Dr. Diana Murtaugh Coleman | Northern Arizona University (original) (raw)

Book Chapter by Dr. Diana Murtaugh Coleman

Philosopher Slavoj Žižek says of " the Event " and the disproportionate response that follows, " ... more Philosopher Slavoj Žižek says of " the Event " and the disproportionate response that follows, " [I]t's not just that the symbolic order is all of a sudden fully here-there was nothing, and moments later it is all here-but there is nothing and then all of a sudden, it is as if the symbolic order was always-already here, as if there was never a time without it. " 1 The requisite and vital work of scholars in the humanities during this critical time is to parse how this symbolic order is generated and reproduced, to recognize and resist structures and ideologies that harm, and to claim and stake a space for doing so. Guantánamo is a key site in the symbolic order that is being structured by the United States in the twenty-first century, and therefore a crucial enterprise to examine in historical context. Guantánamo, the prison, a spatial project of the neoliberal " Global War on Terror, " was designed to be a highly visible—though never transparent—and tightly curated performance through which the terrorist subject and imaginary could be constituted, encountered, subdued, brokered, and mastered. The iconic orange jumpsuits that anonymized and collapsed the individual identities of detainees into the politically useful category of terrorists provided a visual center for the world's gaze after the event that became 9/11. Guantánamo prison is a joint task force temple that issues a heartfelt American amen to empire. Like all amens, it signals affirmation and implies a covenant. The ongoing operation of Guantánamo prison is an affirmation of U.S. foreign policy and a promise that the United States government can and will continue to flaunt international human rights law. The story of Guantánamo does not begin in the 21 st century. The symbolic order did not arrive on 9/11; the prison and the base cannot be fully understood without examining historical linkages to the imperial project inaugurated by the Columbian Exposition of 1893.

Journal Articles by Dr. Diana Murtaugh Coleman

Cultural Dynamics, 2019

Guantánamo is infamous as a site of extra-legal detention in the wake of 9/11; more than a single... more Guantánamo is infamous as a site of extra-legal detention in the wake of 9/11; more than a single site, it is part of a web of the United States’ militarization operating in the Global South. An area of the military base is now being revitalized as a new camp for climate change–related mass migration events predicted to occur throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. In February 2018, RQ Construction, LLC (Carlsbad, California) won a 23-million-dollar contract to build a “Contingency Mass Migration Complex” at Guantánamo to house migrants and personnel at the military base in a massive tent city. Though less explicitly worded, other large Department of Defense awards for work at Guantánamo point toward extensive infrastructure development as recently as March 2019. The United States’ militarized response to climate-based migration is an extension of the logic through which economic and political refugees are branded criminals or terrorists.

Sargasso: Journal of Caribbean Literature, Language, & Culture, 2019

This essay considers how memory and witnessing (the performance of memory) inform notions of poss... more This essay considers how memory and witnessing (the performance of memory) inform notions of possible futures related to the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay. It discusses the structural heft of the state and its globally embedded military and intelligence apparatus, then moves on to examine conceptions of hope and futures via both the case of former detainee Omar Khadr and images contained within prisoner art. In addition, it analyzes testimonies from the citizen-driven North Carolina Commission of Inquiry on Torture (NCCIT), relating them to the post-9/11 rendition, detainment, and torture of prisoners. Finally, it considers U.S. Department of Defense contract awards that signal a willful amnesia about prior uses of the base at Guantánamo, as memories of past use foreshadow the possible future of newly funded U.S. military detention camps at Guantánamo, which are under construction for predicted mass migration events in the Caribbean.

Contemporary Islam: Dynamics of Muslim Life, Dec 2013

In this paper we explore the ways in which the Indonesian Front Pembela Islam (Islamic Defenders ... more In this paper we explore the ways in which the Indonesian Front Pembela Islam (Islamic Defenders Front-FPI) uses hate speech and demonization to legitimize violent attacks on organizations and individuals it considers to be sinful or religiously deviant, and civil discourse to establish credibility and respectability. 1 We argue that the use of a discursive frame established by fatwa (legal opinions) issued by the semi-official Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI-Indonesian Council of Muslim Scholars) and tacit support from powerful political factions enable FPI to conduct campaigns of demonization and violence with near impunity and to avoid being labeled as a terrorist organization. We elaborate on a distinction between what the Center for Religious and Cross-Cultural Studies (CRCS) at Gadjah Mada University calls the two faces of FPI (Bagir et al. 2010a). The CRCS report distinguishes between civil and uncivil modes of FPI discourse and praxis. The civil mode seeks to establish the organization's credibility in the public sphere. It presents FPI as the ally of authorities in attempts to control deviance and assisting those in need, especially victims of natural disasters. The Cont Islam (2014) 8:153-171

