Nadiya Nur Ali, Assistant Professor
B.A. (University of Toronto), M.A. (Carleton University), Ph.D. (York University)
Durham Campus, DUR - A186, nadiyaali@trentu.ca
Classes I teach at Trent:
- SOCI 2110H - Discovering Social Theory
- SOCI 3661H – Ethnicities, Racism, Multiculturalism
- SOCI 4620H – Advance Studies in Social Policy
My research interests include:
I have long been fascinated by the ‘puzzle’ of the social world and the intricate web of relations that comprise our social milieu. This fascination has led to the pursuit of a multidisciplinary international social science career, with a focus on race, racialization, cultural production, and community-action research. I have given particular attention to examining and innovatively supporting the pathways of resistance and subject-formation that come to be carved out by populations sitting on the receiving end of racializing and marginalizing structures, with particular attention given to Anti-Black Islamophobia/Anti-Muslim Racism.
More broadly – my scholarship is in conversation with and continues to be informed by Black Studies, Critical Ethnic Studies, and Critical Muslim Studies.
My current or recent projects include:
Anti-Black Islamophobia (ABI): Community-Based Learning Series
Working in close collaboration with the National Council for Canadian Muslims (NCCM) and TDSB’s Center of Excellence for Black Student Achievement (CEBSA) an Anti-Black Islamophobia (ABI) education series is currently in development. This educational series includes research informed curriculum development, educator resources and toolkit consolidation, and primarily/secondary student learning opportunities.
Racialized Affect and Community-based Photovoice project
Everyday Islamophobia was a community-based exhibit that asked participants to hand-sketch “how Islamophobia felt in the everyday to them?”. Dedicated to unpacking the field of racialized emotion, the research project was motivation by the brilliance of the community-based initiative. The research project was conducted in collaboration with the curator of the initiative to explore racialized emotion.
Community-Engaged Project: (Re)Imagining possibilities of place, voice and belonging
In a recent publication in the Journal of Critical Race Inquiry, my scholarship was situated within the intersection of cultural studies and the politics of racialized exclusion, asking what (re)imaginings and possibilities of place, voice, and emancipation are available to those who experience Islamophobia in the everyday. Through an ethnographic study of the I grapple with the possibilities of creative agency available for racialized and increasingly securitized subjects.
Autoethnographic Project: Not My Islamophobia
First presented in the 2017 International Islamophobia Conference held in UC-Berkeley, my co-authors and I provide first-person testimonials of our Islamophobic encounters to explore questions of intersectionality and racialization. As three Muslim women with rather varying social locations, we ask how does the systemic demarcation of Muslim subjectivities, across racial, ethnic, class, regional, and lines of ‘practice’, interact with how Islamophobia comes to be experienced? The research also aimed to particularly speak to the intersection of anti-blackness in the “production” and “disciplining order” of Islamophobia, pushing past an aggregated sense of an orientalized “brown” subject that tends to implicitly, and at times explicitly, underlie scholarly questions revolving around Muslim exclusion.
Five publications that exemplify my work:
Ali, N. N. (2018). “Emancipation in an Islamophobic Age: Finding agency in nonrecognition, refusal, and self-recognition." Journal of Critical Race Inquiry, 5(1):1-26. https://doi.org/10.24908/jcri.v5i1.6567
Ali, N. N & Anane-Bediakoh, B. (Jul 2020). Anti-Blackness is by design not by accident. ByBlacks
Ali, N. N, Mire, Y. H., El Sharif, L. (2021) “Not My Islamophobia: An autoethnographic approach.” ReOrient– forthcoming.
Ali, N. N., Emi, A, Ibrahim, D. (2022). “Everyday Islamophobia: A Toronto Photovoice Project.” Identities: Journal for Politics, Gender and Culture - forthcoming.
Anane-Bediakoh, B & Ali, N. N. “Unpacking White Supremacy: Racial Violence and the Politics of Non- Human and the Note-quite Human” [In Review]
What achievements and/or contributions in research are you most proud of?
I am most proud of the research I have conducted and collaborated with in conjunction with community. I find community-engaged research incredibly fulfilling and generative to the critical research production process.