The research cluster “Muslim Lives in a Shifting World” seeks to reexamine the tumultuous period around the collapse of the Soviet state through the experiences of Muslims, the largest religious minority in the former Soviet space. By examining Muslim lives in the region from the 1970s to the present, we shed new light on the diversity of lived experiences in a multiethnic, multireligious society during a period of change and transition. 

The 1100th anniversary of the adoption of Islam by the Volga Bulgars, who ruled a multi-ethnic state that existed in what is today the Russian Federation, presents scholars with an opportunity to reexamine the renewed significance of Muslim identities and civil society in Russia; not as the “other,” but rather as a vibrant and inextricable part of a multireligious state. This research cluster project seeks to create a transnational network of scholars from different disciplines and career stages to deliberate on sources that document the everyday lives and experiences of Muslims in Russia since the final decades of the Soviet period.  

The project is guided by three interconnected research questions:   

What new conceptual framework can we develop to capture and critically examine the diversity of social structures, institutions, histories, and discourses that have shaped and were shaped by Muslim experiences and activism in Russia?  
How did Muslim communities in Russia engage with the broader cultural and socio-political developments at the local, national, and international levels?   
How does broad, multilingual, and cross-disciplinary awareness and analysis of published and unpublished sources chronicling Muslim lives in Russia during this tumultuous period enrich scholarly understanding of Russia’s recent history, the contemporary Muslim world and intersecting Muslim identities, and the role of ethnic and religious identity in times of transition?  

Especially from the 1970s on, the Soviet Union saw the emergence of a wide variety of countercultures, an increase in transnational intellectual exchanges, and a desire to nurture and reexamine dormant or new-found identities as individuals and communities. Instead of studying Muslims in isolation, we seek to position them within broader socio-political developments during this period. By doing so, this project will bridge the 1970s with the period of significant reforms and the emergence of independent states. While it is primarily situated in the field of Eurasian Islamic Studies, the interconnectedness of Muslim lives with historical and contemporary events in Russia and the (former) Soviet space as well as globally, makes this project inherently transnational and interdisciplinary. We will therefore approach this period of great change with a diverse group of participants constituting historians, religious studies scholars, ethnographers, librarians, archivists, and sociologists to shed light on the wide range of experiences and responses of Muslim communities.  

This time of transition preceding and following the collapse of the Soviet Union presents scholars in the humanities and related disciplines with significant challenges with documentary sources. Firstly, although Muslims have been an integral part of the region’s history, the ethnic and linguistic diversity of these Muslim communities has yet to be fully explored. By centering Muslims’ stories and examining their engagement with other individuals and communities, as well as with local, national, and international socio-political developments, this project constitutes a critical step in examining their diverse and intersecting identities. Secondly, the fall of the Soviet Union launched memory institutions into a state of chaos, rendering the historical record scattered, inaccessible, and dominated by a limited number of officially sanctioned voices and organizations. The contentious nature of Muslim identities and activism in the late Soviet and post-Soviet period has further exacerbated this sparsity. An interdisciplinary scholarly analysis of sources and collections will provide this diverse group of scholars a common language to examine Muslim lives from a variety of perspectives, threading together discourses in arts and humanities and social sciences. 

A two-day conference in March 2024 will serve as the first step to foster lasting collaborations with scholars in the former Soviet space and the wider Muslim world. By attracting scholars from a variety of backgrounds and career stages, we provide participants a collegial and intellectually stimulating environment to discuss sources and works in progress, and to collaboratively work on high-quality publications. After the conference, the project participants will develop their conference papers into original manuscripts for a two-volume handbook of critical articles about sources that illuminate Muslim lives in late Soviet and contemporary Russia. This handbook will be accessible to scholars as well as general readers and will support multidisciplinary research, teaching, and learning. 

Research Cluster Timeline 

August 2023: Call for proposals is released 
September 2023: Applicants receive notification of acceptance/non-acceptance. Selected participants will be invited to a virtual Meet and Greet event to meet other project participants 
January 2024: Submission of conference papers for pre-circulation to all conference participants 
March 2024: Two-day conference 
December 2024: Participants submit draft manuscripts to editorial board for review 
April 2025: Participants submit final manuscripts for review 
August 2025: Projected publication date for the two-volume handbook of critical articles