Muslim Masculinities:

Muslim Masculinities: Gender, Religion, and the Everyday brings together Penn, national, and international scholars examining Muslim masculinities in all their complexities within and beyond the United States. While there has been extensive focus on Islam and gender, it has been predominantly in relation to femininities. This conference intervenes in the dominant discourse by shifting the conversation to Muslim masculinities. We seek to theorize Muslim masculinity not only as an embodied performance and discursive representation, but also as a practice of power, de-linked from the male body. Hence, we will bring together scholars across the disciplines of religious studies, anthropology, political science, literature, history, and gender, sexuality and women’s studies whose work examines masculine posturing by women, nation-states, religious groups, and/or development organizations. Relatedly, we will also examine militant masculinities enacted by both men and women. This symposium will be a forum for people to share current work and discuss issues and concerns, and to plan future directions for collaborative research.

This event is co-sponsored by the departments of Political Science, History, Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations, English, and Anthropology, South Asia Center, Africana Studies/Center for Africana Studies, South Asia Studies, Middle East Center, the Education, Culture, and Society Program (GSE) and Social Policy and Practice.

Schedule: Please Note Updated Times

• 9:30AM – 10:00AM: Breakfast
• 10:00AM - 10:15AM: Welcome, Kathleen Brown, Director of the Alice Paul Center & GSWS Program
• 10:15AM - 10:30AM: Why Muslim Masculinities? Framing our Conversations, Shenila Khoja-Moolji, University of Pennsylvania
• 10:30AM - 12:00PM: Masculinities in the Making
  • Na dupatta sar pe, na paon mein jhuti, bhagi baar: Queering Islam, Amanullah De Sondy, University College Cork, Ireland
  • Bodies of Terror: Constructions of Gender and Muslimness, Arshad Ali, George Washington University - CANCELLED
  • Dare to Care: Labor and the Making of Working-Class Men in Urban Egypt, Farha Ghannam, Swarthmore College
  • Masculinity and Authenticity in the American Muslim Blogosphere, Sadaf Jaffer, Princeton University
• 12:00PM - 12:30PM: Lunch
• 12:30PM - 2:15PM: Masculinity, Violence, and Affective Economies
  • Killing Children, Honour Crimes, and Queer Masculinity in the Making of War, Natalie Kouri-Towe, University of Pittsburgh
  • Constructing the Terrorist-Monster in the News: Muslim masculinities and Mediatized Culture-Talk, Mariam Durrani, Hamilton College
  • Western Foreign Fighters and the Islamic State, Joshua Roose, Australian Catholic University, Australia
  • Sporting Cultures between “model minority” and “terrorist", Stanley Thangaraj, City College of NewYork
  • Sexual economies of war and sexual technologies of the body: Militarised Muslim masculinity and the Islamist production of concubines for the caliphate, Fatima Seedat, University of Cape Town
• 2:15PM—2:30PM: Reflections, Remarks by Jamal Elias, University of Pennsylvania
• 2:30PM - 4:00PM: Moderated Discussion& QA : Panelists & Audience
• 4:00PM – 5:00PM: Reception