Journal Issue Examines Impact of September 11 Tragedy on Middle Eastern, Muslim and South Asian Racial, Ethnic and Religious Identities
Release Date: 
September 8, 2011

(Bloomington, IN) - With the upcoming ten-year anniversary of the September 11 tragedy, the journal Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts will feature a special issue examining how the events of that historic day have framed the way in which Americans address race, religion and national origin in policy and public realms. Entitled Field Notes from the September 11 Moment: Transformations in Community and Country, the issue is a collaboration between the editorial staff and Deepa Iyer, Executive Director of South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), who served as guest editor. It includes academic thought pieces, as well as a collection of first-person narratives from individuals representing the Muslim, Arab, Sikh and South Asian communities.

According to Iyer, "The post-September 11 world has brought about significant shifts in how we think about race and identity in the United States. This issue presents perspectives about a range of concerns that our country has been grappling with over the past decade, and serves as a departure point for further analysis and dialogue."

Editor-in-Chief Andrew Grant-Thomas noted, "9/11 affected all of us, but not equally or in the same ways. Ten years later, the politics around 9/11 continue to reverberate with especially pronounced impact on our Muslim, Arab, South Asian and Sikh communities. We thought it was important to bring insights and observations from those communities to a broader audience."

We invite educators, advocates, policymakers, and students to utilize this issue of Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts. Information on subscriptions and bulk purchases of single issues is available from the Press at http://www.jstor/r/iupress or by calling 1-812-855-8507/1-800-842-6796.

Muneer Ahmad's piece Homeland Insecurities: Racial Violence the Day after September 11 lays the foundation for this issue of the journal and provides context for what follows. Activist Linda Sarsour recounts the intersection of personal choices and community need in Reflections of a Brooklyn-based Arab American ActivistVijay Prashad's The Day Our Probation Ended asks readers to consider the broader implications of imperialism. In Welcome Mat and Spiked Gate: Two Stories of Immigrants in the United StatesSayu Bhojwani urges for a course correction in the face of immigrant backlash. Sabrina Alimahomed's Generation Islam: Arab American Muslims and Racial Politics after September 11 draws on research and interviews with over 60 young adult Muslims living in Los Angeles, California. "Just Don't Act Muslim:" Reflections from a Queens-based Community Organizer by Annetta Seecharran describes how a community organization had to shift into crisis-mode post-September 11. Sue Veres Royal from U.S.In The World contributed an article about the "us vs. them" mentality of the United States in Fear, Rhetoric and the "Other."

Soniya Munshi writes about the challenges faced by domestic violence survivors in Multiplicities of Violence: Responses to September 11 from South Asian Women's OrganizationsAmardeep Singh, the co-founder of The Sikh Coalition, writes of his journey towards activism in The Accidental ActivistSubhash Kateel writes about his personal response to September 11 and explores its impact on community members and activists in The Best of Times and Worst of Times... in South Asian AmericaAzadeh Shahshahani shares Reflections on the Occasion of the Tenth Anniversary of September 11, which highlights the need for education about rights among immigrant communities. Monami Maulik's Our Movement is for the Long Haul: Ten Years of DRUM's Community Organizing by Working-Class South Asian Migrants provides a case-study in organizing success and, finally, Valarie Kaur describes her road-trip odyssey in Emerging from the Shadow of September 11.

South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) is a national, non-profit, non-partisan organization that elevates the voices and perspectives of South Asian individuals and organizations to build a more just and inclusive society in the United States. SAALT is coordinating a national campaign, An America For All of Us, to mark the ten-year anniversary of September 11. For more information, please visit www.saalt.org.

Race/Ethnicity is published three times a year by Indiana University Press in partnership with the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion at The Ohio State University.

The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity was established in 2003 as a center for interdisciplinary research at The Ohio State University. The Kirwan Institute partners with people, communities, and institutions worldwide to think about, talk about, and act on race in ways that create and expand opportunity for all. For more information, go to kirwaninstitute.org

Indiana University Press, founded in 1950, is proud to play a part in today's increasingly-essential global dialogue and to provide readers with a world of ideas, discoveries, and perspectives. Its titles feature scholarly essays, fiction, poetry, and art in a wide range of subject areas including legal studies, feminist and American philosophy, Judaism and science, Middle East women's studies, feminist studies in religion, film, bioethics, folklore, African American and African studies and literature, electronic services, modern literature, Victorian studies, transnationalism, and environmental ethics, among others.