Joanne Waghorne: Singapore, Spirituality, and the Space of the State

Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs 

South Asia Center presents

Singapore, Spirituality, and the Space of the State

Singapore, Spirituality, and the Space of the State (Bloomsbury, 2020) examines spirituality in Singapore, particularly the ways in which formal religious spaces have been geographically confined, while “spiritual” organizations are allowed to operate in multiple sites including commercial venues, and even on the streets. Importantly, the state has also constructed an overarching spatial regime claiming secularity but configured mythologically. Both spatial configurations challenge relationships between myth and reality, religion and commerce, the sacred and the secular. Singapore offers an important understanding of a new post-secularity. In this conversation, author Drs. Joanne Waghorne and Emily Stokes-Rees, professor of Museum Studies at SU will discuss the role of the State in religion and the urban geography of Singapore.

Dr. Joanne Waghorne

Professor of Religion, Syracuse University

Emily Stokes-Rees

Associate Professor of Museum Studies and Director of the School of Design

Syracuse University

For more information or to request additional accommodation arrangements, please contact Emera Bridger Wilson, elbridge@syr.edu.