T Shams
Biographic Data
| ID | 20235 |
|---|---|
| NAME | T Shams |
| GIVEN NAMES | T |
| FAMILY NAME | Shams |
| SIGNATURE | SHAMS T |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, Los Angeles |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4982-5092 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 73 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Religification of brownness and racialization of Muslimness
Religification research focuses on Muslims’ self-reported experiences. Based on interviews of 46 Black and White Canadians on how they perceive South Asian Muslims as romantic partners, I identify three narratives of religification: gender, sexuality and geopolitics. Each reveals a different facet of how Muslimness is externally constructed as intolerant of minorities, conformist, and unassimilable. While findings support the largely siloed liter…
What Makes a Relationship Serious? Race, Religion, and Emotions in South Asian Muslim Immigrants' Romantic Meaning-Making
How do sociologists operationalize "romance," specifically the seriousness or casualness of the romantic relationships of the participants they study? How do research participants themselves understand and define romantic connections in everyday life? Using the case of 80 South Asian Muslim Canadian interviewees and how they used relationship labels like "casual" and "serious" when describing their romantic experiences, this article problematizes…
Geopolitics and romance
Revisiting the Muslimness of the Asian gang
The Asian Gang Revisited (2024) is a sequel to Alexander's groundbreaking book The Asian Gang (2000) which explored South Asian and Muslim masculinities of a community of British Bangladeshis in South London. The world has vastly changed since then and so have the lives of her participants. It is a remarkable contribution to reflexive ethnography and the scholarship of race/ethnicity, religion, gender, migration and South Asian Studies. As a long…
Perilous Intimacies
Brokering immigrant transnationalism
Using the case study of Canada's private refugee sponsorship program, we show how neoliberalization heightens the power of non-immigrant civilians to broker immigrants' transnationalism. Private sponsors respond differently to two common and interrelated forms of refugee transnationalism in which they are structurally empowered to intervene. They encourage family reunification while discouraging remittances, although the former often depends on t…
Cross-Border Politics
The global dimensions of diasporic politics and state response have generated a large, interdisciplinary literature. Yet, scholars struggle to find the most productive conceptual tools, as one literature, at point of origin, studies emigration and the other, at point of destination, studies immigration. The transnational turn in the social sciences four decades ago propelled scholars to study cross-border political mobilization by viewing immigra…
The Immigrant Threat Narrative and the Politics of Resentment
Race, Religion, and Geopolitics
Using the 'complex religion' framework, this article shows the importance of religion while recognizing how race, national origin, and geopolitics shape how Muslims navigate their romantic lives. Based on 50 in-depth interviews of South Asian Muslim immigrants in Canada on interfaith and interracial romance, I show that taken-for-granted labels 'Muslim' and 'South Asian' are ambiguous even for the participants as they navigate the search for comp…
Homeland and Heartland
Arguing for more conceptual specificity regarding the term "Muslim diaspora," this article identifies two conflation problems in the scholarship on Muslim immigrants. First, the immigrants' "Muslimness," which refers to the signifiers, thought-processes, discourses, and actions that others perceive to be associated with Islam, is often conflated with the immigrants being "Muslims"-i.e., members of a discrete, bounded group supposedly different fr…
Successful yet Precarious
Precariousness is the notion that unstable and temporary employment can induce feelings of vulnerability and insecurity. As a 'successful' minority because of their high education levels and economic attainments, South Asian Americans can hardly be described as precarious. However, ethnographic observations reveal a collective precariousness felt by this group. Despite measures of success, their positionality as a racialized and stigmatized relig…
Visibility as Resistance by Muslim Americans in a Surveillance and Security Atmosphere
Based on ethnographic data on South Asian Muslims in Los Angeles and analysis of publications of the largest Muslim organization in North America, this article shows how Muslim Americans manage their hypervisibility in the post‐9/11 security atmosphere, which has intensified after ISIS terrorist attacks at home and abroad. At the individual level, Muslim Americans try to distance themselves from the “Muslim” label, which associates them with “ter…
