Construction of Muslim Identities in Contemporary Brazil

Cristina Maria de Castro is a Professor of Sociology at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil). In 2005 and 2007 she acted as a visiting researcher at the International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World, based in Leiden, The Netherlands. In 2007, Castro was approved in a highly competitive selection process to participate in a training program for new PhD researchers in the Brazilian Center for Analysis and Planning, CEBRAP, one of the most renowned research institutions in Brazil. Articles and book chapters on religion, gender and migration, with emphasis on Muslim minorities, have been published by her in Brazil, the USA and France.

• IntroductionMethodology used: comments on its limits and advantagesChapter 1: Brief history of Islamic presence in BrazilChapter 2: The “Muslim identity” and its definition in relation to the Brazilian religious fieldChapter 3: Globalization, transnational Islamic networks and their influence in the construction of Muslim identities in BrazilChapter 4: The negotiation of Muslim identities inside Brazilian Muslim communitiesChapter 5: Muslim minorities in Brazil and The Netherlands: a comparative perspectiveConclusion

Written in an accessible style . . . The Construction of Muslim Identities in Contemporary Brazil will fit into university courses in Brazilian or Latin American studies as well as religious studies or the social sciences. In crossing boundaries conventionally upheld by area studies as well as the disciplines, this book will push students and non-specialists in Europe or the United States to learn of these heretofore understudied politics of religious difference across unexpected geographies.