Calendar Entry

Charles Hirschkind: Sounds of Virtue and Vice. Acoustic Worldmaking in Contemporary Cairo

Lecture and Discussion at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin

The sermons of religious preachers sold on tapes, as MP3 files or on CDs are ubiquitous in the Cairo of today. How do they change the city? In his lecture, the anthropologist Charles Hirschkind, who is currently a fellow at the American Academy Berlin, investigates the production of these sounds and the aural tradition in Islam. He asks how Muslim cassette preachers continue this tradition today and how they are used to create Islamic forms of socialization. Following the lecture, Hirschkind discusses the topic with Werner Schiffauer, Professor of Comparative Cultural and Social Anthropology at the European University Viadrina.

The lecture and discussion are the public part of an internal workshop taking place in connection with the Haus der Kulturen der Welt. Berlin-based academics and scientists are invited to the workshop to address the significance of the religious for the permanent (re)production of the urban space.

Published: 24.04.2013