Borícua Muslims: Everyday Cosmopolitanism among Puerto Rican Converts to Islam Register here.Join us when Dr Ken Chitwood, (Universität Bayreuth and the University of Southern California), discusses his book 'Borícua Muslims: Everyday Cosmopolitanism among Puerto Rican Converts to Islam' (University of Texas Press 2025).About the book:The stories and struggles of Puerto Rican Muslims in modern day America. Among Puerto Rican converts to Islam, marginalization is a fact of daily life. Their “authenticity” is questioned by other Muslims and by fellow Borícua on the island and in the United States. At the same time, they exist under the shadow of US colonization and as Muslims in the context of American empire. To be a Puerto Rican Muslim, then, is to negotiate identity at numerous intersections of diversity and difference.Drawing on years of ethnographic research and more than a hundred interviews conducted in Puerto Rico, New York, Florida, Texas, New Jersey, and online, Ken Chitwood tells the story of Puerto Rican Muslims as they construct a shared sense of peoplehood through everyday practices. Borícua Muslims thus provides a study of cosmopolitanism not as a political ideal but as a mundane social reality—a reality that complicates scholarly and public conversations about race, ethnicity, and religion in the Americas. Expanding the geography of global Islam and recasting the relationship between religion and Puerto Rican culture, Borícua Muslims is an insightful reckoning with the manifold entanglements of identity amid late-modern globalization.Biographies:Ken Chitwood is a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer with the Department for the Study of Religion at Universität Bayreuth, where he is a co-principal investigator, with Kholoud Al Ajarma (University of Edinburgh), of the DFG/UKRI-funded project "The Global Landscapes of Muslim Lives: Latin American and Caribbean Intersections.” He is also an Affiliate Researcher with the University of Southern California’s Center for Religion and Civic Culture. He is the author of 'The Muslims of Latin America and the Caribbean' (Lynne Rienner 2021) and 'Boricua Muslims: Everyday Cosmopolitanism Among Puerto Rican Converts to Islam' (University of Texas Press 2025), as well as editor of ;Engaged Spirituality: Stories of Religious Resilience, Inspiration, and Pursuing the Common Good' (forthcoming, Bloomsbury Academic 2026). Please note that photography may take place at the event and that these photos may be used on our website and social media platforms or in printed publicity material to promote the Alwaleed Centre's activities. Please speak to the event organisers or photographers if you do not wish to be photographed. Please email thealwaleedcentre@ed.ac.uk if you have any questions or concerns about the event. Tags The Alwaleed Centre Feb 12 2026 13.30 - 15.00 Borícua Muslims: Everyday Cosmopolitanism among Puerto Rican Converts to Islam Join us when Dr Ken Chitwood, (Universität Bayreuth and the University of Southern California), discusses his book 'Borícua Muslims: Everyday Cosmopolitanism among Puerto Rican Converts to Islam' (University of Texas Press 2025). Project Room, 1.06, 50 George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9LH. 50 George Square Registration
Borícua Muslims: Everyday Cosmopolitanism among Puerto Rican Converts to Islam Register here.Join us when Dr Ken Chitwood, (Universität Bayreuth and the University of Southern California), discusses his book 'Borícua Muslims: Everyday Cosmopolitanism among Puerto Rican Converts to Islam' (University of Texas Press 2025).About the book:The stories and struggles of Puerto Rican Muslims in modern day America. Among Puerto Rican converts to Islam, marginalization is a fact of daily life. Their “authenticity” is questioned by other Muslims and by fellow Borícua on the island and in the United States. At the same time, they exist under the shadow of US colonization and as Muslims in the context of American empire. To be a Puerto Rican Muslim, then, is to negotiate identity at numerous intersections of diversity and difference.Drawing on years of ethnographic research and more than a hundred interviews conducted in Puerto Rico, New York, Florida, Texas, New Jersey, and online, Ken Chitwood tells the story of Puerto Rican Muslims as they construct a shared sense of peoplehood through everyday practices. Borícua Muslims thus provides a study of cosmopolitanism not as a political ideal but as a mundane social reality—a reality that complicates scholarly and public conversations about race, ethnicity, and religion in the Americas. Expanding the geography of global Islam and recasting the relationship between religion and Puerto Rican culture, Borícua Muslims is an insightful reckoning with the manifold entanglements of identity amid late-modern globalization.Biographies:Ken Chitwood is a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer with the Department for the Study of Religion at Universität Bayreuth, where he is a co-principal investigator, with Kholoud Al Ajarma (University of Edinburgh), of the DFG/UKRI-funded project "The Global Landscapes of Muslim Lives: Latin American and Caribbean Intersections.” He is also an Affiliate Researcher with the University of Southern California’s Center for Religion and Civic Culture. He is the author of 'The Muslims of Latin America and the Caribbean' (Lynne Rienner 2021) and 'Boricua Muslims: Everyday Cosmopolitanism Among Puerto Rican Converts to Islam' (University of Texas Press 2025), as well as editor of ;Engaged Spirituality: Stories of Religious Resilience, Inspiration, and Pursuing the Common Good' (forthcoming, Bloomsbury Academic 2026). Please note that photography may take place at the event and that these photos may be used on our website and social media platforms or in printed publicity material to promote the Alwaleed Centre's activities. Please speak to the event organisers or photographers if you do not wish to be photographed. Please email thealwaleedcentre@ed.ac.uk if you have any questions or concerns about the event. Tags The Alwaleed Centre Feb 12 2026 13.30 - 15.00 Borícua Muslims: Everyday Cosmopolitanism among Puerto Rican Converts to Islam Join us when Dr Ken Chitwood, (Universität Bayreuth and the University of Southern California), discusses his book 'Borícua Muslims: Everyday Cosmopolitanism among Puerto Rican Converts to Islam' (University of Texas Press 2025). Project Room, 1.06, 50 George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9LH. 50 George Square Registration
Feb 12 2026 13.30 - 15.00 Borícua Muslims: Everyday Cosmopolitanism among Puerto Rican Converts to Islam Join us when Dr Ken Chitwood, (Universität Bayreuth and the University of Southern California), discusses his book 'Borícua Muslims: Everyday Cosmopolitanism among Puerto Rican Converts to Islam' (University of Texas Press 2025).
