Anne M. Harris is Senior Lecturer at Monash University, and researches in the areas of creativity, performance and diversity.

This book explores the intersection between faith, religion and performing arts in culture-based youth groups. The co-constitutive identity-building work of music, performance, and drama for Samoan and Sudanese youth in church contexts has given rise to new considerations of diversity, cultural identity and the religious practices and rituals that inform them. Culture-specific churches provide a safe if "imagined community" in which young people can express these emerging identities, which move beyond simple framings like "multicultural" to explicitly include faith practices. The book also examines the ways in which diasporic experiences are reshaping these identities and locations.

Introduction: About This Book

Section 1: Samoan Mediascapes and Faith-as-Performance

Section 1 Overview

1. Education and the Creative Imaginary

2. God Culture and the Capacity to In/Aspire

3. Semblance and Praisesong

Section 2: Religion, Art and a South Sudanese Post-National Imaginary

Section 2 Overview

4. Imagining New Individualities / New Collectivities

5. The Art of Gender in South Sudanese Mediated Diasporas

6. Meaning and "Madolescence"

Conclusion