Front Pembela Islam (Islamic Defenders Front -FPI) is a domestic Indonesian terrorist organizatio... more Front Pembela Islam (Islamic Defenders Front -FPI) is a domestic Indonesian terrorist organization. Its goal is the implementation of Shari'ah at national and local levels in Indonesia. It presents itself as an ally of government security forces in their attempts to control sin and vice. It uses hate speech to motivate and legitimize violent attacks on organizations and individuals it considers to be sinful or religiously deviant. It has targeted Christian minorities and members of the Ahmadiyah Muslim sect for physically violent attacks. It conducts hate speech campaigns against Muslim organizations and intellectuals supporting religious freedom, branding them as "enemies of the state" and "more satanic than Satan." Unlike many other Muslim terrorist organizations FPI is not based on Salafi or Wahhabi religious teachings. It does not have ties with transnational religious or political movements. FPI leaders have religious roots in traditional Indonesian Islam and are associated with Sufi mystical brotherhoods. Rank and file members have little religious education. Many have criminal backgrounds and describe themselves as "reformed gangsters." FPI has established "discursive cover" for violence by linking its actions to fatwa (legal opinions) issued by the semi-official Majelis Ulama Indonesia (Indonesian Council of Islamic Scholars -MUI). It has also established relationships with elements of the security forces and with Salafi oriented organizations. It can be understood as a violent element of a broadly based movement seeking to establish Shari'ah but not to alter the structure of the Indonesian political system.

The paper refutes the linkage of Muslim education in Indonesia with radicalization, and addresses... more The paper refutes the linkage of Muslim education in Indonesia with radicalization, and addresses the commonly held, if incorrect, perception that theological conservatism has a causal relationship with violent extremism. Rather than a causal agent for extremism, Muslim education in Indonesia tends to operate as a protective mechanism against radicalization, as does participation in vibrant religious and cultural celebrations. Students attending the secular universities are most susceptible to extremist discourse, through the process of re-Islamization and the development of a stark and detached rational understanding of Islam.

Review of Indonesian and Malaysian Affairs, 2012

This paper is concerned with two faces of Hadhrami dakwah in post-New Order Indonesia. One is tha... more This paper is concerned with two faces of Hadhrami dakwah in post-New Order Indonesia. One is that of Habib Syech bin Abulkadir Assegaf (Habib Syech) who promotes traditional Sufi piety and opposes religious and political violence. The other is that of Al-Habib Muhammad Rizieq bin Hussein Syihab (Habib Rizieq), one of the founders of Front Pembela Islam (Islamic Defenders Front, FPI). He is known as much for his politics as for his piety. Both are examples of the new institutional and ritual forms that Sufism takes and the increasing significance of Hadhrami sayyid in post-New Order Indonesia. They lead social movements located in new, primarily urban, social spaces. As is true of many religiously inspired social movements they draw on and seek to amplify emotions. Habib Syech stresses love and compassion; Habib Rizieq, fear and hatred. Habib Syech bin Abulkadir Assegaf (Habib Syech) and Al-Habib Muhammad Rizieq bin Hussein Syihab (Habib Rizieq) are both sayyid (descendants of the Prophet Muhammad). Both are located in the social space of the Hadhrami Arab diaspora, the political space of Indonesian debates concerning state-religion relations and rooted in Bā'Alawī Sufism from the Hadhramaut. As dakwah movements both are inspired by the Quranic injunction 'to order what is right, forbid what is wrong', that is perhaps the most basic principle of sharia. 1

Book Reviews by Dr. Diana Murtaugh Coleman

Reading Religion, 2018

Follow link below to access book review:

Conference Presentations by Dr. Diana Murtaugh Coleman

Caribbean Studies Association Conference Caribbean Studies Association Conference, Panel: “The U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo: Freedom, Emancipation, Possibility” Habana Libre Hotel, Havana, Cuba, 2018

