Muslim American Youth

Michelle Fine; Selcuk R. Sirin

Published by New York University Press 2008

Muslim American Youth

Understanding Hyphenated Identities through Multiple Methods

Michelle Fine and Selcuk R. Sirin

Volume 12 in the series Qualitative Studies in Psychology

https://doi.org/10.18574/9780814708859

Overview
Contents

About this book

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the subsequent “war on terror,” growing up Muslim in the U.S. has become a far more challenging task for young people. They must contend with popular cultural representations of Muslim-men-as-terrorists and Muslim-women-as-oppressed, the suspicious gaze of peers, teachers, and strangers, and police, and the fierce embodiment of fears in their homes.
With great attention to quantitative and qualitative detail, the authors provide heartbreaking and funny stories of discrimination and resistance, delivering hard to ignore statistical evidence of moral exclusion for young people whose lives have been situated on the intimate fault lines of global conflict, and who carry international crises in their backpacks and in their souls.
The volume offers a critical conceptual framework to aid in understanding Muslim American identity formation processes, a framework which can also be applied to other groups of marginalized and immigrant youth. In addition, through their innovative data analytic methods that creatively mix youth drawings, intensive individual interviews, focused group discussions, and culturally sensitive survey items, the authors provide an antidote to “qualitative vs. quantitative” arguments that have unnecessarily captured much time and energy in psychology and other behavioral sciences.
Muslim American Youth provides a much-needed road map for those seeking to understand how Muslim youth and other groups of immigrant youth negotiate their identities as Americans.

Author information

Fine Michelle :

Michelle Fine is a Distinguished Professor of Social Psychology, Women’s Studies and Urban Education at the Graduate Center, CUNY. She is the author of a long list of award-winning books in the fields of education and psychology, including Framing Dropouts, Becoming Gentlemen, and Speedbumps: A Student Friendly Guide to Qualitative Research and The Unknown City, both with Lois Weis. She is also coeditor of NYU Press’s Qualitative Studies in Psychology series.Sirin Selcuk R. :

Selcuk R. Sirin is Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Psychology at New York University.

Reviews

With heart and eloquence, the authors illuminate vital concerns about our society’s treatment of Muslim-American youth.

This book will be particularly useful for any professional who needs well-researched support for what their instinct tells them their community needs.

M. Brinton Lykes,Lynch School of Education and Center for Human Rights and International Justice, Boston College:
Sirin and Fine...render visible the complex lives of a profoundly maligned and misunderstood group—Muslim-American youth. They deploy surveys, focus groups, in-depth interviews, and identity maps to explore how Muslim-American youth are creating and re-creating themselves within these politically and socially charged times . . . This is a must read.

Richard M. Lerner,Bergstrom Chair in Applied Developmental Science, Tufts University:
This book provides a unique, powerful, rich, and nuanced understanding of identity development among Muslim-American youth. The publication of Muslim American Youth is a landmark event in developmental science.

This work complexly and richly captures the diversity in the lived identities of Muslim-American youth, highlighting the power and potential of mixed methodologies in studying the phenomenon of life on the hyphen.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Foreword Designated “Others”: Young, Muslim, and American Carola Suárez-Orozco Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
1. Growing Up in the Shadow of Moral Exclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Meet Aisha Challenging and Laughing Her Way through Suspicion, Surveillance, and Low Expectations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	25
2. Muslim Americans History, Demography, and Diversity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	32
Meet Sahar A Hyphen with Holes in It . . . Allowing Her to Sometimes Fall Through Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	54
3. Moral Exclusion in a “Nation of Immigrants” An American Paradox or Tradition? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	58
Meet Yeliz A Young Woman of Conviction, Distinct across Contexts Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	81
4. The Weight of the Hyphen Discrimination and Coping Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	85
Meet Ayyad A Regular Cute Guy” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	118
5. Negotiating the Muslim American Hyphen Integrated, Parallel, and Confl ictual Paths Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	121
Meet Taliya Seeking Safe Spaces for Social Analysis and Action Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	151
6. Contact Zones Negotiating the Hyphen between Self and Others Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	155
Meet Masood Grounded in Islam, Crossing Borders Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	187
7. Researching Hyphenated Selves across Contexts Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	193
Appendix A Survey Measures Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	209
Appendix B Individual Interview Protocol Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211
Appendix C Focus-Group Protocols Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	214
Appendix D Identity Maps Coding Sheets Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	218
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	223
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	237
About the Authors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	245

Language: English
Publisher: New York University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Keywords: With; personal; stories; anecdotes151often; heartbreaking; sometimes; hilarious151of; discrimination; resistance; this; volume; provides; much-needed; roadmap; those; seeking; understand; Muslim; youth; other; groups; immigrant; negotiate; their; identities; American

eBook

Published: July 12, 2008
ISBN: 9780814708859