Mirrored boundaries
Largely overlooked in the international migration literature, migration from the Muslim world can reveal how the combination of globalization and ongoing homeland tensions shapes immigrants' collective identity formation in the hostland. Using the case of Bangladeshi Muslims in Los Angeles, this article ethnographically traces how ongoing and historic homeland, hostland, and global political-religious contexts shape immigrants' everyday struggles…
The Declining Significance of Race or the Persistent Racialization of Blacks? A Conceptual, Empirical, and Methodological Review of Today’s Race Debate in America
The sociological literature of the past several decades has emphasized two apparently contradictory perspectives—the “declining significance of race” and persistent racialization of Blacks. This article surveys the empirical evidence in support of both these perspectives and attempts to explain this seeming contradiction. Based on a thorough review of recent literature on this polarized debate, this article argues that proponents of the decline o…
Bangladeshi Muslims in Mississippi
The existing literature on Muslims in post-9/11 America largely focuses on cities where Muslims are organized and visible in large numbers. This interview-based qualitative study instead focuses on Bangladeshi Muslims in Mississippi. Using intersectionality and impression management as analytical tools, I explore how these individuals negotiate their identities to navigate interactions with Mississippi's predominantly White Christian society. I i…
Gender and Multigenerational Global Human Development
In the context of a growing campaign to focus more international development efforts on women and girls, this article presents a pathways model of multigenerational global human development through an examination of gender and women as agents of development in the context of motherhood. As the vast majority of the world's women are mothers, issues related to motherhood are fundamental to addressing gender and development. Based on the United Nati…
Visibility as Resistance by Muslim Americans in a Surveillance and Security Atmosphere
Based on ethnographic data on South Asian Muslims in Los Angeles and analysis of publications of the largest Muslim organization in North America, this article shows how Muslim Americans manage their hypervisibility in the post‐9/11 security atmosphere, which has intensified after ISIS terrorist attacks at home and abroad. At the individual level, Muslim Americans try to distance themselves from the “Muslim” label, which associates them with “ter…
Successful yet Precarious
Precariousness is the notion that unstable and temporary employment can induce feelings of vulnerability and insecurity. As a 'successful' minority because of their high education levels and economic attainments, South Asian Americans can hardly be described as precarious. However, ethnographic observations reveal a collective precariousness felt by this group. Despite measures of success, their positionality as a racialized and stigmatized relig…
Cross-Border Politics
The global dimensions of diasporic politics and state response have generated a large, interdisciplinary literature. Yet, scholars struggle to find the most productive conceptual tools, as one literature, at point of origin, studies emigration and the other, at point of destination, studies immigration. The transnational turn in the social sciences four decades ago propelled scholars to study cross-border political mobilization by viewing immigra…
Race, Religion, and Geopolitics
Using the 'complex religion' framework, this article shows the importance of religion while recognizing how race, national origin, and geopolitics shape how Muslims navigate their romantic lives. Based on 50 in-depth interviews of South Asian Muslim immigrants in Canada on interfaith and interracial romance, I show that taken-for-granted labels 'Muslim' and 'South Asian' are ambiguous even for the participants as they navigate the search for comp…
Revisiting the Muslimness of the Asian gang
The Asian Gang Revisited (2024) is a sequel to Alexander's groundbreaking book The Asian Gang (2000) which explored South Asian and Muslim masculinities of a community of British Bangladeshis in South London. The world has vastly changed since then and so have the lives of her participants. It is a remarkable contribution to reflexive ethnography and the scholarship of race/ethnicity, religion, gender, migration and South Asian Studies. As a long…
Brokering immigrant transnationalism
Using the case study of Canada's private refugee sponsorship program, we show how neoliberalization heightens the power of non-immigrant civilians to broker immigrants' transnationalism. Private sponsors respond differently to two common and interrelated forms of refugee transnationalism in which they are structurally empowered to intervene. They encourage family reunification while discouraging remittances, although the former often depends on t…
