Shenila Khoja-Moolji

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Shenila Khoja-Moolji is the Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani Endowed Chair of Muslim Societies and an Associate Professor at Georgetown University. [1] She is a Shia Ismaili Muslim scholar known for her scholarship on Muslims, gender, and Pakistan studies.

Contents

Khoja-Moolji is the author of several books that have won awards from international academic associations. Her books include: Forging the Ideal Educated Girl: The Production of Desirable Subjects in Muslim South Asia (University of California Press, 2018); Sovereign Attachments: Masculinity, Muslimness, and Affective Politics in Pakistan (University of California Press, 2021); Rebuilding Community: Displaced Women and the Making of a Shia Ismaili Muslim Sociality (Oxford University Press, 2023); and The Impossibility of Muslim Boyhood (University of Minnesota Press, 2024).

Early life and education

Khoja-Moolji grew up in Hyderabad, Pakistan. [2] She belongs to Sindhi Khowaja community, she speaks Sindhi language, [3] She received a scholarship from the United World Colleges to do an International Baccalaureate. [2] She studied at Brown University, Harvard University, and Columbia University. [2]

Career

Between 2016 and 2018, Khoja-Moolji was a postdoctoral and visiting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania’s Alice Paul Center for Research on Gender, Sexuality and Women. [4] In 2018, she joined the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies program at Bowdoin College, where she earned early tenure and promotion within three and a half years.[ citation needed ] In 2022, Khoja-Moolji was appointed as the Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani Associate Professor of Muslim societies, a tenured and endowed chair position,[ citation needed ] at Georgetown University. [1]

Khoja-Moolji is known for her theorizations of Muslim girlhood, which includes several articles that analyze the portrayal of Malala Yousafzai and the politics of international development campaigns. [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]

Her first book, Forging the Ideal Educated Girl: The Production of Desirable Subjects in Muslim South Asia , published by the University of California Press (2018), is a genealogy of the ‘educated girl.’ The book shows how girl's education is a site of struggle for multiple groups—from national to religious elites—through which they construct gender, class, and religious identities. [10] [11] [12] The book was published in the Islamic Humanities open-access series. [13] The book won the 2019 Jackie Kirk Outstanding Book Award from the Comparative and International Education Society. [14]

Her second book, Sovereign Attachments: Masculinity, Muslimness, and Affective Politics in Pakistan , also published the University of California Press (2021), re-theorizes sovereignty by drawing on affect, cultural, and religious studies. [15] [16] The book won the Best Book Award from the Theory section of the International Studies Association. [17] The book also won the 2022 Best Book award from The Association for Middle East Women's Studies. [18]

Her third book, Rebuilding Community: Displaced Women and the Making of a Shia Ismaili Muslim Sociality published by Oxford University press (2023), is a first attempt to archive the lives of twentieth-century Ismaili women. The book follows Ismaili women who were displaced in the 1970s from East Africa and East Pakistan, to elaborate how they recreated their religious community in transit and in new regions of settlement, particularly North America. The book won the 2024 Nautilus Book Award.

Her fourth book, The Impossibility of Muslim Boyhood (University of Minnesota Press, 2024) is a public cultural critique of Muslim boyhood in America.

In 2019, Khoja-Moolji was elected to the South Asia Council of the Association for Asian Studies. [19] In 2023, she joined the Steering Committee of North American Religions at the American Academy of Religion. [20]

Khoja-Moolji is the recipient of multiple career awards: the Emerging Scholar Award from the Muslim Philanthropy Initiative based at Indiana University; [21] the Early Career Award for Community Engagement from the International Studies Association's Feminist Theory and Gender Studies section; [17] and the Early Career Award from Teachers College, Columbia University. [22] [23]

Khoja-Moolji has published writing in Al Jazeera and the Express Tribune on Ismaili culture and Islamic culture. [24] [25]

