Dr. Ken Chitwood is the new Fritz Thyssen Foundation Post-doctoral Research Fellow with the Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies. His research focuses on Islam in the Americas, Puerto Rican Muslims, Latinx Muslims, translocal religion, intersections of religion & culture, Christian-Muslim relations, global Christianity, Muslim minorities, & ethnographic methods and manifestations of religion-beyond-religion in a digital age. Additionally, he has published work on Judaism in Latin America and the Caribbean, religion and popular culture, and other topics in religious studies.

He received his Ph.D. in American religion and global Islam from the Department of Religion at the University of Florida and its Center for Global Islamic Studies in 2019. He is a journalist-fellow with the University of Southern California’s Center for Religion and Civic Culture and a Lecturer in Islamwissenschaft at Otto Friedrich Universität Bamberg and in Global Christianity with Concordia College New York’s Global Initiative program.

Dr. Chitwood is also an award-winning religion, travel, and culture newswriter and book reviewer. His bylines include work with Newsweek, Salon, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Christianity Today, Public Radio International (PRI), The Guardian, Publishers Weekly, The Times of India, USA Today, Sightings from the University of Chicago, & other publications.

Refereed Journal Publications:

“Muslim AmeRícans: Puerto Rican Muslims in the USA and the Need for More Cosmopolitan Frames of Analysis in the Study of Islam and Muslim Communities in the Americas,” International Journal of Latin American Religions (Fall 2019).

“The ‘Global War on Terror’ & the Tenuous Public Space of Muslims in Latin America and the Caribbean,” Hamsa Journal of Judaic and Islamic Studies, no. 6 (2019).

“The Study of Islam and Muslim Communities in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Americas: the State of the Field,” International Journal of Latin American Religions, (May 8, 2017): 57-76.

“Somalis as Samaritans: A Case Study of Christian-Muslim conflict in eastern Africa among evangelical Kenyan Christians,” Journal of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, (Vol. 28, no. 1 — Spring 2017): 69-84.

“Globalizing the Study of American Islam: Approaches to the field through the lens of globalization theory,” University of Waikato Islamic Studies Review, (Vol 2, no. 2 — Fall 2016): 27-49.

“Review essay: ‘What Hath Cassettes to do with Christianity? Instagram with Islam?,’” African Studies Quarterly, (Vol. 16, Issue 2 — March 2016).

“Islam en Español: The narratives, demographics, & reversion pathways of Latina/o Muslims in the U.S.,” University of Waikato Islamic Studies Review, (Vol 1, no. 2 — Fall 2015): 35-54.

“Building bridges: Toward constructing a Christian foundation for inter-religious relationships in the shift from religious privilege to spiritual plurality,” Missio Apostolica, (Fall/Winter 2014).

Refereed Book Chapters:

Forthcoming: “Dreams of al-Andalus: Latinx Muslims Re-Imagining Race as Quadruple Minorities,” in Routledge Handbook of Islam and Race, edited by Zain Abdullah, Routledge, 2020.

“Latinx Muslims ‘Like’ One Another: Building Community & Seeking Reform through the Navigation of Tensions on Facebook,” Anthropological Perspectives on the Use of Mobile Apps, ed. Jacqueline Fewkes, Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.

“Disciples of the New Digital Religions: Or, How to Make Your ‘Fake’ Religion Real,” in Believing in Bits: Digital Media and the Supernatural, ed. By Simone Natale and Diana Pasulka, Oxford University Press, 2019.

“The Idea of a Global Hero: Global Heroism as a Discursive Tradition?,” Heroism as a Global Phenomenon in Popular Culture, eds. Barbara Korte and Simon Wendt, Routledge, 2019.

“Hero and/or Villain?: ‘The 99,’ mixed reception, & the politics of hybrid religious pop-culture production,” Muslim Superheroes: Comics, Islam, and Representation, ed. By Martin Lund and A. David Lewis, ILEX Foundation, 2017: 170-191.

“American Islam: The study of American Islam from demographic & ethnographic perspectives,” Yearbook of International Religious Demography: 2016, Brill Publishing, 2016: 129-137.

“Our Man in Havana: Turkey’s alter-Islamist agenda in a global context,” Critical Muslim 16: Turkey, London, UK: Hurst Publishers, December, 2015.
 
*Dr. Chitwood has a book manuscript in review, entitled, Islam and Muslim Communities in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Latina/o U.S. – An Introduction. He is also the author of a 2018 e-book series with Gale Researcher covering various topics: Introduction to the Sociology of Religion, The Global Justice Movement, Christianity in the U.S. and World Religions II: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.