Zareena Grewal

Last updated
Zareena Grewal
AwardsVictor Turner Prize
Academic work
DisciplineAmerican studies, anthropology, religious studies
Institutions Yale University

Zareena A. Grewal is a historical anthropologist and documentary filmmaker whose work focuses on Islam in the United States. She is an associate professor of American studies, religious studies, and ethnicity, race, and migration at Yale University. [1]

Career

Grewal was a Fulbright Fellow in Egypt in 2002-03. [2] In 2004, she directed and produced her debut film, By the Dawn’s Early Light: Chris Jackson’s Journey to Islam. [1] The documentary examines Islamophobia in the United States through the lens of Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf (born Chris Jackson), a National Basketball Association (NBA) player who converted to Islam in the 1990s. [3] Grewal's first book, Islam is a Foreign Country: American Muslims and the Global Crisis of Authority, was published by New York University Press in 2013. The book, an ethnography of Muslims in the United States and their connections to the global Islamic community, won third place in the 2014 Victor Turner Prize for Ethnographic Writing. [1] [4]

In October 2023, Grewal gained national attention after she expressed support on Twitter for the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, saying that Palestinians had "every right to resist through armed struggle". [5] [6] She also wrote that those killed were not civilians (which would include children and elders) because they are Israeli, tweeting, "Settlers are not civilians. This is not hard" in response to a Sky News journalist’s tweet insisting: “Civilians are civilians are civilians, doesn’t matter where” [7] after the attack. A petition created by a Yale student to remove Grewal from her faculty position garnered more than 55,000 signatures. In response, a Yale spokesperson said that the university was "committed to freedom of expression". Grewal claimed that her posts had been "wildly taken out of context" and denied being a Hamas supporter. [5] Grewal's tweets were later cited as an example of antisemitism on campus in an open letter signed by 1,400 Yale alumni, faculty, and parents. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hamas</span> Palestinian political and military organization

Hamas, an acronym of its official name, Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya, is a Palestinian Sunni Islamist political and military movement governing parts of the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">York University</span> Public university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

York University, also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, and over 370,000 alumni worldwide. It has 11 faculties, including the Lassonde School of Engineering, Schulich School of Business, Osgoode Hall Law School, Glendon College, and 28 research centres.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hamza Yusuf</span> American Islamic scholar (born 1958)

Hamza Yusuf is an American Islamic neo-traditionalist, Islamic scholar, and co-founder of Zaytuna College. He is a proponent of classical learning in Islam and has promoted Islamic sciences and classical teaching methodologies throughout the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Graeber</span> American anthropologist and activist (1961–2020)

David Rolfe Graeber was an American anthropologist and anarchist activist. His influential work in economic anthropology, particularly his books Debt: The First 5,000 Years (2011), Bullshit Jobs (2018), and The Dawn of Everything (2021), and his leading role in the Occupy movement, earned him recognition as one of the foremost anthropologists and left-wing thinkers of his time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nihad Awad</span> Muslim activist

Nihad Awad is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mousa Abu Marzook</span> Hamas leader (born 1951)

Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook is a Palestinian senior member of Hamas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Birzeit University</span> University in Birzeit, Palestine

Birzeit University is a public university in the West Bank, in Palestine, registered by the Palestinian Ministry of Social Affairs as charitable organization. It is accredited by the Ministry of Higher Education and located in Birzeit, West Bank, near Ramallah. Established in 1924 as an elementary school for girls, Birzeit became a university in 1975.

Charles Asher Small is a Canadian intellectual, the founder and director of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy the first international interdisciplinary research center dedicated to studying antisemitism with a contemporary focus.

Antisemitism at universities has been reported and supported since the medieval period and, more recently, resisted and studied. Antisemitism has been manifested in various policies and practices, such as restricting the admission of Jewish students by a Jewish quota, or ostracism, intimidation, or violence against Jewish students, as well as in the hiring, retention and treatment of Jewish faculty and staff. In some instances, universities have been accused of condoning the development of antisemitic cultures on campus.

Ghassan J. Hage is a Lebanese-Australian academic serving as Future Generation Professor of Anthropology at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He has held a number of visiting professorships including at the American University of Beirut, University of Nanterre – Paris X, the University of Copenhagen and Harvard. He has published several books on immigration, race and refugees in Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islamic University of Gaza</span> Independent university in Palestine

The Islamic University of Gaza, also known as IUG and IU Gaza, is an independent Palestinian university established in 1978 in Gaza City. It was the first higher education institution to be established in the Gaza Strip. The university has 11 faculties capable of awarding BA, BSc, MA, MSc, MD, PhD, diplomas and higher diplomas, in addition to 20 research centers and institutes and the affiliated Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Racism in the State of Palestine</span> Discussion of racism

Racism in the Palestinian territories encompasses all forms and manifestations of racism experienced in the Palestinian Territories, of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, irrespective of the religion, colour, creed, or ethnic origin of the perpetrator and victim, or their citizenship, residency, or visitor status. It may refer to Jewish settler attitudes regarding Palestinians as well as Palestinian attitudes to Jews and the settlement enterprise undertaken in their name.

