Since the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Muslim Americans have once again been cast as both threatening “outsiders” as well as examples of what makes the United States a “nation of immigrants.” What do these contestations teach us about how race, nationalism, and globalization shape immigrant identities? Taking Muslim Americans as a case study, this course will examine a range of topics, from everyday boundary-making to ongoing global politics pertaining to different Muslim groups in the United States, often drawing comparison with Muslims in other Western countries. More broadly, the course aims to unpack how various global and local/national forces shape the contours, dimensions, and meanings attached to an identity category. To that end, the course begins with some prominent sociological theories, such as intersectionality, double-consciousness, and Orientalism. We will apply these theoretical lenses to analyze issues of race, globalization, cultural citizenship, media representation, and political integration in Muslim American and immigrant experiences.
Since the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Muslim Americans have once again been cast as both threatening “outsiders” as well as examples of what makes the United States a “nation of immigrants.” What do these contestations teach us about how race, nationalism, and globalization shape immigrant identities? Taking Muslim Americans as a case study, this course will examine a range of topics, from everyday boundary-making to ongoing global politics pertaining to different Muslim groups in the United States, often drawing comparison with Muslims in other Western countries. More broadly, the course aims to unpack how various global and local/national forces shape the contours, dimensions, and meanings attached to an identity category. To that end, the course begins with some prominent sociological theories, such as intersectionality, double-consciousness, and Orientalism. We will apply these theoretical lenses to analyze issues of race, globalization, cultural citizenship, media representation, and political integration in Muslim American and immigrant experiences.
