Manja Stephan-Emmrich is a junior professor of Islam in Asian and African Societies at the Institute for Asian and African Studies at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (Germany). She is also a Principal Investigator at the Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies. Her main focus of interest covers the anthropology of transregional Islam in post-Soviet Central Asia. Linking youth studies with Islamic education, cross-border migration and Muslim entrepreneurship, her current research explores the entangled study and work trajectories of Tajik graduates from Islamic universities in the Middle East and investigates the work-piety nexus in the graduates’ Dubai business activities and mobile livelihoods. She has published several articles and book chapters on Islamic lifestyles, education, migration/mobility, and on the Tajik ‘Dubai business’.
Mobile Muslim Professionals: Transregional Connectivities
This essay introduces “Muslim professionalism” as a concept to examine the multifarious links between Islam and economic activity in the era of post-cold-war globalization and neoliberalism. Adopting a transregional perspective that conflates Muslim realities in Southeast Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East, the essay discusses the interlacing of local, national and global aspects and invites the reader to conceive Muslim professionalism through the lens of spatial mobility and cross-border connectedness.
