Trans* Muslims and Jessica Krug: Analyzing the Discursive Power of Authenticity
Fabricating Authenticity - Jason W.M. Ellsworth
Hinasahar Muneeruddin [+]
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Hinasahar Muneeruddin is a doctoral student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Islamic Studies track of the Religious Studies program and currently pursuing her graduate certificate in Women and Gender Studies. Her research lies at the intersections of Islam, gender, race, affect, and performativity.
Description
Building on Simmons’ analysis, Muneeruddin juxtaposes how two examples of contested “authentic” trans* identification discourses are strategically employed in disparate ways. Muneeruddin first examines how Jessica Krug’s claims created a sense of racial authority in her scholarship by perpetuating the commodification of Blackness in the US; she then outlines how trans* Muslims strategically reclaim rhetoric of “authentic Muslimness” to create safe spaces for trans* Muslims and combat exclusionary, cis-heteronormative Muslim practices.