In this course, we consider how religion and ethnicity interacted and defined communities from medieval to present day Inner Asia. The topics and interests of contemporary scholarship often reflect the concerns and statecraft of the Chinese and Russian empires that historically dominated (and continue to control or influence) the region. Imperial control over Inner Asia assigned various roles to religion and ethnicity: totalizing social and psychological forces, reactive and exclusionary groupings, primitive and pluralistic belief systems, or simply negative.

Using theoretical approaches drawn from literary, religious, and nationalism studies, we critically engage issues such as ethnic and religious identity, religious conversion, inter-ethnic and religious animosity, nationality policies, and the intersection of ethnicity, religion, and gender. We will discuss the Turkic and Mongolian regions of Russia and China as well as Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and Tibet; religions include Buddhism, Islam, shamanism, and secularism.