Panel Abstract: Building on Guantánamo and American Empire, The Humanities Respond (Palgrave Macm... more Panel Abstract: Building on Guantánamo and American Empire, The Humanities Respond (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), this panel analyzes Guantánamo Bay, Cuba as a site central to the analysis of emancipatory projects and movements in the Caribbean and beyond. Launching the panel with the paper “Haiti and Asylum in the Age of Trump (English language presentation)” Don E. Walicek will discuss the humanities as a platform for reversing the violations of freedom that cluster around Gitmo, paying special attention to the U.S. government’s elimination of sanctuary for Haitian asylum seekers in the early twentieth century. Next, Cuban historian José Sánchez Guerra (Spanish language presentation) will analyze U.S. actions in Guantánamo Bay prior to Cuban independence, interspersing commentary on his responsibilities as official historian of Guantánamo City. Third, in “Guantánamo and the Limits of Circum-Caribbean Emancipation,” Jessica Adams (English language presentation) will connect the base and monuments to the Confederacy in the U.S. South, showing that official discourses on ‘freedom’ are embedded in contradiction and often dependent upon restrictions associated with modernity’s renditions of colonization and chattel slavery. Fourth, presenting “Caribe/camello/ poemas” (Spanish language presentation), the Guantánamo poet José Ramón Sánchez Leyva will interrogate the occupation of Guantánamo Bay by answering questions about the relationship among emancipation, literary trends, and the need for a cannon of guerilla literature. Finally, in “Phobia of Hope” (English language presentation) Diana Coleman will address how Guantánamo Bay figures into the U.S. government’s rendition and torture programs. She will analyze the emancipatory strategies of victims and discuss prosecutions, witnessing, and redress.

Guantánamo has served as a potent site for ideological production at various points in U.S. histo... more Guantánamo has served as a potent site for ideological production at various points in U.S. history, but more significantly since 2001. Nearly 800 Muslim men and teenagers have been imprisoned at Guantánamo in the 21st century, but no new prisoners have been sent to the prison since 2008, and more than 700 have been released, most with no charge. In the run-up to the 2016 Presidential election, Trump promised to fill the prison with “bad dudes,” including Americans accused of terrorism. Post election, his administration announced that no additional prisoners would be transferred out, and drafted an executive order allowing ISIS fighters to be brought to Guantanamo. This paper examines the shifting ideological discourses that shape conceptions of Guantánamo, of the Muslim prisoners who have been held there, ideas about Muslims in America, and ultimately American attitudes about Islam.

Sectarianism, Identity, and Conflict in Islamic Contexts: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives

In the decade after September 11th, 2001, world views have been shaped by narratives and counter-... more In the decade after September 11th, 2001, world views have been shaped by narratives and counter-narratives about those events. In this paper, I will identify and analyze the role of the multiple fetish symbols, including the Twin Towers, the U.S. flag and the Qur’an in those narratives. I will argue that the fetishes operate to conceal central anxieties concerning power, loss, and tenuous futures. The U.S. flag becomes a rallying point for sentiment, positive and negative, as does the Qur’an, each held to be sacred in its own frame of reference and subject to symbolic transactions, i.e. the defiled Qur’an or the burned flag that represents the debasement of the other, or conversely, the sacred Qur’an or flag, which must be defended to the death. In particular, I am interested in how the recruitment discourse utilizes the fetish objects to draw new members to the U.S. military and to non-state actors across the world.

Teaching Documents by Dr. Diana Murtaugh Coleman

Philosopher Slavoj Žižek says of " the Event " and the disproportionate response that follows, " ... more Philosopher Slavoj Žižek says of " the Event " and the disproportionate response that follows, " [I]t's not just that the symbolic order is all of a sudden fully here-there was nothing, and moments later it is all here-but there is nothing and then all of a sudden, it is as if the symbolic order was always-already here, as if there was never a time without it. " 1 The requisite and vital work of scholars in the humanities during this critical time is to parse how this symbolic order is generated and reproduced, to recognize and resist structures and ideologies that harm, and to claim and stake a space for doing so. Guantánamo is a key site in the symbolic order that is being structured by the United States in the twenty-first century, and therefore a crucial enterprise to examine in historical context. Guantánamo, the prison, a spatial project of the neoliberal " Global War on Terror, " was designed to be a highly visible—though never transparent—and tightly curated performance through which the terrorist subject and imaginary could be constituted, encountered, subdued, brokered, and mastered. The iconic orange jumpsuits that anonymized and collapsed the individual identities of detainees into the politically useful category of terrorists provided a visual center for the world's gaze after the event that became 9/11. Guantánamo prison is a joint task force temple that issues a heartfelt American amen to empire. Like all amens, it signals affirmation and implies a covenant. The ongoing operation of Guantánamo prison is an affirmation of U.S. foreign policy and a promise that the United States government can and will continue to flaunt international human rights law. The story of Guantánamo does not begin in the 21 st century. The symbolic order did not arrive on 9/11; the prison and the base cannot be fully understood without examining historical linkages to the imperial project inaugurated by the Columbian Exposition of 1893.

