Missing

Maira Sunaina Marr Maira

Description

In Missing, Sunaina Marr Maira explores how young South Asian Muslim immigrants living in the United States experienced and understood national belonging (or exclusion) at a particular moment in the history of U.S. imperialism: in the years immediately following September 11, 2001. Drawing on ethnographic research in a New England high school, Maira investigates the cultural dimensions of citizenship for South Asian Muslim students and their relationship to the state in the everyday contexts of education, labor, leisure, dissent, betrayal, and loss. The narratives of the mostly working-class youth she focuses on demonstrate how cultural citizenship is produced in school, at home, at work, and in popular culture. Maira examines how young South Asian Muslims made sense of the political and historical forces shaping their lives and developed their own forms of political critique and modes of dissent, which she links both to their experiences following September 11, 2001, and to a longer history of regimes of surveillance and repression in the United States.Bringing grounded ethnographic analysis to the critique of U.S. empire, Maira teases out the ways that imperial power affects the everyday lives of young immigrants in the United States. She illuminates the paradoxes of national belonging, exclusion, alienation, and political expression facing a generation of Muslim youth coming of age at this particular moment. She also sheds new light on larger questions about civil rights, globalization, and U.S. foreign policy. Maira demonstrates that a particular subjectivity, the "imperial feeling" of the present historical moment, is linked not just to issues of war and terrorism but also to migration and work, popular culture and global media, family and belonging.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique
• USA
• Islamic studies
• États-Unis
• Asia
• Migration

Informations

• Publié par: Duke University Press
• Date de parution: 01 mai 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780822392385
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Missing

Missing

, ,    /

Sunaina Marr Maira

Duke University Press Durham & London 

©  Duke University Press All rigts reserved

Printed in te United States of America on acid-free paperb Designed by Jennifer Hill Typeset in Adobe Jenson by Acorn International

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data appear on te last printed page of tis book.

For te young people in tis book and for Majeed

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

One

Two

hree

Four

Five

Six

Appendix

Notes

Bibliograpy

Index

ix

Sout Asian Muslim Yout in te United States after / 

Imperial Feelings: U.S. Empire and te War on Terror 

Cultural Citizensip 

Transnational Citizensip: Flexibility and Control 

Economies of Citizensip: Work, Play, and Polyculturalism

Dissenting Citizensip: Orientalisms, Feminisms, and Dissenting Feelings 

Missing: Fear, Complicity, and Solidarity 

A Note on Metods











Acknowledgments

he acknowledgments are usually te place were te autor names te individuals or groups tat ave enabled te production of wat is inevitably a collectively saped artifact, despite te often soli- tary process of writing. In my case, I am unable to name tose I would really like to tank for making tis book possible—te young people wose stories I include in tis book, as well as teir families and friends, wose names I cannot reveal for reasons of confidentiality and safety but wo allowed me to narrate teir experiences and sare teir critique. I am indebted to tem for being willing to be so can- did wit me at a time wen not just immigrants, but also citizens, were esitant to sare teir views for fear of backlas. his was a moment tat was vari- ously frustrating, scary, painful, infuriating, and de- pressing for many—including myself—and I want to tank tese students for teir courage and candor tat kept me sane and elped me keep my eyes on te prize. I am very grateful to te public ig scool for letting me do tis researc and for giving me suc open access to te teacers and staff, wo were in- credibly generous wit teir time and let me intrude into teir classrooms. In particular, te director of te International Student Center was extremely tougtful and willing to sare is experiences and insigts wit me. It is largely due to is support of te Muslim immigrant students tat many of tem found spaces were tey could publicly express teir