Introduction to Special Issue: What is “Critical” about “Critical Coptic Studies”?

In 2018, the St. Athanasius College and the University of Divinity co-hosted an international symposium themed, "Copts in Modernity" in Melbourne, Australia.Focused on the history of the Coptic Orthodox Church and community between the 18th and 21st centuries, the symposium traversed topics from hymnology to monastic dream interpretation."How does an 'ancient culture' develop in the modern world?" was rhetorically asked during the opening night at the St. Athanasius College in the Eporo Tower; a provocative site to think about such a question.With a facade of Coptic stained-glass iconography and positioned on one of the busiest streets of downtown Melbourne, it operated as part of the multicultural landscape, yet also conditioned by colonial and postcolonial histories that geographically and temporally extended beyond this contemporary diasporic context.The tower helped to center discussions throughout the conference about what "modernity" means for transnational Copts today and how methods of "modernization" shape the political, social, and spiritual lives of those who identify (or are identified) as Coptic globally.But, more than a unidirectional positioning of the Copts as an isolated case of modernity's transformative power, the point of inquiry should be refocused to consider how Copts, between Egypt and their many global diasporas, offer Lukasik and AkladiosExchange 54 (2025) 1-15 ground for broader conversations between history, theology, anthropology, political science, public policy, and foreign policy.In recent years, Roman Catholic Studies began to address a general sense of intellectual marginalization.Scholars within that field are asking: "Was Roman Catholic Studies simply a specialized, esoteric conversation among a particular group of scholars, or did the study of Roman Catholicism have something distinctive to contribute to larger questions about religion and human culture, about violence, philosophical meaning, and human flourishing"?1 Bridging from anthropologist Valentina Napolitano's understanding of "Critical Catholic Studies",2 such an approach to Coptic Studies is important to explore because the Copts and the Coptic Orthodox Church are important political subjects in studies of transnational migration, governmentality, comparative minority politics, and beyond.This special issue moves toward a more robust conversation about the approaches and assumptions that have limited the scope of Coptic Studies.Contributors unpack the unique contributions a "Critical Coptic Studies" might offer to the field and other scholarly discussions elsewhere.Challenging the underlying assumptions of a field called "Coptic Studies," and the study of Coptic life worlds, articles trace the articulation of Egypt's modern nation-state formation, the Coptic experience before and following global migrations, and the political, religious, and social positionalities of Copts.Beyond the Copts, we invite reflection on more scaled themes of state-minority relations; migration and displacement; diasporic long-distance nationalism(s); religion and violence; as well as theology and globalization.Adopting a thematic approach, contributors to this issue explore the variable opportunities and constraints affecting people's social worlds and mobilities.We imagine the rich conversations started here as a launching point for fruitful interdisciplinary dialogue and layered interrogations that take seriously the varied stories of active subjects who are not marginal, but rather a part of living cultures enmeshed in global transformations. 1The Fundamental Predicaments of Thinking with "Modern" CoptsThe interdisciplinary field of Coptic Studies -defined broadly as literature that takes as its central focus Coptic Christians in Egypt and its diasporasoften approach the Church and community as if Coptic populations exist in 5 Marsot, Egypt in the Reign of Muhammad Ali.Originally published in 1979 and revised in Peter Gran, Islamic Roots of Capitalism.Accounting for Egyptian development in global perspective, Gran argued that modern Egypt, much like Italy and Spain, emerged out of its own internal dynamic in the context of the world market.