2023-2024 Faculty Research Grant

Paulo Candido de Oliveira (Religion).

Emerging Adult, Technology and Religion: Urban Muslim Meaning-Making Convergence in the Networked Oman. Abstract.

Oman is a majority Muslim country located on the Eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula—sharing borders with the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen—and has developed rapidly since it became a nation-state in 1973. Oil wealth launched the country to an accelerated process of change in its economy, infrastructure, and educational systems with a significant social-religious impact. The Emerging Adult (18-29) population attending college is an under-researched cohort with the unique feature of being raised within a digital ecosystem with ample use of new media. The extended offline-online new reality gives them access to information and global conversations not widely available to previous Omani generations. Consequently, they have reduced social blueprints to serve as guidance to make sense of the world around them in the digital informational era. Since the religion of Islam is central to the Omani culture, this study seeks to understand the intersection of new media, particularly the Internet and mobile phone devices, and religion and how they dialogue as Omani Emerging Adults engage in meaning-making. Data will be collected through qualitative mixed methods, particularly in-depth semi-structured ethnographic interviews. The study sheds light on young Muslims in the Arabian Peninsula and how they are reexamining their faith in the digital age.