Cultural Dynamics, 2019

Guantánamo is infamous as a site of extra-legal detention in the wake of 9/11; more than a single... more Guantánamo is infamous as a site of extra-legal detention in the wake of 9/11; more than a single site, it is part of a web of the United States’ militarization operating in the Global South. An area of the military base is now being revitalized as a new camp for climate change–related mass migration events predicted to occur throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. In February 2018, RQ Construction, LLC (Carlsbad, California) won a 23-million-dollar contract to build a “Contingency Mass Migration Complex” at Guantánamo to house migrants and personnel at the military base in a massive tent city. Though less explicitly worded, other large Department of Defense awards for work at Guantánamo point toward extensive infrastructure development as recently as March 2019. The United States’ militarized response to climate-based migration is an extension of the logic through which economic and political refugees are branded criminals or terrorists.

Sargasso: Journal of Caribbean Literature, Language, & Culture, 2019

This essay considers how memory and witnessing (the performance of memory) inform notions of poss... more This essay considers how memory and witnessing (the performance of memory) inform notions of possible futures related to the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay. It discusses the structural heft of the state and its globally embedded military and intelligence apparatus, then moves on to examine conceptions of hope and futures via both the case of former detainee Omar Khadr and images contained within prisoner art. In addition, it analyzes testimonies from the citizen-driven North Carolina Commission of Inquiry on Torture (NCCIT), relating them to the post-9/11 rendition, detainment, and torture of prisoners. Finally, it considers U.S. Department of Defense contract awards that signal a willful amnesia about prior uses of the base at Guantánamo, as memories of past use foreshadow the possible future of newly funded U.S. military detention camps at Guantánamo, which are under construction for predicted mass migration events in the Caribbean.

Contemporary Islam: Dynamics of Muslim Life, Dec 2013

In this paper we explore the ways in which the Indonesian Front Pembela Islam (Islamic Defenders ... more In this paper we explore the ways in which the Indonesian Front Pembela Islam (Islamic Defenders Front-FPI) uses hate speech and demonization to legitimize violent attacks on organizations and individuals it considers to be sinful or religiously deviant, and civil discourse to establish credibility and respectability. 1 We argue that the use of a discursive frame established by fatwa (legal opinions) issued by the semi-official Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI-Indonesian Council of Muslim Scholars) and tacit support from powerful political factions enable FPI to conduct campaigns of demonization and violence with near impunity and to avoid being labeled as a terrorist organization. We elaborate on a distinction between what the Center for Religious and Cross-Cultural Studies (CRCS) at Gadjah Mada University calls the two faces of FPI (Bagir et al. 2010a). The CRCS report distinguishes between civil and uncivil modes of FPI discourse and praxis. The civil mode seeks to establish the organization's credibility in the public sphere. It presents FPI as the ally of authorities in attempts to control deviance and assisting those in need, especially victims of natural disasters. The Cont Islam (2014) 8:153-171

Front Pembela Islam (Islamic Defenders Front -FPI) is a domestic Indonesian terrorist organizatio... more Front Pembela Islam (Islamic Defenders Front -FPI) is a domestic Indonesian terrorist organization. Its goal is the implementation of Shari'ah at national and local levels in Indonesia. It presents itself as an ally of government security forces in their attempts to control sin and vice. It uses hate speech to motivate and legitimize violent attacks on organizations and individuals it considers to be sinful or religiously deviant. It has targeted Christian minorities and members of the Ahmadiyah Muslim sect for physically violent attacks. It conducts hate speech campaigns against Muslim organizations and intellectuals supporting religious freedom, branding them as "enemies of the state" and "more satanic than Satan." Unlike many other Muslim terrorist organizations FPI is not based on Salafi or Wahhabi religious teachings. It does not have ties with transnational religious or political movements. FPI leaders have religious roots in traditional Indonesian Islam and are associated with Sufi mystical brotherhoods. Rank and file members have little religious education. Many have criminal backgrounds and describe themselves as "reformed gangsters." FPI has established "discursive cover" for violence by linking its actions to fatwa (legal opinions) issued by the semi-official Majelis Ulama Indonesia (Indonesian Council of Islamic Scholars -MUI). It has also established relationships with elements of the security forces and with Salafi oriented organizations. It can be understood as a violent element of a broadly based movement seeking to establish Shari'ah but not to alter the structure of the Indonesian political system.

