In your eyes, what does it mean to be Muslim? How has the media and popular culture influenced how you see Muslims and Islam? In this session, participants will examine the history and presence of Islam in the United States, and the construction and evolution of U.S. Muslim identity, community, and culture from the colonial era to the present. The incredible racial and ethnic heterogeneity of American Muslim communities; the myriad of ways that Muslim practice (or do not practice) Islam; and how “Muslim” intersects with racial/ethnic categories such as “Arab,” “Asian,” and “Black” will all be explored through open, guided conversation.
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Sylvia Chan-Malik, Ph.D.
Associate Professor in the Departments of American and Women’s and Gender Studies at Rutgers University
Sylvia Chan-Malik, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Departments of American and Women’s and Gender Studies at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. Her research focuses on the history of Islam in the United States, and more broadly, on the intersections of race, gender, and religion in American public life. Her book, Being Muslim: A Cultural History of Women of Color and American Islam (NYU Press, forthcoming Spring 2018) offers an alternative narrative of American Islam in the 20-21st century that centers the lives, subjectivities, and voices of women of color. |
