Multireligious Utopias? Youth, Secularization and Islamic Education Across the Western Indian Ocean World

(working title) / ‘Generation Absent: Youth Identity and Belonging in the “Zanzibar Diaspora”‘

Dr. Franziska Fay

At the center of the comparative, ethnographic research project, whose majority Muslim and multi-religious urban research fields are located in Zanzibar City (Tanzania), Mombasa (Kenya) and Muscat (Oman), was the question of the conditions of multi-religious coexistence in times of decreasing tolerance with regard to religious diversity. The investigation of ‘multi-religious utopias’ makes it possible to question the qualities and characteristics of a social idea of ‘modernity’, which is characterized by the positive emphasis on intra- and inter-religious heterogeneity. Interfaith centers, which use project approaches to bring children and young people of different faiths together, were central points of orientation with regard to the project’s interest in knowledge.
The postdoctoral project was continued in 2020 under the title “Generation Absent: Youth Identity and Belonging in the “Zanzibar Diaspora””. The habilitation project, which emerged from the findings during the field research phases, then focused centrally on the contemporary translocal identity constructions of young people in the so-called ‘Zanzibar Diaspora’ (Zanzibari Omanis and Omani Zanzibaris), of which religious attribution processes are an integral part. Methodologically, the project relied on ethnographic research methods such as interviews and observations, but also on a dense analysis of social media spaces, also due to the Corona-related change in the research situation.

Publications:

Fay, Franziska: Ordinary Childhoods, Islam and the Everyday in Zanzibar. Journal of the British Academy [Special Issue: Searching for the Everyday in African Childhoods] (in preparation)

Fay, Franziska: Blending Belongings: Young Swahili-speaking Omanis and the Postdiaspora in Contemporary Oman. Arabian Humanities, Vol 15 [Special Issue: Oman Over Times: A Nation from the Nahda to the Oman Vision 2040] (under review)

Fay, Franziska: Living with Absence: Waiting Youth, Belonging, and the Contemporary ‘Zanzibar Diaspora’. Journal of Indian Ocean World Studies – Special Issue, Edited by Walker, Iain and Martin Slama. (forthcoming)

events

“Waswahili (Vijana) wa Oman na Dhana ya ‘Zanzibar Diaspora'”, Baraza la Kiswahili la Berlin (BALAKI-BE), ZMO (online) (2020)

“After Waithood? Contemporary Approaches to Research with Youth Across ‘Muslim Worlds’.” Organizer, International Workshop, Research Centre Normative Orders, Goethe University Frankfurt (2020)

“Youth Identity and Belonging in the Zanzibar Diaspora”, Presenter, Conference: Us and Them: Diasporas for Others in the Indian Ocean, Centre for Interdisciplinary Area Studies, Martin-Luther University Halle, Germany (2019)

News from the research center

News
30.06.2025

Article "Ideology and Suffering: What Is Realistic about Critical Theory?" by Amadeus Ulrich published in EJPT

The article "Ideology and Suffering: What Is Realistic about Critical Theory?" by Amadeus Ulrich has just been published open access in the European Journal of Political Theory (EJPT). Ulrich brings the perspective of radical realism into a productive dialog with Adorno's critical theory.

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News
30.06.2025

Prof. Dr. Franziska Fay awarded the Sibylle Kalkhof-Rose University Prize 2025

Prof. Dr. Franziska Fay (Junior Professor of Ethnology with a focus on Political Anthropology at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and former postdoctoral researcher at the Research Center Normative Orders at Goethe University) receives the Sibylle Kalkhof-Rose University Award 2025 in the category Humanities and Social Sciences.

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Publication
25.06.2025 | Online article

Ideology and Suffering: What Is Realistic about Critical Theory?

Ulrich, Amadeus (2025): Ideology and suffering: What is realistic about critical theory? European Journal of Political Theory, 0(0).  https://doi.org/10.1177/14748851251351782

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News
24.06.2025

New series “Vertrauensfragen” in the Frankfurter Rundschau initiated by Hendrik Simon

Democracy thrives on debate - if it serves the joint search for solutions. There is often a problem with this cooperation. The new FR series “Vertrauensfragen”, initiated by Hendrik Simon (Research Institute Social Cohesion (RISC) Frankfurt location at Goethe University's Research Centre Normative Orders ), examines why this is the case and how we can do better.

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Publication
23.06.2025 | Working Paper

Untrustworthy Authorities and Complicit Bankers: Unraveling Monetary Distrust in Argentina

Moreno, Guadalupe (2025): “Untrustworthy Authorities and Complicit Bankers: Unraveling Monetary Distrust in Argentina”. Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies Discussion Paper 25/3.

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News
22.05.2025

Does deliberative democracy have a future in the age of oligarchs, autocrats and patriarchs?

On June 3, Prof. Simone Chambers will give a lecture on the value of democracies and the future of the form of government.

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Publication
19.05.2025 | Anthology

Klimaethik. Ein Reader

Sparenborg, Lukas; Moellendorf, Darrel (Hrsg.) (2025) : Klimaethik. Ein Reader. Suhrkamp.

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News
19.05.2025

What can a baroque tapestry tell us about colonial iconography?

Lecture by Cécile Fromone on May 21. The professor at the Department of the History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University, director of the Cooper Gallery at the Hutchins Center and author will talk about the long-forgotten African origins of iconography and its colonial dimension.

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News
05.05.2025

Normative Orders Newsletter 01/25 published

The newsletter from Research Centre Normative Orders collects information on current events, reports, news and publications several times a year. Read the first issue 2025 here.

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