The paper refutes the linkage of Muslim education in Indonesia with radicalization, and addresses... more The paper refutes the linkage of Muslim education in Indonesia with radicalization, and addresses the commonly held, if incorrect, perception that theological conservatism has a causal relationship with violent extremism. Rather than a causal agent for extremism, Muslim education in Indonesia tends to operate as a protective mechanism against radicalization, as does participation in vibrant religious and cultural celebrations. Students attending the secular universities are most susceptible to extremist discourse, through the process of re-Islamization and the development of a stark and detached rational understanding of Islam.

Review of Indonesian and Malaysian Affairs, 2012

This paper is concerned with two faces of Hadhrami dakwah in post-New Order Indonesia. One is tha... more This paper is concerned with two faces of Hadhrami dakwah in post-New Order Indonesia. One is that of Habib Syech bin Abulkadir Assegaf (Habib Syech) who promotes traditional Sufi piety and opposes religious and political violence. The other is that of Al-Habib Muhammad Rizieq bin Hussein Syihab (Habib Rizieq), one of the founders of Front Pembela Islam (Islamic Defenders Front, FPI). He is known as much for his politics as for his piety. Both are examples of the new institutional and ritual forms that Sufism takes and the increasing significance of Hadhrami sayyid in post-New Order Indonesia. They lead social movements located in new, primarily urban, social spaces. As is true of many religiously inspired social movements they draw on and seek to amplify emotions. Habib Syech stresses love and compassion; Habib Rizieq, fear and hatred. Habib Syech bin Abulkadir Assegaf (Habib Syech) and Al-Habib Muhammad Rizieq bin Hussein Syihab (Habib Rizieq) are both sayyid (descendants of the Prophet Muhammad). Both are located in the social space of the Hadhrami Arab diaspora, the political space of Indonesian debates concerning state-religion relations and rooted in Bā'Alawī Sufism from the Hadhramaut. As dakwah movements both are inspired by the Quranic injunction 'to order what is right, forbid what is wrong', that is perhaps the most basic principle of sharia. 1

Reading Religion, 2018

Follow link below to access book review:

Caribbean Studies Association Conference Caribbean Studies Association Conference, Panel: “The U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo: Freedom, Emancipation, Possibility” Habana Libre Hotel, Havana, Cuba, 2018

Panel Abstract: Building on Guantánamo and American Empire, The Humanities Respond (Palgrave Macm... more Panel Abstract: Building on Guantánamo and American Empire, The Humanities Respond (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), this panel analyzes Guantánamo Bay, Cuba as a site central to the analysis of emancipatory projects and movements in the Caribbean and beyond. Launching the panel with the paper “Haiti and Asylum in the Age of Trump (English language presentation)” Don E. Walicek will discuss the humanities as a platform for reversing the violations of freedom that cluster around Gitmo, paying special attention to the U.S. government’s elimination of sanctuary for Haitian asylum seekers in the early twentieth century. Next, Cuban historian José Sánchez Guerra (Spanish language presentation) will analyze U.S. actions in Guantánamo Bay prior to Cuban independence, interspersing commentary on his responsibilities as official historian of Guantánamo City. Third, in “Guantánamo and the Limits of Circum-Caribbean Emancipation,” Jessica Adams (English language presentation) will connect the base and monuments to the Confederacy in the U.S. South, showing that official discourses on ‘freedom’ are embedded in contradiction and often dependent upon restrictions associated with modernity’s renditions of colonization and chattel slavery. Fourth, presenting “Caribe/camello/ poemas” (Spanish language presentation), the Guantánamo poet José Ramón Sánchez Leyva will interrogate the occupation of Guantánamo Bay by answering questions about the relationship among emancipation, literary trends, and the need for a cannon of guerilla literature. Finally, in “Phobia of Hope” (English language presentation) Diana Coleman will address how Guantánamo Bay figures into the U.S. government’s rendition and torture programs. She will analyze the emancipatory strategies of victims and discuss prosecutions, witnessing, and redress.

