Ray Kim is a Ph.D. candidate at Georgetown University who works primarily within the field of sociology of religion. His dissertation looks at how and why halal, an Islamic religious and legal category, became a hot button issue in South Korea starting in 2009. By taking a discourse analysis approach, he examines how halal became a contested category with socially constructed meanings, and explores the ways in which a religious category becomes secularized as it becomes interpolated into processes of commodification, industrialization, and globalization.
What happens when we reframing spiritual practices as an "experiment with power"? This week, J. Brent Crosson joins Ray Kim to discuss how we can challenge conventional understandings of religion and law in modern nation-states. Be sure to tune in!
Is the Islamic state simply a reaction against the modern secular nation-state, or is there more to it? Join us as Noah Salomon answers this question among many more as he talks about his book For Love of the Prophet: An Ethnography of Sudan's Islamic State.
This month's Discourse! - with Chris Cotter, Ray Kim, and Theo Wildcroft - kicks off with a festive twist on our now-traditional focus upon Covid-19 to discuss recent relaxations in restrictions in the UK, halal vaccinations, and much more.
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