This event will be held at theAga KhanCentre (AKC) near London King’s Cross, and streamed online via Zoom, at 17:00 BST.
(IIS) will host a book talk for This hybrid event will explore how sound shapes religious life and communal belonging among Twelver Shi‘i Muslims in Turkey and across connected regions.
About the event
What role does sound play in shaping religious life and communal belonging? How do practices such as vocal recitation, lament, and devotional poetry cultivate relationships among participants, as well as with the divine and unseen?
This book talk by Dr Williamson Fa introduces Sonic Relations: Devotion and Community inTurkey’sEastern Borderlands(Indiana University Press, 2026). Drawing on long-term ethnographic research withAzeri-Turkishspeaking TwelverShi‘i communities, the presentation explores how sonic practices,such as the call to prayer, ritual lamentation, praise poetry, and mediated recordings,form the core of devotional life.
The talk examines how soundoperatesnot simply as an expression of belief, but as a medium through which religious experience, affective ties, and collective identities are created and sustained. It also traces how these sonic practices travel across borders via media technologies and transnational networks linkingTurkeywith Iran, the Caucasus, and Western Europe.
The presentation will be followed by a discussion with Professor Rachel Harris and Dr Reza Masoudi-Nejad.
Speaker
Dr Stefan Williamson Fa
Research Associate
is a cultural anthropologist at the.
He completed his PhD at in 2019. His research focuses on Islam through auditory and culinary cultures, with particular attention to Shi‘i devotional practices across Turkey, the Caucasus and Iran. His current work explores Muslim foodways in the UK, including food provision, food-aid initiatives and their relationship to Islamic ethics and traditions of care.
Discussants
Professor Rachel Harris
Professor of Music
is Professor of at . Her research centres on China and Central Asia, and especially on Uyghur expressive culture. She has conducted fieldwork in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan over a period of twenty years. Her work focuses on intangible cultural heritage, music and Islam, soundscapes, state projects of territorialisation, and transnational flows of people and culture. She works in applied ways with performance and transmission projects, including concerts, workshops, and recording.
Dr Reza Masoudi-Nejad
Research Associate
is Academic Visitor at and Research Associate in the at . He is an urbanist with a cross-disciplinary background in architecture, urban studies, and anthropology. His research examines urban history and transformation, the spatial logic of crowds and protest, and Shiʿi rituals, particularly the spatial dynamics of Muharram processions in Iranian cities and Mumbai. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, spatial analysis, and historical research, he explores religious rituals and processions as integral to urban dynamics and negotiation.
