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Research Interests
Modernity is often regarded as a particular condition, or symptom,
of cultural and political development centered on Western European and American experience. But
it is also profoundly determined by context, by intersecting geographies, by the places, spaces,
and people through which it manifests. Seeking the means to qualify and question monolithic
understandings of the modern, my research focuses on two 'Non-Western' and predominantly Muslim
urban contexts to reveal that modernity is a highly contested category, more often than not
concealing multiple, competing projects and definitions of progress, national identity,
secularism/religion, morality, class and/or gender. Foregrounding the significance of spatial
approaches, my work examines geographically specific articulations of modernity in Istanbul
and Jakarta with a particular focus on the cultural politics of the everyday. The project of
theorizing what I term situated modernities emerged from the experience of living through
the vast changes in urban space and life in Istanbul in the late 1980s and 1990s.
Shopping malls
and tesettür chic. This ongoing research
project focuses on the relatively new constructed spaces of shopping malls and emerging tesettür
(Islamic mode of women’s dress) department stores in Istanbul and Jakarta. Through a methodology
that might be called spatial ethnography - this research uncovers the construction of gendered-
classed and 'islamic' modernities and the formation of subjectivity and agency in the face of
often enforced state and Islamist meta-projects. I aim to further elucidate how competing modern?
gender and middle class identities, secular and Islamic both are formed. “Tesettür chic?poses
significant questions for neoliberal Muslim communities as this new fashion tests professed Islamic
ideals of modesty, morality, egalitarianism and communitarianism.
Islamic Women’s NGOs. Faith-based
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as Mazlum-Der,
Özgür-Der and Ak-Der,
concerned with Muslim women’s rights (and particularly
veiling) in Istanbul, constitute the focus of my other
research. I am interested in the spatial implications of the
strategies these NGOs develop to make political claims that
challenge the secularist state as they appropriate elements
from discourses of neoliberalism, human rights, civil
liberties, and Islamism. Thematically, these two research
projects address current debates on secularism,
(neo)liberalism, democracy, modernity and globalization. I am
currently involved with a UNC-Duke joint project on
"Muslim Modernities in Europe" (sponsored by the Center for Slavic,
Eurasian and East European Studies at UNC).
Current research
projects:
1. Islamism, capitalism and subjectivity: The
transnational veiling fashion industry based in Turkey (with
Anna Secor): This project, funded by the National Science
Foundation, investigates how the transnational production,
sale, and consumption of veiling-fashion work to order spaces
of geopolitics, geo-economics, and identity formation. We
argue that the commodity (in this case, veiling- fashion) is a
geopolitical and geo-economic product and actor, shaped by and
constitutive of the geographical assumptions and practices
that go into making world politics and the world economy. Our
research has two primary goals: 1) to analyze the scope,
history, and geography of the veiling-fashion industry
headquartered in Turkey by tracing out the circuits of
production, design, sales, and finance that characterize the
industry; and 2) to understand the implications of the
production, sale, and consumption of veiling-fashion for
geopolitics, geo-economics, and identity formation in a
transnational context.
2. Diversity and Conformity in Muslim
Societies: Historical Coexistence and Contemporary
Struggles-Andrew Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar (2009-2010)
(with Sarah Shields): Muslim societies throughout history have
been notable in their diversity and tolerance; intermittent
"reform" projects, most notably modern political movements,
and current military conflicts have sought to impose
uniformity on top of this diversity. This Seminar examines the
tension between diversity and conformity in contemporary
Muslim societies. We analyze the historical record to gain new
insights about the present through an integrated,
multidisciplinary exploration of three topics: the impact of
decolonization and subsequent rise of nationalist and Salafi
movements; movements to promote uniformity in physical spaces
and in vocal expression considered sacred to Islam; and the
treatment of those perceived to be outside the mainstream of
Muslim societies.
Selected Recent Publications
¡°Beyond the officially
sacred: religion, secularism, and the body in the production
of subjectivity¡± (Accepted, Social and Cultural Geography)
with Anna Secor, ¡°New transnational
geographies of Islamism, capitalism and subjectivity: The
veiling-fashion industry in Turkey,¡± 2009, Area, 41, 1, 6-18.
¡°A Feminist Geography of Veiling: Gender,
Class and Religion in the Making of Modern Spaces and Subjects
in Istanbul¡±, in Karen Morin and Jeanne Kay Guelke eds Women,
Religion, and Space, 2007, pp. 61-80. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse
University Press.
with Katharyne Mitchell, ¡°Veiling, Secularism
and the Neoliberal Subject: National Narratives and
Supranational Desires in Turkey and France¡±, Global Networks,
2005, 5, 2, 147-165.
Work in
progress
"Dress as Embodied Spatial Practice: Women's Experiences of the New Islamic Fashion in Istanbul", submitted to Nadia Yaqub ed. Arab and Middle Eastern Dress in a Transnational World (Syracuse University Press)
"Moral geographies of gender: 'mall butterflies'" (under
revision for the Annals of the Association of American
Geographers)
"Towards new transnational geographies of Islamism,
capitalism and identity: The veiling-fashion industry in
Turkey¡± (submitted to Area, 06/22/07)
Courses
Gender in the Middle East (Spring 2005, Fall 2006, Fall
2007)
Space, Power and Identity in the Middle East (First Year
Seminar, Fall 2006)
Global Issues (Fall 2007)
Social Geography (Fall 2004, Fall 2005)
People and Places (Spring 2004, Fall 2004)
Call for
Paper
National
Science Foundation
Grant |
