge, Virtue, and Action: The Classical Muslim Conception of Adab and the Nature of Religious Fulfillment in Islam.” In Moral Conduct and Authority: The Place of Adab in South Asian Islam, edited by Barbara D. Metcalf. University of California Press, 1984.

Lewinson, Anne S. “Viewing Postcolonial Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania through Civic Spaces: A Question of Class.” In Postcolonial African Cities. Routledge, 2007.

Limes-Taylor Henderson, Kelly, and Jennifer Esposito. “Using Others in the Nicest Way Possible: On Colonial and Academic Practice(s), and an Ethic of Humility.” Qualitative Inquiry, December 4, 2017, 1077800417743528. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800417743528.

Lindhardt, Martin. “More than Just Money: The Faith Gospel and Occult Economies in Contemporary Tanzania.” Nova Religio 13, no. 1 (2009): 41–67.

Ortner, Sherry B. “Resistance and the Problem of Ethnographic Refusal.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 37, no. 1 (1995): 173–93.

Rasmussen, Anne. Women, the Recited Qur’an, and Islamic Music in Indonesia. University of California Press, 2010.

Stewart, Pamela J., and Andrew Strathern. Witchcraft, Sorcery, Rumors, and Gossip. Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Swartz, Marc, and Yahya Ali Omar. “Relationship Terms and Cultural Conformity among the Swahili of Mombasa.” In Swahili Language and Society: Papers from the Workshop Held at the School of Oriental and African Studies in April 1982, edited by Joan Maw and David J. Parkin. Afro-Pub, 1985.

Thompson, K.D. Review of Queer Mobilities in Indonesia: Religion, Activism and Everyday Life, by Wikke Jansen. Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations, 2026. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09596410.2026.2621617.

Weber, Max. Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology. Edited by Guenter Roth and Claus Wittich. Translated by Ephraim Fischoff, Hans Gerth, A. M. Henderson, et al. 1968; University of California Press, 2013.

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My review of Wikke Jansen's Queer Mobilities in Indonesia: Religion, Activism and Everyday Life just came out in Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations.

Three years ago, I published Muslims on the Margins, a book about queer-inclusive Muslim groups in North America. I spent time with communities in Toronto, Atlanta, LA, DC, Chicago, Columbus, and San Francisco and online spaces where LGBTQ+ Muslims and allies created religious community that refused to choose between being queer and being Muslim. Jansen's book takes this conversation to urban Indonesia, examining how class, gender, and geography determine whose queerness can be publicly visible.

What excited me about Jansen's work is her concept of "insistence on queerness"—the continuous confrontation of others with one's non-heteronormative sexuality or gender—and how economic precarity shapes who can afford such insistence. She challenges Western queer theory's tendency to valorize visibility, showing instead how survival strategies differ dramatically based on class position. Her attention to individuals assigned female at birth addresses a significant gap in Indonesian queer studies.

Reading Jansen's book also reminded me how much more work remains to be done on queer religious practice. While she documents important tensions between religious and activist spaces, I found myself wanting deeper engagement with how queer Indonesians actually practice faith in everyday terms. The theological work happening in these communities deserves sustained attention.

If you're interested in queerness beyond North America, or how economic inequality shapes LGBTQ+ organizing globally, Jansen's book offers crucial insights. I'd love to hear what others think about the "insistence on queerness" framework and where scholarship on queer lived religion might go from here.

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Religious Activism on Campuses in Togo and Benin: Christian and Muslim Students Navigating Authoritarianism and Laïcité, 1970–2023 by Frédér

Religious Activism on Campuses in Togo and Benin: Christian and Muslim Students Navigating Authoritarianism and Laïcité, 1970–2023 by Frédér

I'm pleased to share that my review of Frédérick Madore's Religious Activism on Campuses in Togo and Benin is now available in the Journal of Modern African Studies. Madore's book traces how Christian and Muslim student associations at universities in Togo and Benin navigated authoritarian regimes, democratization, and shifting interpretations of laïcité (secularism) from 1970 through 2023. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and interviews, he shows how these groups weren't just surviving—they were actively shaping campus politics, developing alternative "social curricula," and incubating new religious leadership. The book offers important insights into how young people pursue the "good life" through religious organizing amid political uncertainty and economic precarity. If you're interested in African religious dynamics, student movements, or how faith intersects with higher education, this is a valuable read.

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I'm excited to co-lead a Research Statement Writing Workshop with Dr. Mariana Pacheco on February 17! 🎓

If you're a graduate student in language- or linguistics-related fields working on job applications, join us for this hands-on session. We'll help you develop a compelling research statement and provide one-on-one feedback on your drafts.

Tuesday, Feb 17 | 10:00-11:30am | Van Hise Hall 1418

Register at go.wisc.edu/research-statement

Questions? Contact [email protected]