NOTES PERTAINING TO PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC.
Text of Note
Place of publication: United States, Ann Arbor; ISBN=978-0-355-29557-3
DISSERTATION (THESIS) NOTE
Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree
Ph.D.
Discipline of degree
Sociology
Body granting the degree
Northwestern University
Text preceding or following the note
2017
SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
This dissertation is about race and religion. These two categories are crucial to how people classify others and position themselves in the world. While scholars typically understand them separately, my research proposes instead to explore instances in which they are conflated. Specifically, I track occurrences of racial reasoning in relation to the religion of Islam in Western societies. Empirically, I focus on conversion to Islam to disentangle the intricacies of race and religion. Because conversion implies crossing religious boundaries, converts shed light on the nature and content of such boundaries, and enable us to decide whether they are simply religious or also embody racial difference. The case of white converts is particularly interesting in this respect: because their conversion implies transitioning from one social status (majority) to another (minority), they offer a near-experimental case to investigate how racial categorization operates. Methodologically, I combine the meticulousness of qualitative methods with the bird's eye view of comparatism. Using in-depth interviewing with 82 converts in France and the United States; ethnographic observations in convert associations in Paris and Chicago; and content analysis of media and historical documents, I compare the past and present experiences of French and American Muslim converts to answer the following: how and when is conversion to Islam interpreted in terms of changing one's racial status rather than a mere change in religious orientation?
TOPICAL NAME USED AS SUBJECT
Islamic Studies; Sociology; Ethnic studies
UNCONTROLLED SUBJECT TERMS
Subject Term
Social sciences;Conversion;France;Islam;Race;Religion;United States