Homeland and Heartland
Arguing for more conceptual specificity regarding the term "Muslim diaspora," this article identifies two conflation problems in the scholarship on Muslim immigrants. First, the immigrants' "Muslimness," which refers to the signifiers, thought-processes, discourses, and actions that others perceive to be associated with Islam, is often conflated with the immigrants being "Muslims"-i.e., members of a discrete, bounded group supposedly different fr…
Mirrored boundaries
Largely overlooked in the international migration literature, migration from the Muslim world can reveal how the combination of globalization and ongoing homeland tensions shapes immigrants' collective identity formation in the hostland. Using the case of Bangladeshi Muslims in Los Angeles, this article ethnographically traces how ongoing and historic homeland, hostland, and global political-religious contexts shape immigrants' everyday struggles…
What Makes a Relationship Serious? Race, Religion, and Emotions in South Asian Muslim Immigrants' Romantic Meaning-Making
How do sociologists operationalize "romance," specifically the seriousness or casualness of the romantic relationships of the participants they study? How do research participants themselves understand and define romantic connections in everyday life? Using the case of 80 South Asian Muslim Canadian interviewees and how they used relationship labels like "casual" and "serious" when describing their romantic experiences, this article problematizes…
The Declining Significance of Race or the Persistent Racialization of Blacks? A Conceptual, Empirical, and Methodological Review of Today’s Race Debate in America
The sociological literature of the past several decades has emphasized two apparently contradictory perspectives—the “declining significance of race” and persistent racialization of Blacks. This article surveys the empirical evidence in support of both these perspectives and attempts to explain this seeming contradiction. Based on a thorough review of recent literature on this polarized debate, this article argues that proponents of the decline o…
Bangladeshi Muslims in Mississippi
The existing literature on Muslims in post-9/11 America largely focuses on cities where Muslims are organized and visible in large numbers. This interview-based qualitative study instead focuses on Bangladeshi Muslims in Mississippi. Using intersectionality and impression management as analytical tools, I explore how these individuals negotiate their identities to navigate interactions with Mississippi's predominantly White Christian society. I i…
Gender and Multigenerational Global Human Development
In the context of a growing campaign to focus more international development efforts on women and girls, this article presents a pathways model of multigenerational global human development through an examination of gender and women as agents of development in the context of motherhood. As the vast majority of the world's women are mothers, issues related to motherhood are fundamental to addressing gender and development. Based on the United Nati…
The Declining Significance of Race or the Persistent Racialization of Blacks? A Conceptual, Empirical, and Methodological Review of Today’s Race Debate in America
The sociological literature of the past several decades has emphasized two apparently contradictory perspectives—the “declining significance of race” and persistent racialization of Blacks. This article surveys the empirical evidence in support of both these perspectives and attempts to explain this seeming contradiction. Based on a thorough review of recent literature on this polarized debate, this article argues that proponents of the decline o…
Bangladeshi Muslims in Mississippi
The existing literature on Muslims in post-9/11 America largely focuses on cities where Muslims are organized and visible in large numbers. This interview-based qualitative study instead focuses on Bangladeshi Muslims in Mississippi. Using intersectionality and impression management as analytical tools, I explore how these individuals negotiate their identities to navigate interactions with Mississippi's predominantly White Christian society. I i…
Visibility as Resistance by Muslim Americans in a Surveillance and Security Atmosphere
Based on ethnographic data on South Asian Muslims in Los Angeles and analysis of publications of the largest Muslim organization in North America, this article shows how Muslim Americans manage their hypervisibility in the post‐9/11 security atmosphere, which has intensified after ISIS terrorist attacks at home and abroad. At the individual level, Muslim Americans try to distance themselves from the “Muslim” label, which associates them with “ter…
