In the early 20th century, Central Asia and Xinjiang—two Muslim-majority regions with a shared history—fell under the rule of two communist states, the USSR and China. Both states facilitated the emergence of local nations while launching aggressive secularization policies aimed at suppressing local Islamic beliefs and practices. This course takes a comparative approach to the interwoven trajectories of Islam, nation-building, and secularization in Central Asia and Xinjiang. In so doing, it pursues two overarching objectives. The first is to trace the major historical events that have shaped these regions since the late 19th century. The second is to examine the main theoretical frameworks scholars have employed to better understand these historical transformations. Key conceptual questions explored in this course include: What is nationalism and how did Central Asian nations emerge? What is Islam as an object of scholarly inquiry? What is secularism, and how does it shape and regulate religion? How did Soviet and Chinese secularization campaigns transfigure Islam in Central Asia and Xinjiang? What forces facilitate the ongoing ethnocide of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang?