Muslim American Women on Campus: Undergraduate Social Life and Identity

by Shabana Mir

Overview

Shabana Mir’s powerful ethnographic study of women on Washington, D.C., college campuses reveals that being a young female Muslim in post-9/11 America means experiencing double scrutiny—scrutiny from the Muslim community as well as from the dominant non-Muslim community. Muslim American Women on Campus illuminates the processes by which a group of ethnically diverse American college women, all identifying as Muslim and all raised in the United States, construct their identities during one of the most formative times in their lives.
Mir, an anthropologist of education, focuses on key leisure practices — drinking, dating, and fashion — to probe how Muslim American students adapt to campus life and build social networks that are seamlessly American, Muslim, and youthful. In this lively and highly accessible book, we hear the women’s own often poignant voices as they articulate how they find spaces within campus culture as well as their Muslim student communities to grow and assert themselves as individuals, women, and Americans. Mir concludes, however, that institutions of higher learning continue to have much to learn about fostering religious diversity on campus.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469610801
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	01/02/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Shabana Mir is assistant professor of anthropology at American Islamic College.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

1 Introduction 1

2 Muslim American Women in Campus Culture 30

3 I Didn't Want to Have That Outcast Belief about Alcohol Walking the Tightrope of Alcohol in Campus Culture 47

4 You Can't Really Look Normal and Dress Modestly Muslim Women and Their Clothes on Campus 87

5 Let Them Be Normal and Date Muslim American Undergraduate Women in Sexualized Campus Culture 126

6 Conclusion 173

Glossary 185

Appendix The Research Participants 187

References 189

Index 201

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Important, timely, and provocative. Mir reveals the struggle of Muslim American women to negotiate identities in the gaze of both the dominant and Muslim communities.” — Michelle Fine, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York

“A delightful and powerful read. Mir explores Muslim women’s navigation of identity in the higher education context and finds that it is rich and generative, as well as troubling and alienating. The diverse perspectives of these women illuminate the many ways in which concepts of agency, modesty, normalcy, and practice are framed in contemporary society.” — Sally Campbell Galman, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

“Shabana Mir’s impressive book focuses on a very important way in which Muslims are locating their identity in the American milieu and responding to it, even as they shape it. In particular, she shifts attention to the university campus, among the most important sites where Muslim identity is being constructed and challenged.” — Omid Safi, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Editorial Reviews

“Thought-provoking and timely . . . the book offers a nuanced, frank voice to issues seldom discussed so openly and a bracing challenge to academic communities, especially multicultural, religious, and women’s studies scholars, as well as general readers.” — Publishers Weekly

“The reticence Mir found on both campuses is unfortunate in a university setting, where dialogue and mutual understanding should be the norm.” — Washington Post

“Extremely accessible. . . . Highly recommended. All levels/libraries.” — CHOICE

“The social insights of Mir’s work - especially the reflections of a minority group on majority campus culture - and the approachable writing style make this text particularly useful to scholars of education and policy makers.” — Anthropology & Education Quarterly

“Important, timely, and provocative. Mir reveals the struggle of Muslim American women to negotiate identities in the gaze of both the dominant and Muslim communities.” — Michelle Fine, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York

“A delightful and powerful read. Mir explores Muslim women’s navigation of identity in the higher education context and finds that it is rich and generative, as well as troubling and alienating. The diverse perspectives of these women illuminate the many ways in which concepts of agency, modesty, normalcy, and practice are framed in contemporary society.” — Sally Campbell Galman, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

“Shabana Mir’s impressive book focuses on a very important way in which Muslims are locating their identity in the American milieu and responding to it, even as they shape it. In particular, she shifts attention to the university campus, among the most important sites where Muslim identity is being constructed and challenged.” — Omid Safi, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

From the Publisher