New Books in Global Islam: Education, State, and Society in Egypt, France, and Tanzania

This roundtable introduces three brand new studies of contemporary Islam, from Egypt, France, and Tanzania, all published in 2024 or early 2025. The three authors will be in dialogue with one another, as well as with two respondents, themselves ethnographers of Islam who work in different regions. The works offer fresh understandings of contested Muslim social and political organizing, while remaining attentive to how Muslims navigate issues of identity, community formation and preservation, and relations with states and wider society. Each book draws on historical materials and rich qualitative research to explore complex dynamics of Islamic education, culture, and community politics. The authors and respondents will engage in a lively conversation that draws together regions of the world too rarely put into conversation. The roundtable format promises a refreshing structure for creative collaboration, introducing cutting-edge work in Islamic studies that will shape emerging directions in contemporary global Islam.