David Garbin

Dr. David Garbin is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Kent's School of Social Sciences and Director of the Migration, Ethnicity, Religion and Belonging Research Cluster. His work focuses on migration, transnationalism, religion in urban contexts, and global development. Prior to Kent, he taught at Brunel and Roehampton Universities and conducted research at the University of Surrey's CRONEM.

His doctoral research explored the Bengali Muslim diaspora through fieldwork in London and Bangladesh. Key projects include GCRF-funded studies on religious urbanization in African megacities (e.g., Lagos, Kinshasa) and infrastructural challenges like waste management. He co-edited Ideologies and Infrastructures of Religious Urbanization in Africa (2022) and authored Migration and the Global Landscapes of Religion (2023), examining Congolese diasporic moral worlds.

Research interests span migration, urban religion, globalization, and postcolonial identities. He teaches modules on migration and urban ethnography, supervising students in related fields. Notable collaborations include work with photographer Andrew Esiebo and institutions like the University of Toronto and CNRS in Paris.

His publications analyze topics like neo-Pentecostal infrastructures in Lagos, urbanization's impact on religious spaces, and the role of religion in development narratives. Funding sources include the British Academy, Leverhulme Trust, and Global Challenges Research Fund.