In this episode, I speak with Dr. Ken Chitwood. Ken is currently doing research on the interesections of ethnography and journalism with the University of Southern California’s Center for Religion and Civic Culture’s Spiritual Exemplars Project and on Latinx Muslim philanthropy with the Muslim Philanthropy Initiative (MPI), an initiative of Lake Institute on Faith and Giving and the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at IUPUI. From 2020-2022, he was the Fritz Thyssen Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures & Societies at Freie Universität Berlin.

He obtained a doctorate from the University of Florida in 2019, where he worked with the Department of Religion and the Center for Global Islamic Studies. His academic work focuses on Islam in the Americas, Puerto Rican Muslims, Latinx Muslims, American religion (including North America, Latin America, and the Caribbean), translocal religion, intersections of religion & culture, Christian-Muslim relations, global Christianity, Muslim minorities, & ethnographic methods and manifestations of religion-beyond-religion in a global and digital age. Additionally, he has published work on Judaism in Latin America and the Caribbean, religion and popular culture, and the theme of global heroism.

He has been reviewing books on Christianity, Islam, religion, anthropology, culture, and history for seven years with Publisher's Weekly, the Houston Chronicle, Reading Religion from the American Academy of Religion, and other scholarly and popular publications. In that time, Ken has read and reviewed over 150 popular books, academic monographs, and edited collections.

In this episode we explore:

Islam in Latin America and the Carribean 

Religious syncretism & the sacred Feminine 

Cosmopolitanism 

Love of neighbor 

Generative frictions and the importance of relational repair 

The benefit of therapy for men 

Much more!

Website: kenchitwood.com