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References

  1. 1 2 "ACMCU Welcomes Professor Shenila Khoja-Moolji to the Faculty". July 6, 2022. Archived from the original on July 12, 2022. Retrieved July 8, 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 Wood, Sarah (3 March 2021). "Meet Dr. Shenila Khoja-Moolji, a Champion for Inclusive Education". Issues in Higher Education. Archived from the original on July 12, 2022. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  3. ↑ Khoja-Moolji, Shenila (2023). Rebuilding Community: Displaced Women and the Making of a Shia Ismaili Muslim Sociality. Oxford University Press. p. 142. ISBN   978-0-19-764202-3.
  4. ↑ "Visiting Scholar, Alice Paul Center for Research on Gender, Sexuality and Women". University of Pennsylvania. Archived from the original on July 12, 2022. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  5. ↑ Khoja-Moolji, Shenila (April 1, 2018). "Why is Malala such a polarising figure in Pakistan?". Al Jazeera. Archived from the original on April 2, 2022. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  6. ↑ Khoja-Moolji, Shenila (2015). "Reading Malala: (De)(Re)Territorialization of Muslim Collectivities". Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East. 35 (3): 539–556. doi:10.1215/1089201X-3426397. Archived from the original on 2022-04-02. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
  7. ↑ Khoja-Moolji, Shenila (2020). "Death by benevolence: third world girls and the contemporary politics of humanitarianism". Feminist Theory. 21 (1): 65–90. doi:10.1177/1464700119850026. S2CID   197718506.
  8. ↑ Khoja-Moolji, Shenila (2017). "The Making of Humans and Their Others in and through Transnational Human Rights Advocacy". Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. 42 (2): 377–402. doi:10.1086/688184. S2CID   151443956. Archived from the original on 2022-04-02. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
  9. ↑ Khoja-Moolji, Shenila (2016). "Doing the 'work of hearing': girls' voices in transnational educational development campaigns". Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education. 46 (5): 745–763. doi:10.1080/03057925.2015.1084582. S2CID   143121465.
  10. ↑ Leyava, Emily (2019). "Forging the Ideal Educated Girl: The Production of Desirable Subjects in Muslim South Asia by Shenila Khoja-Moolji". Comparative Education Review. 63 (3): 447–449. doi:10.1086/704135. ISSN   0010-4086. S2CID   240934549. Archived from the original on 2022-07-12. Retrieved 2022-07-12.
  11. ↑ Adenuga, Taiwo (2020-08-19). "Forging the ideal educated girl: the production of desirable subjects in Muslim South Asia". Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Education. 9 (2). doi: 10.32674/jise.v9i2.1666 . ISSN   2166-2681. S2CID   225429213. Archived from the original on 2022-03-01. Retrieved 2022-07-12.
  12. ↑ Marin-Velasquez, Melba; Closson-Pitts, Brittany (2019-05-19). "Forging the ideal educated girl: the production of desirable subjects in Muslim South Asia". Gender and Education. 31 (4): 560–561. doi:10.1080/09540253.2019.1583322. ISSN   0954-0253. S2CID   150972391. Archived from the original on 2022-07-12. Retrieved 2022-07-12.
  13. ↑ Open Access (2018). Forging the Ideal Educated Girl The Production of Desirable Subjects in Muslim South Asia. doi:10.1525/luminos.52. ISBN   9780520298408. S2CID   150332143. Archived from the original on 2022-03-19. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
  14. ↑ Comparative and International Education Society. "2019 Jackie Kirk Award Outstanding Book Award". Archived from the original on July 12, 2022. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  15. ↑ Howard, Jamie Lee (2021). "Sovereign Attachments Masculinity, Muslimness, and Affective Politics in Pakistan. Khoja-Moolji, Shenila. 2021. Berkeley: University of California Press". Ethos. 49 (2): etho.12312. doi:10.1111/etho.12312. ISSN   0091-2131. S2CID   243979475.
  16. ↑ Hocking, Elise (2021). "Sovereign Attachments: Masculinity, Muslimness, and Affective Politics in Pakistan by Shenila Khoja-Moolji". CrossCurrents. 71 (4): 446–448. doi:10.1353/cro.2021.0037. ISSN   1939-3881. S2CID   247164767.
  17. 1 2 International Studies Association. "2021-2022 Awards Recipients". Archived from the original on April 7, 2022. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  18. ↑ "Professor Khoja-Moolji wins award for new book: Sovereign Attachments". 5 December 2022.
  19. ↑ Association for Asian Studies (November 25, 2019). "AAS 2019 Election Results". Archived from the original on July 24, 2021. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  20. ↑ "Asian North American Religion, Culture, and Society Unit and Secularism and Secularity Unit | PAPERS". papers.aarweb.org.
  21. ↑ "Awards". Archived from the original on March 11, 2022. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  22. ↑ Teachers College, Columbia University. "Working Towards Social Justice: Academic Festival 2021". Archived from the original on November 19, 2021. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  23. ↑ Teachers College, Columbia University. "2021 Alumni Award Recipients". Archived from the original on July 12, 2022. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  24. ↑ "Shenila Khoja-Moolji". Al Jazeera author profile. Archived from the original on April 2, 2022. Retrieved April 3, 2022.
  25. ↑ "Stories from Dr Shenila Khoja Moolji". The Express Tribune. Archived from the original on February 11, 2022. Retrieved April 3, 2022.
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