Instructor: Nurhaizatul Jamil
This course aims to ethnographically examine the relation among pious subject-formation, race, and gender as they relate to Muslim women’s social media engagements. We will interrogate the ways that Muslim women function as objects of discourses on secularism versus Islamic discursive traditions, and as agents of Islamization – within a climate of intensified Islamophobia and digital surveillance. How do we understand Muslim women’s social media practices as part of their reclamation of narratives of self-representation? What forms of religious authorities are fractured or consolidated, and how do they affect emergent modes of sociality?
This class requires familiarity with social media platforms. Students interested in the course should email the instructor at njamil@hds.harvard.edu, and submit a paragraph detailing their interest in the class, current or past research experience tied to social media, and future career or scholarly trajectories pertaining to social media. Please send the paragraphs by January 15th, 2022. Selected students will be notified by January 18th, 2022.