narrative, performance, the ethnography of communication, Persianate oral traditions, Islam, Central Asia and the Middle East
Benjamin Gatling is a folklorist specializing in the expressive culture of Central Asia and the Middle East. Prior to coming to Mason, he held a postdoctoral fellowship in the Thompson Writing Program at Duke University, where he was a core faculty member of the Duke Islamic Studies Center. His first book, Expressions of Sufi Culture in Tajikistan, was published by the University of Wisconsin Press in 2018. His research interests include narrative, performance, the ethnography of communication, Persianate oral traditions, and Islam in Central Asia. His current research considers the experiences of Afghan migrants and refugees in the U.S. He serves as associate editor of the Journal of American Folklore and lead list editor of H-Folk, H-Net's network for folklore and ethnology.
2019. “Sufis, Shrines, and the State in Tajikistan,” in “Forum: Sacred Geographies in the Eurasian Space,” eds. Jesko Schmoller and Lili Di Puppo, Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics 13(2), 155-161.
2019. “Islam and Cultural Heritage on Tajik Television,” Central Asian Affairs 6(2), 113-132.
2018. Expressions of Sufi Culture in Tajikistan, University of Wisconsin Press.
2016. “Historical Narrative, Intertextuality, and Cultural Continuity in Post-Soviet Tajikistan,” Journal of Folklore Research 53(1), 41-65.
2015. “Abdulhaĭ Mujaxarfī and the Contemporary Reception of Tajik Oral Poetry.” In Iranian Languages and Literatures of Central Asia: From the 18th Century to the Present, eds. Matteo De Chiara and Evelin Grassi, Paris: Association pour l’Avancement des Études Iraniennes (Cahiers de Studia Iranica, 57), 207-231.
ENGH 315 Introduction to Folklore and Folklife
ENGH 412/590 Personal Experience Narrative
ENGH 412/591 Folklore in the Middle East and Central Asia
ENGH 414/591 Folklore and the Supernatural
ENGH 484 Writing Ethnography
ENGH 591 The Ethnography of Communication
HNRS 360 Contemporary Central Asia
Ph.D. The Ohio State University
M.A. The Ohio State University
B.A. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill