Embodied Islamophobia: lived experiences of anti-Muslim discourses and assaults in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article examines embodied Islamophobia and aims to contribute to the scholarship on geographies of Islamophobia, as well as extend discussions on embodied geopolitics. Drawing on feminist work on emotional geopolitics, and Pain and Staeheli’s ‘intimacy-geopolitics’ (2014), I propose an analytical distinction between embodied and systematic Islamophobia. While systematic Islamophobia refers to the discursive and institutional dimensions, embodied Islamophobia signifies the ultimately lived and emotional experiences of anti-Muslim assaults in the context of the everyday. I argue that these are two related but distinct realms and that ‘intimacy-geopolitics’ implies the psychosocial effects of geopolitical phenomena. The article features from a phenomenological perspective the epistemological and political importance to call attention to how embodied Islamophobia effects young Muslims’ sense of self and belonging. Through person-centered ethnography, the article brings to forefront the very subjectivities and bodies that are the objects of anti-Muslim assault and violence. Focusing on the experiences of two siblings allows for in-depth consideration of the particular personal biographies and emotionally laden memories and experiences of growing up as Muslim in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the gendered dimension of Islamophobia, as well as how these connect to the city and broader geographies of Islamophobia and geopolitical events.