Assistant Professor of American Culture at the University of Michigan and 2018 LSA Collegiate Fellow (American Culture)
About
Nancy A. Khalil recently completed her PhD in anthropology at Harvard University and a postdoctoral fellowship at Yale's Center on Race, Indigeneity and Transnational Migration. Her research focuses on the politics of American Islam and her dissertation was on the profession of the Imam in America. Her academic work has been supported by several foundations, including the National Science Foundation, Social Science Research Council, MSA National, IIIT, and the Islamic Scholarship Fund.
Dr. Khalil's affiliations include: Islamic Relief USA, Board Member; Muslim Justice League, Board Member; Pluralism Project, Harvard University, Faculty Affiliate.
Current Work:
Dr. Khalil's recent large research project studied the politics of American Islam through in-depth research on Islamic higher education institutes and religious clerics, or imams, in the US. Her project argued and ethnographically depicted how bureaucratic policies, such as visa offerings and approval, and state-led higher education degree-granting authority, can shape how decentralized religions regulate, credential, and recognize their religious leaders and institutions in the United States. Ultimately, it calls for a closer look at bureaucracy as a localizer and definer of religion.
Research Area Keyword(s):
Muslims, politics, authority, Islamophobia, racialization, advertising, ethnographic methods