Russell John Rickford is an American scholar and activist who is an associate professor in the History Department at Cornell University. He has written the only in-depth biography on Betty Shabazz. Rickford's research focuses on the black radical tradition and on black liberal culture after World War II. He lectures on American social and political history, among other subjects.

John L. Jackson Jr. is an American anthropologist, filmmaker, author, and university administrator. He is currently the provost and Richard Perry University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Jackson earned his B.A. from Howard University and his Ph.D. in Anthropology from Columbia University. He served as a junior fellow at the Harvard University Society of Fellows before joining the Cultural Anthropology faculty at Duke University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claudine Gay</span> American political scientist and university administrator (born 1970)

Claudine Gay is an American political scientist and academic administrator who is the Wilbur A. Cowett Professor of Government and of African and African-American Studies at Harvard. Gay's research addresses American political behavior, including voter turnout and politics of race and identity.

<i>How to Fight Anti-Semitism</i> 2019 book by Bari Weiss

How to Fight Anti-Semitism is a 2019 book by journalist Bari Weiss that explores the history and current manifestations of antisemitism and attempts to provide strategies to oppose it. Weiss identifies the main strains of antisemitism as left-wing, right-wing, and Islamic antisemitism, and tries to provide a history of each variety. Weiss said that the book will discuss the "alarming rise of antisemitism in and in Europe" and will propose ways to address the problem.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">StopAntisemitism</span> American watchdog organization focused on antisemitism

StopAntisemitism is an American non-profit watchdog organization focused on combating antisemitism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francesca Albanese</span> International lawyer and academic (born 1977)

Francesca P. Albanese is an Italian international lawyer and academic. On 1 May 2022, she was appointed United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories for a three-year term. She is the first woman to hold the position.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Calls for the destruction of Israel</span> Expressions, statements, or rhetoric promoting the destruction of Israel

There have been explicit or implicit expressions, statements, and rhetoric made by individuals, political entities, and factions within Arab, Islamic, Palestinian or left-wing discourse advocating for the elimination or annihilation of the State of Israel as a political entity. These anti-Zionist calls often involve the use of strong language, genocidal threats, or declarations aiming at the complete eradication of Israel from the region. Such expressions may be manifested in official statements, speeches, charters, or public discourse, reflecting a position that denies the legitimacy of Israel's existence and seeks its removal through various means, including military action or other forms of political and ideological resistance.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Zareena Grewal | American Studies". Yale University . Archived from the original on 2024-01-31. Retrieved 2024-03-26.
  2. "The Future of Scholarship on the Quran". College of the Holy Cross . Archived from the original on 2024-03-26. Retrieved 2024-03-26.
  3. "Film Screening: By the Dawn's Early Light: Chris Jackson's Journey to Islam with Zareena Grewal". Institute for Middle East Studies - The George Washington University. 2018-11-12. Archived from the original on 2024-03-26. Retrieved 2024-03-26.
  4. "SHA Prize Winners | Society for Humanistic Anthropology". American Anthropological Association . Archived from the original on 2023-03-24. Retrieved 2024-03-26.
  5. 1 2 Cross, Alison (2023-11-06). "Connecticut colleges stand up for academic freedom as Yale prof targeted for tweets on Israel, Gaza". Hartford Courant . Archived from the original on 2023-11-07. Retrieved 2024-03-26.
  6. Raab, Ben; Pohly, Kaitlyn (2023-10-12). "Petition to oust pro-Palestine professor for 'promoting lies and violence' gains 25,000 signatures in just over a day". Yale Daily News . Archived from the original on 2024-03-08. Retrieved 2024-03-26.
  7. "'Settlers Are Not Civilians': Yale Professor Defends Hamas Terrorism". National Review. 2023-10-11. Retrieved 2024-04-12.
  8. Raab, Ben; Hernandez, Benjamin (2023-11-28). "Over 1,400 alumni, faculty and parents sign letter calling on Yale to combat antisemitism". Yale Daily News . Archived from the original on 2024-03-19. Retrieved 2024-03-26.