Claudia Derichs is a Professor of Comparative Politics and International Development Studies at Philipps University of Marburg. Previously Chair of Political Science at University of Hildesheim 2007-2010 and Assistant Professor at the University Duisburg-Essen. She studied Japanology, Arabic and Social Sciences at the Universities of Bonn, Tokyo and Cairo and is a translator (Diploma) of Japanese and Arabic. She worked as science journalist throughout her studies. She earned PhD at the Free University Berlin, and afterwards served as research fellow at the Universities of Potsdam and Duisburg. Her research focuses on the politics of the Middle East and Southeast Asia as well as political Islam and Gender Studies. A monograph on “Knowledge Production, Area Studies and Global Cooperation” is currently in print with Routledge.
Mobile Muslim Professionals: Transregional Connectivities
This essay introduces “Muslim professionalism” as a concept to examine the multifarious links between Islam and economic activity in the era of post-cold-war globalization and neoliberalism. Adopting a transregional perspective that conflates Muslim realities in Southeast Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East, the essay discusses the interlacing of local, national and global aspects and invites the reader to conceive Muslim professionalism through the lens of spatial mobility and cross-border connectedness.
