Leila Kiknadze - global dis:connect

the centre
- The Käte Hamburger Research Centre global dis:connect, funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space, investigates globalisation as a dynamic process shaped by the interplay of integration, disconnection, and disintegration. Our work focuses on understanding how connections emerge, fail, or remain absent, in both historical and contemporary contexts.
- the centre
research
- global dis:connect approaches globalisation through the lens of dis:connectivity, focusing on absences, detours and interruptions that shape historical and contemporary global processes. Rather than assuming linear integration, we examine the gaps, delays and disruptions that make globalisation uneven and socially significant.
  
  Our research is structured around six key areas – absences, detours, interruptions, laboratories, cultural infrastructures and temporalities – which foster interdisciplinary dialogue without normative assumptions or claims of completeness.
- research
fellows
- The cornerstone of global dis:connect is the fellowship programme, in which approximately ten scholars come to Munich each year. They research dis:connectivity on site and in close contact with the directors and their peers. Fellows also have the opportunity to host workshops on the topics of their research.
- fellows
events
- Here is where to find out about coming events, new publications, press releases and other news from global dis:connect.
- events
outreach
- At global dis:connect, research is meant to circulate. Through publications, media formats and artist events, we connect academic research with public debate and artistic perspectives.
- outreach
  - gd:c blog
  - static
  - podcast
- global dis:connect publishes innovative interventions on dis:connectivity across a range of media, from the blog, which covers the latest news, research and art at gd:c, to static, a periodical containing the best work from within and beyond global dis:connect, in addition to traditional scholarly formats.
- publications
  - aperiodic open-access publications

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Leila Kiknadze

Leila is an associate professor in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Georgia. She has extensive teaching experience and has participated in international academic programs, including research stays and conferences in Europe and the USA. Her work focusses on Islam and modernity, and she has published on contemporary transformations in Islamic discourse.

Disconnected authority: Islamic religious leadership and legitimacy on digital platforms

This project examines how Islamic religious authority is reshaped on TikTok and Instagram, where algorithmic visibility generates new forms of legitimacy beyond the traditional Ulema. Grounded in interpretive, humanities-based analysis, it explores how online preachers craft persuasive narratives, how audiences negotiate competing meanings, and how globalisation and the dynamics of digital space connect and disconnect contemporary Muslim communities.

Have a look at Leila’s research poster about her project.

Contact

Click HERE to mail Leila and HERE for a list of her publications.