Mirrored boundaries
Largely overlooked in the international migration literature, migration from the Muslim world can reveal how the combination of globalization and ongoing homeland tensions shapes immigrants' collective identity formation in the hostland. Using the case of Bangladeshi Muslims in Los Angeles, this article ethnographically traces how ongoing and historic homeland, hostland, and global political-religious contexts shape immigrants' everyday struggles…
Successful yet Precarious
Precariousness is the notion that unstable and temporary employment can induce feelings of vulnerability and insecurity. As a 'successful' minority because of their high education levels and economic attainments, South Asian Americans can hardly be described as precarious. However, ethnographic observations reveal a collective precariousness felt by this group. Despite measures of success, their positionality as a racialized and stigmatized relig…
Homeland and Heartland
Arguing for more conceptual specificity regarding the term "Muslim diaspora," this article identifies two conflation problems in the scholarship on Muslim immigrants. First, the immigrants' "Muslimness," which refers to the signifiers, thought-processes, discourses, and actions that others perceive to be associated with Islam, is often conflated with the immigrants being "Muslims"-i.e., members of a discrete, bounded group supposedly different fr…
The Immigrant Threat Narrative and the Politics of Resentment
Race, Religion, and Geopolitics
Using the 'complex religion' framework, this article shows the importance of religion while recognizing how race, national origin, and geopolitics shape how Muslims navigate their romantic lives. Based on 50 in-depth interviews of South Asian Muslim immigrants in Canada on interfaith and interracial romance, I show that taken-for-granted labels 'Muslim' and 'South Asian' are ambiguous even for the participants as they navigate the search for comp…
Cross-Border Politics
The global dimensions of diasporic politics and state response have generated a large, interdisciplinary literature. Yet, scholars struggle to find the most productive conceptual tools, as one literature, at point of origin, studies emigration and the other, at point of destination, studies immigration. The transnational turn in the social sciences four decades ago propelled scholars to study cross-border political mobilization by viewing immigra…
Perilous Intimacies
Brokering immigrant transnationalism
Using the case study of Canada's private refugee sponsorship program, we show how neoliberalization heightens the power of non-immigrant civilians to broker immigrants' transnationalism. Private sponsors respond differently to two common and interrelated forms of refugee transnationalism in which they are structurally empowered to intervene. They encourage family reunification while discouraging remittances, although the former often depends on t…
What Makes a Relationship Serious? Race, Religion, and Emotions in South Asian Muslim Immigrants' Romantic Meaning-Making
How do sociologists operationalize "romance," specifically the seriousness or casualness of the romantic relationships of the participants they study? How do research participants themselves understand and define romantic connections in everyday life? Using the case of 80 South Asian Muslim Canadian interviewees and how they used relationship labels like "casual" and "serious" when describing their romantic experiences, this article problematizes…
Geopolitics and romance
Revisiting the Muslimness of the Asian gang
The Asian Gang Revisited (2024) is a sequel to Alexander's groundbreaking book The Asian Gang (2000) which explored South Asian and Muslim masculinities of a community of British Bangladeshis in South London. The world has vastly changed since then and so have the lives of her participants. It is a remarkable contribution to reflexive ethnography and the scholarship of race/ethnicity, religion, gender, migration and South Asian Studies. As a long…
Religification of brownness and racialization of Muslimness
Religification research focuses on Muslims’ self-reported experiences. Based on interviews of 46 Black and White Canadians on how they perceive South Asian Muslims as romantic partners, I identify three narratives of religification: gender, sexuality and geopolitics. Each reveals a different facet of how Muslimness is externally constructed as intolerant of minorities, conformist, and unassimilable. While findings support the largely siloed liter…
Sociology (15 works) · Gender Studies (13 works) · Migration, Refugees, and Integration (10 works) · Political science (10 works) · Politics (10 works) · Gender Studies (9 works) · Immigration (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity (6 works) · Law (6 works)