Category Politics of Reception and Location
In my pop culture intervention, I was aiming to answer — or at least ponder — a few personal questions that have bothered me throughout my college career. I think a lot about impacting the community around me, and I spend… Continue Reading →
Questioning cultural authenticity: three case studies This blog portrays my Muslim Popular Culture intervention. The intervention tackles cultural authenticity, as inspired by the class discussion and the “Rebel Music” excerpt on musical authentic identity and regional politics. In an… Continue Reading →
What about Bouazizi’s friend? I believe this is the fourth blog I am writing due to a topic we had previously discussed in class. I promise, our class discussions serve as Narnia doors to a new dimension. They stretch my… Continue Reading →
Discussing intersectionality in academia: approaching women’s rights in the region As a scholar, I have been quite fascinated with approaching gender and women’s rights in the region. Our class has made me think of an infinity of perspectives one can… Continue Reading →
In class on Wednesday, we had a heated discussion about Aliaa Elmahdy’s nude self-photography. What does it mean? What is she trying to portray? Does she accomplish anything? One point raised, which I took particular issue with, was the argument… Continue Reading →
One Thousand and One Nights: Re-orienting the greatest story ever told In the words of Syed Jamil Ahmed, the collection of One Thousand and One Nights or the Arabian Nights is the most famous example of Arabic literature globally…. Continue Reading →
On Feb 17th, I got a chance to interact with Mr. Rizwan “Riz” Ahmed, or Riz MC, a British/Pakistani actor and rapper. His parents moved from Karachi, Pakistan to England during the 1970s. In 1982, they gave birth to… Continue Reading →
Here is a speech Riz gave recently to the British parliament about a topic we’ve all been discussing in our course: the politics of representation. Take a look at the speech, and see if anything he says inspires you to… Continue Reading →
The discussion in class today on cross-cultural dialogue and the politics of representation, both intimately interwoven into location-specific gender narratives, made me think of a binary approach to popular culture and art by some Muslim artists who are of the community they… Continue Reading →