MUSLIM CIRCUITS, WESTERN SPACES

CFP: Panel for 2010 American Anthropological Association, New Orleans,
Nov 17-21.
Organizers: Alisa Perkins (UT Austin) and Dr. Zain Abdullah (Temple University)

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION DEADLINE: March 8, 2010

 The session explores how Muslims are negotiating their identities in
the West through circuits of mutual alliance-building, collective and
personal identity formation, and cultural border crossings. The
diverse ways in which Muslims constitute and are constituted by
western spaces is important for how we comprehend group belonging and
cultural citizenship, among other things. Since 9/11, the idea of a
war between “the West” and “the Islamic world” has profoundly affected
the encounter between Muslims and non-Muslims in places like Europe,
Australia or the United States. Mainstream media portrays Islam as a
doctrine of both faith and terror, creating stereotypes that engender
Islamophobia (a fear of Islam) and anti-Muslim backlash in the western
public sphere. Yet at the same time, we find countervailing trends.
Muslim communities in the West are finding new pathways, transcending
old boundaries and forming new collectivities. These groupings operate
within a range of social, cultural and political realms and entail
national and transnational contexts.

 In light of this year’s theme, Circulation(s), the papers in this
panel will examine Muslim circuits and western spaces by exploring
social, cultural, political, economic or other arenas in which Muslims
and non-Muslims either forge new alliances or maintain old or new
boundaries. This exploration will allow us to theorize, for example,
how religious identity serves at once as a boundary marker; a site of
interface; and a basis for expanded notions of community and self. We
are looking for papers that explore the meaning of these
collectivities or disjunctures along racial, ethnic, class, gender,
sexual, religious, national, or other lines. Papers may also
interrogate points of convergence or departure between Islam and the
secular; ummah (worldwide Muslim community) and civil society;
transnational Islam and national citizenship; Muslim quarters and
community life.

Please contact Alisa Perkins (alisaperkins@gmail.com) with a proposed
title and a 250-300 word abstract, by Monday, March 8th. Authors of
accepted proposals will be notified via email by Monday, March 15th.


Alisa Perkins
Doctoral Candidate
Department of Anthropology
University of Texas at Austin

Zain Abdullah, PhD
Assistant Professor of Religion, Race & Ethnicity
Department of Religion
Temple University