What does it mean to say that race, religion, or even history are “constructed”?

This week introduces Africana Religious Studies and the idea of diaspora as a way of thinking about identity—not as something fixed, but something shaped through movement, displacement, and power. Drawing on the work of Charles Long, we’ll explore how African-descended peoples have continually remade meaning in the wake of rupture—and why that matters for understanding religion today.

This session explores how music became a central vehicle for diasporic connection across the Atlantic world and beyond, drawing on Long, Paul Gilroy, as well as the work of ethnomusicologists of West African music. It interrogates authenticity, gatekeeping, and the ways Black sound has been both commodified and used to imagine global belonging.

Set in 1970s New York, this week places hip hop in the context of migration, urban crisis, and the creative responses of Black communities. We’ll explore how Black Muslim movements like the Nation of Islam and the Five Percent Nation helped shape hip hop’s early worldview—giving it a language for spirituality, identity, and political critique.

In this final week, we explore how artists—from Rakim to Central Cee—have built transnational audiences using sounds, styles, and references that draw on Islamic cultures. As hip hop becomes increasingly commercial and global, we’ll ask a bigger question: is Islam in hip hop functioning as theology, cultural identity, political critique—or all three at once?