This blog sits at an intersection of a lot of different subjects and interests. It's a blog about China. It's a blog about Islam. It's a blog about urban life. It's a blog about culture. It's a blog about food. It's a blog about travel. It's a blog about ethnicity. You get the point. However, it is primarily become a vehicle for me to talk about the work that I do, and the places that I do it in. I would be remiss, therefore, if I did not take a brief moment to acknowledge the huge intellectual debt that I (and so many other contemporary scholars of ethnicity and nationalism) owe to Benedict Anderson, who passed away last night. Anderson's book, Imagined Communities, was (and continues to be) a groundbreaking and influential in the field, and all of social science for that matter. It's a touchstone work read by every aspiring scholar in the field, and a measuring stick for many of the rest of us who hope to make a career studying and writing about identity, ethnicity, and nationalism. While I never met him, I realize that my own work would not be possible if not for the foundations that he laid and on which we all continue to build and improve.
Remembering Benedict Anderson
David R. Stroup