The Person of the Author

This article uses quantitative and qualitative methods to explore persistent gender biases in fifteen years of book reviews in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion (2006–2020). The JAAR has historically reviewed books by men and relied on male reviewers out of proportion to their share of the academy’s membership. Although these rates have shifted toward balance over time, sexist biases in reviewers’ language and citation practices persist. Continue reading in The Journal of the American Academy of Religion.

The Subject of Ethics

Americans disagree profoundly over our nation’s founding ideals. Some insist that its founding principles are sound and generally govern the polity well. Others laud the egalitarian norms set forth in foundational documents but acknowledge that such aspirational ideals have far outpaced the ability or will of powerful elites to uphold them. Still others note a fundamental contradiction between abstract proclamations of universal rights and the realities of territorial theft, genocide, and enslavement on which such grand notions have depended. Continue reading at Contending Modernities.

No Manthology is an Island

Over the last few years, all-male panels (a.k.a. manels) and overwhelmingly male (or even all-male) conferences have drawn ire, frustration, and well-deserved mockery. Less frequently noted, though still depressingly common, are all or mostly male collective publications—what Mara Benjamin has called manthologies. Continue reading at Feminist Studies in Religion @ The Table.

The Politics of Citation

For the last couple of years, I’ve been working on a book about the gender politics of academic Islamic Studies. Islamic Studies is a contested and fluid field overlapping philology, area studies, religious studies, and theology. It’s also a microcosm of broader debates over professional formation, discrimination, and what constitutes legitimate scholarship. Continue reading at Gender Avenger.

Romance Fiction in the Archives

In May 2017, the Popular Culture Association (PCA), in coordination with the Ray and Pat Browne Popular Culture Library (PCL) at Bowling Green State University hosted its second Summer Research Institute. Two dozen scholars spent four glorious days digging in the collections of the PCL and the Bill Schurk Sound Archives. My fellow researchers included graduate students, independent scholars, and professors. Continue reading at Journal of Popular Romance Studies.

Redeeming Slavery: The 'Islamic State' and the Quest for Islamic Morality

In February 2015, journalist Graeme Wood caused a stir with “What ISIS Really Wants,” published in The Atlantic. Wood’s article focuses on the Islamic State’s apocalyptic religious vision, since analyzed more fully by Will McCants. Among other things, Wood asserts that the group is, as Bernard Haykel puts it, “smack in the middle of the medieval tradition,” which includes things that shock and repulse observers, Muslim and non-Muslim alike—including, it seems, savage violence and slavery. Continue reading at Mizan.

Embracing the Veil–If Only For One Day (a.k.a, that time I ran a 5K in an X-Men costume)

“You’re scaring me, hovering over me like that,” said the stranger sitting at one end of the bench. I had a foot propped on the other end to stretch my hamstring. He and I had just finished a local fundraising 5K with a “Heroes and Villains” theme. I had chosen to run as Dust, a face-veil-and-abaya-wearing X-Men character who happens to be Muslim. I told him this and pointed out, “I’m a hero, not a villain.” Continue reading at Cognoscenti

just say yes: law, consent, and muslim feminist ethics

Muslim legal texts do several things simultaneously, some on purpose, some unavoidably. They respond to and express the social assumptions of their authors. They address scriptural texts and precedent. They respond to real social needs. They try to avoid internal contradictions – seemingly contradicting scripture, treating similar cases differently – in ways that leave their positions open to criticism and refutation. Continue reading in A Jihad For Justice

My Neighbor’s Faith: Belief-O-Matic and Me

According to the Internet, I am 100 percent Reform Jew. This came as something of a surprise to me since I’m a Muslim.

Let me explain. In the wake of Sept. 11, I was invited to contribute an essay to a short book on Islam sponsored by the religion website Beliefnet. I poked around the site and came across the Belief-o-Matic quiz, which uses 20 theological and social questions to pinpoint “what religion (if any) you practice ... or ought to consider practicing.” Continue reading at Huffington Post

Troubleshooting Post-9/11 America

American imperialism and the war on terror loom large in today’s popular romances. Military romances featuring spec-ops warriors and their terrorist enemies appeal to, reflect on, and sometimes critique patriotic ideals. Sheikh heroes and monstrous Muslim men provide seemingly opposed yet actually interdependent Orientalist fantasies of racialized Arab/Middle Eastern masculinity. Bestselling author Suzanne Brockmann, known for her inclusive characters and plotlines, addresses these themes in her Troubleshooters series (2000-present). Continue reading at Journal of Popular Romance Studies