Guantánamo has served as a potent site for ideological production at various points in U.S. histo... more Guantánamo has served as a potent site for ideological production at various points in U.S. history, but more significantly since 2001. Nearly 800 Muslim men and teenagers have been imprisoned at Guantánamo in the 21st century, but no new prisoners have been sent to the prison since 2008, and more than 700 have been released, most with no charge. In the run-up to the 2016 Presidential election, Trump promised to fill the prison with “bad dudes,” including Americans accused of terrorism. Post election, his administration announced that no additional prisoners would be transferred out, and drafted an executive order allowing ISIS fighters to be brought to Guantanamo. This paper examines the shifting ideological discourses that shape conceptions of Guantánamo, of the Muslim prisoners who have been held there, ideas about Muslims in America, and ultimately American attitudes about Islam.

Sectarianism, Identity, and Conflict in Islamic Contexts: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives

In the decade after September 11th, 2001, world views have been shaped by narratives and counter-... more In the decade after September 11th, 2001, world views have been shaped by narratives and counter-narratives about those events. In this paper, I will identify and analyze the role of the multiple fetish symbols, including the Twin Towers, the U.S. flag and the Qur’an in those narratives. I will argue that the fetishes operate to conceal central anxieties concerning power, loss, and tenuous futures. The U.S. flag becomes a rallying point for sentiment, positive and negative, as does the Qur’an, each held to be sacred in its own frame of reference and subject to symbolic transactions, i.e. the defiled Qur’an or the burned flag that represents the debasement of the other, or conversely, the sacred Qur’an or flag, which must be defended to the death. In particular, I am interested in how the recruitment discourse utilizes the fetish objects to draw new members to the U.S. military and to non-state actors across the world.

We will continue to grow this list! NAU Academic Advising Current NAU students can schedule phone... more We will continue to grow this list! NAU Academic Advising Current NAU students can schedule phone and online appointments with their assigned academic advisor at: nau.edu/appointments. (928) 523-4772 Schedule Assigned Materials Assignments Week One May 31-June 6 Witchcraze Prologue, Intro Chapters 1-5 (xi-169 Introduction & Discussion Post 1 (100 pts combined) due June 6 Week Two June 7-13 The Formation of a Persecuting Society pgs. Prefaces, introduction and Chapters 1 & 2 Online quiz 50 pts Due June 13 Week Three June 14-20 The Formation of a Persecuting Society Chapters 3, 4 & 5 and Bibliographical Excursus Film Reflection 100 pts due June 20 Week Four June 21-27 Caliban and the Witch: Women, Body and Primitive Accumulation (7-243) Discussion Post 2 50 pts due June 27 Final paper or project Final paper or project 200 pts due Tuesday, June 29th by midnight!

In this course, we will focus on iterations of Islam in the Modern Period. We will read the work ... more In this course, we will focus on iterations of Islam in the Modern Period. We will read the work of Islamic thinkers, and scholars of Islam. We will place contemporary political issues within a broader historical framework. We will explore major regional expressions of Islam and consider how Western media shapes public ideas about Islam and Muslims.

Instructor will normally respond within 24 hours. If you have not received a response within 24 h... more Instructor will normally respond within 24 hours. If you have not received a response within 24 hours, please send a follow-up message. https://isearch.asu.edu/profile/306227 https://asu.academia.edu/DianaColeman Course description Institutional description: Background, origins, and development of the Inquisition; persecution of women and marginal groups.

Instructor will normally respond within 24 hours. If you have not received a response within 24 h... more Instructor will normally respond within 24 hours. If you have not received a response within 24 hours, please send a follow-up message. Instructor will normally respond within 24 hours. If you have not received a response within 24 hours, please send a follow-up message.

In this course we will examine passages central to human experience as they are framed within and... more In this course we will examine passages central to human experience as they are framed within and across traditions and new structures of meaning-making. We will approach our study through literature, history, ethnographic accounts, podcasts, and film.

Institutional Description-Ways that religions have understood birth, sexuality, death, and the p... more Institutional Description-Ways that religions have understood birth, sexuality, death, and the passing of generations. Examples from traditions throughout the world. (General Studies: HU)
Instructor's Description-In this course we will examine rites of passage central to human experience as they are framed through various traditions and meaning-making structures. We will approach our study through literature, history, and ethnographic accounts, podcasts, and film.

Working syllabus, schedule of reading and assignments to follow...

