Su'ad Abdul Khabeer
Please join me in congratulating Su’ad Abdul Khabeer, assistant professor of anthropology and African American Studies, on her book, Muslim Cool: Race, Religion and Hip Hop in the United States (NYU Press 2016), published this month. Based on her ethnographic research, Su’ad’s book illustrates the concept of “Muslim Cool”, which is when black and non-black Muslims construct their unique identities as American Muslims through hip hop music and culture. Su’ad charts Muslim Cool in the ideas, dress and social activism of young and multiethnic American Muslims as well as in their complex relationships to state power.
Su’ad’s book is accompanied by a performance ethnography, Sampled: Beats of Muslim Life. This solo performance presents and represents her research and findings to diverse audiences in a way that disrupts accepted narratives on race and gender, religion, popular culture, and citizenship in the contemporary United States.
Su’ad leads the digital humanities project, www.sapelosquare.com, the first website dedicated to the comprehensive documentation and analysis of the African American Muslim experience. She has written for TheRoot.com, The Washington Post, trans-missions.org, Huffington Post and Ebony magazine as a part of their tribute to Muhammad Ali. Su’ad is also a Senior Project Advisor for the award-winning U.S. Public Television documentary, New Muslim Cool. Her poetry was featured in the anthology Living Islam Out Loud: American Muslim Women Speak.
She was recently invited to share her expert opinion on “Muslim Bans” in The Atlantic and on Religion, Secularism and Black Lives Matter for The Immanent Frame.
Congratulations, Dr. Khabeer!
David A. Reingold
Justin S. Morrill Dean
College of Liberal Arts