Though the course is more closely focused on the use of Guantánamo Bay prison in the 21 st centur... more Though the course is more closely focused on the use of Guantánamo Bay prison in the 21 st century, students will gain a historical context by examining the prior use of the base as a detention center for Haitian and Cuban refugees. Students will read philosophical and anthropological works, literature, memoir, human rights and international humanitarian law publications-among other texts-to approach the meaning(s) of the site through diverse lines of inquiry. As the course unfolds, we will examine the individual human experience at Guantanamo, and the ethical and moral questions posed.

In teaching, my aim is two-fold: to introduce new information, ideas, and concepts that will enri... more In teaching, my aim is two-fold: to introduce new information, ideas, and concepts that will enrich students' future experiences in and of the world, and to spark questions that will remain with the students, evolving in sophistication throughout the course and beyond. This strategy involves a dialectical dance between the ideal and the lived, the codified and known-as presented in standard textbooks of World Religions/Religions of the World, or introductory texts to a singular religion-against snapshots and case studies of lived practice, with ongoing questions about privilege, power, and perspectives brought to bear. I want students to develop a vocabulary for discussing that category

In this workshop, we will be discussing the work of Darius Rejali ("Torture and Democracy") as we... more In this workshop, we will be discussing the work of Darius Rejali ("Torture and Democracy") as well as some of the testimony culled from the North Carolina Commission of Inquiry on Torture (NCCIT). Professor Talebi, herself a former detainee under two separate regimes in Iran, will be discussing some of her writings, and her student, Diana Coleman, will discuss her work on Guantanamo. Readings available here: https://sites.duke.edu/globalsouth/readings/ Shahla Talebi is Associate Professor of Religious Studies in the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies at Arizona State University. Talebi's research interests include questions of self sacrifice and martyrdom, violence, memory, trauma, death, burial, funerary rituals, commemoration and memorialization or their banning, religion, revolution, and nation-state in contemporary Iran. She currently holds a fellowship at the National Humanities Center. Diana Murtaugh Coleman is a Doctoral Candidate in Religious Studies (Islam in Global Context) at Arizona State University. Her interests, the intersections of religion, militarism, violence, torture, race, and carceral practices, come together in her research on 'how' Guantánamo means within the context of U.S. Empire.

Talk presented at Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Islamic Studies at George Mason University Sprin... more Talk presented at Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Islamic Studies at George Mason University Spring 2016

Interview with WHBF-TV Channel 4 about the historic Mexican and Mexican American neighborhood of ... more Interview with WHBF-TV Channel 4 about the historic Mexican and Mexican American neighborhood of Floreciente in the Quad Cities, the work of the Palomares Social Justice Center, and the 2nd annual Celebra Floreciente event.

Dictionary of African Biography, Oxford University Press, 2012

Encyclopedia of Muslim American History, 2010

Encyclopedia of Muslim American History, 2010

Memories of time spent with the children of the Peace Village (the Agent Orange Ward) at the TuDu... more Memories of time spent with the children of the Peace Village (the Agent Orange Ward) at the TuDu Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City flow back when viewing Forough Farrokhzad's film, "The House is Black."

Recorded talk comparing and contrasting the recruitment and discursive strategies used by the gro... more Recorded talk comparing and contrasting the recruitment and discursive strategies used by the groups FPI/ Front Pembala Islam (Front for the Defense of Islam) and the EDL/English Defense League given UIN Sunan Kalijaga in Yogyakarta, Java, Indonesia. The introduction is in Bahasa Indonesia, and the body of the talk is given in English.

I created this soundscape as part of a presentation for the Guantánamo Public Memory Project. It ... more I created this soundscape as part of a presentation for the Guantánamo Public Memory Project. It was played as the audience circulated, viewing the photographs, and participating in marking clay shards with messages for the Joan Baron art installation, "Memory Shards." As the soundscape ended, our "War on Terror" panel commenced. I joined Howard Cabot, Andy Gordon, and Daniel Rothenberg as part of a panel presentation and Q & A on detainee rights and treatment, military tribunals, and 'the process of justice' at Guantánamo.

Conversation with life long activist, Jim Curran, organizer of the WikiLeaks vigil that takes pla... more Conversation with life long activist, Jim Curran, organizer of the WikiLeaks vigil that takes place weekly across from the Ecuadorean Embassy in Knightsbridge, London. Jim stresses the value of symbolic gestures and shares a few of his own experiences with direct action.

Perspectives on terrorism, 2010

The paper refutes the linkage of Muslim education in Indonesia with radicalization, and addresses... more The paper refutes the linkage of Muslim education in Indonesia with radicalization, and addresses the commonly held, if incorrect, perception that theological conservatism has a causal relationship with violent extremism. Rather than a causal agent for extremism, Muslim education in Indonesia tends to operate as a protective mechanism against radicalization, as does participation in vibrant religious and cultural celebrations. Students attending the secular universities are most susceptible to extremist discourse, through the process of re-Islamization and the development of a stark and detached rational understanding of Islam.

New Caribbean Studies, 2017

This chapter argues that the camps at Guantanamo provide a spectacle both akin to and historicall... more This chapter argues that the camps at Guantanamo provide a spectacle both akin to and historically linked to the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. It suggests that by returning to the Columbian Exposition, a potent ideological project that reinforced American exceptionalism and propelled the United States toward empire as the twentieth century loomed, we can more fully understand the phenomenon of ‘Guantanamo’ and its particular utility in the early twenty-first century. Each site imagined and iterated a worldview, and powerfully deployed religiously infused political language to reinforce and create instrumental shifts in U.S. foreign policy and conceptions of the American self. The author shows how the Guantanamo prison has emerged as a facile trope in the aftermath of 9/11, a cultural reference so clearly understood that it requires no context or explanation, one powerful enough to subvert concerns about legality, morality, U.S. military interventions, and human rights. The future the base showcases makes one shudder at the next iteration of American empire.

Cultural Dynamics, 2019

Guantánamo is infamous as a site of extra-legal detention in the wake of 9/11; more than a single... more Guantánamo is infamous as a site of extra-legal detention in the wake of 9/11; more than a single site, it is part of a web of the United States’ militarization operating in the Global South. An area of the military base is now being revitalized as a new camp for climate change–related mass migration events predicted to occur throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. In February 2018, RQ Construction, LLC (Carlsbad, California) won a 23-million-dollar contract to build a “Contingency Mass Migration Complex” at Guantánamo to house migrants and personnel at the military base in a massive tent city. Though less explicitly worded, other large Department of Defense awards for work at Guantánamo point toward extensive infrastructure development as recently as March 2019. The United States’ militarized response to climate-based migration is an extension of the logic through which economic and political refugees are branded criminals or terrorists.

This paper is concerned with two faces of Hadhrami dakwah in post-New Order Indonesia. One is tha... more This paper is concerned with two faces of Hadhrami dakwah in post-New Order Indonesia. One is that of Habib Syech bin Abulkadir Assegaf (Habib Syech) who promotes traditional Sufi piety and opposes religious and political violence. The other is that of Al-Habib Muhammad Rizieq bin Hussein Syihab (Habib Rizieq), one of the founders of Front Pembela Islam (Islamic Defenders Front, FPI). He is known as much for his politics as for his piety. Both are examples of the new institutional and ritual forms that Sufism takes and the increasing significance of Hadhrami sayyid in post-New Order Indonesia. They lead social movements located in new, primarily urban, social spaces. As is true of many religiously inspired social movements they draw on and seek to amplify emotions. Habib Syech stresses love and compassion; Habib Rizieq, fear and hatred. Habib Syech bin Abulkadir Assegaf (Habib Syech) and Al-Habib Muhammad Rizieq bin Hussein Syihab (Habib Rizieq) are both sayyid (descendants of the P...

Contemporary Islam

Co-authors are Mariani Yahya, Inayah Rohmaniyah, Diana Coleman, Ali Amin and Chris Lundry

Contemporary Islam, 2013

In this paper we explore the ways in which the Indonesian Front Pembela Islam (Islamic Defenders ... more In this paper we explore the ways in which the Indonesian Front Pembela Islam (Islamic Defenders Front–FPI) uses hate speech and demonization to legitimize violent attacks on organizations and individuals it considers to be sinful or religiously deviant, and civil discourse to establish credibility and respectability. 1 We argue that the use of a discursive frame established by fatwa (legal opinions) issued by the semi-official Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI–Indonesian Council of Muslim Scholars) and tacit support from powerful political factions enable FPI to conduct campaigns of demon-ization and violence with near impunity and to avoid being labeled as a terrorist organization. We elaborate on a distinction between what the Center for Religious and Cross-Cultural Studies (CRCS) at Gadjah Mada University calls the two faces of FPI (Bagir et al. 2010a). The CRCS report distinguishes between civil and uncivil modes of FPI discourse and praxis. The civil mode seeks to establish the organization's credibility in the public sphere. It presents FPI as the ally of authorities in attempts to control deviance and assisting those in need, especially victims of natural disasters. The Cont Islam (2014) 8:153–