Anna Piela
Biographic Data
| ID | 223788 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Anna Piela |
| GIVEN NAMES | Anna |
| FAMILY NAME | Piela |
| SIGNATURE | PIELA A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Leeds Trinity University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3589-1822 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 81 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 24 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Stealing My Religion: Not Just Any Cultural Appropriation, by LIZ Bucar
Journal Article Stealing My Religion: Not Just Any Cultural Appropriation, by LIZ BUCAR Get access Stealing My Religion: Not Just Any Cultural Appropriation, by LIZ BUCAR. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2022, 272 pp.; $24.95 (hardback). Anna Piela Anna Piela Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA [email protected] https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3589-1822 Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociolo…
White Habitus Among Polish White Female Converts to Islam
This article addresses the question of how the racial habitus of Polish White female converts (PWFCs) to Islam is performed in different social settings. We draw from in-depth interviews with 35 PWFCs living in Poland and the United Kingdom. While the notion of habitus has been used to analyze socialization into Islam, racial habitus has not been analyzed in relation to White converts to Islam. We argue that White habitus is an important concept …
The Role of the Internet in the Formation of Muslim Subjectivity Among Polish Female Converts to Islam
In this article, we discuss the main arguments related to female Muslim converts' formation of a religious subjectivity in the context of studying Islam in online spaces. In distinguishing between Western and Eastern Europe, it is our purpose to highlight the significance of online sources for converts who inhabit geographic “peripheries” of Islam. After giving an overview of the literature that discusses Muslim subject formation among converts, …
Being Muslim, Polish, and at home: Converts to Islam in Poland
This article focuses on converts to Islam in Poland, taking into account the specific socio-cultural, political, and historical contexts and new trends that have emerged with the gradual growth of the Muslim population. We draw attention to the unique patterns of practices related to Islam and patterns of belonging. Eastern European Islam remains relatively under-researched and, as a consequence, there is little clarity whether processes identifi…
Wearing the Niqab: Muslim Women in the UK and the US
Bringing niqab wearers’ voices to the fore, discussing their narratives on religious agency, identity, social interaction, community, and urban spaces, Anna Piela situates women’s accounts firmly within UK and US socio-political contexts as well as within media discourses on Islam. The niqab has recently emerged as one of the most ubiquitous symbols of everything that is perceived to be wrong with Islam: barbarity, backwardness, exploitation of w…
I Discovered I Love to Pray Alone Too”: Pluralist Muslim Women’s Approaches to Practicing Islam during and after Ramadan 2020
Public health guidelines implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic have changed the way many people practice religion. In the realm of Islam, practices from the margins—attending online mosques and prayer groups, or praying alone—suddenly became commonplace. This paper addresses the question: What religious processes have become more evident among pluralist Muslim women during the pandemic? Based on 34 open-ended online surveys completed by plural…
Theorizing the Religious Habitus in the Context of Conversion to Islam among Polish Women of Catholic Background
This article explores the conversion processes of Polish women of Catholic background to Islam. Data from participant observation of mosque-based, women-only weekend gatherings for converts and in-depth interviews with 29 Polish female converts to Islam are presented to illustrate the dialectic between the persistence and transformation of religious habitus. Our analysis demonstrates that in the conversion process, Catholic habitus remains pervas…
Wearing the Niqab in the UK: Exploring the Embodied “Shape a Moral Action Can Take”
The niqab (Islamic face veil) frequently features in political controversies in the United Kingdom, where negative opinions of the niqab are reforged into political currency (such as the “burka ban” proposals) by conservative and liberal actors alike. Drawing from Saba Mahmood’s conceptualizations of agency and moral action, I analyze twelve interviews I conducted with niqab wearers in the UK. This article centers insider perspectives on the niqa…
How do Muslim women who wear the niqab interact with others online? A case study of a profile on a photo-sharing website
This article identifies a gap in extant literature on women who wear the niqab and their representations in ‘traditional’ media: there are few academic sources that draw from these women’s own narratives. In order to address this gap, this article highlights niqabis’ self-representations in the form of photographic self-portraits published in new media and demonstrates a variety of positive ways in which these self-portraits are received by the a…
The experiences of face veil wearers in Europe and the law
This edited collection of 14 chapters provides a multifaceted analysis of issues faced by niqab (face veil) wearers Europe. The editor identified a gap in academic literature about the niqab, namel
The Burqa Affair across Europe: Between Public and Private Space By Alessandro Ferrari and Sabrina Pastorelli, eds. (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2013. 268 pages.)
This edited collection provides a comprehensive analysis of the legal contextswithin which the “burqa affair” is located across Europe. It was published followingthe December 2012 “Secularism and Religious Diversity in Europe:Opportunities and Perspectives” conference organized under the auspices ofthe RELIGARE project (Religious Diversity and Secular Models in Europe).Its aims are ambitious and commendable: to analyze the socio-legal situationof…
On reflection: Mature students’ views of teaching and learning on Access to Higher Education Courses
Mature students’ experiences of learning and teaching on Access to Higher Education course are coloured by their socio-economic backgrounds, their prior experiences of learning and their relationships with their tutors. After giving informed consent, 60 students and 20 tutors across seven colleges in a region of England in 2012–2013 took part in interviews on these topics, the former group on three occasions during the academic year. A further 50…
Muslim Women Speak Online
Online Islamic Spaces as Communities of Practice for Female Muslim Converts Who Wear the Niqab
This article focuses on online narratives of female converts to Islam who wear or plan to wear the niqab. There is little discussion in research literature about motivations leading to adoption of the niqab or experiences of women who wear it. Instead, the discourse on niqab has been sensationalised by tabloid media which construct it as a symbol of otherness and separation from the host culture and, recently, one of radicalisation. This begs the…
Explaining Self-Harm: Youth Cybertalk and Marginalized Sexualities and Genders
This study investigates self-harm among young lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans (LGBT) people. Using qualitative virtual methods, we examined online forums to explore young LGBT people's cybertalk about emotional distress and self-harming. We investigated how youth explained the relationship between self-harm and sexuality and gender. We found that LGBT youth may articulate contradictory, ambiguous, and multiple accounts of the relationship but t…
British Asian Muslim Women, Multiple Spatialities, and Cosmopolitanism: By Fazila Bhimji (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. 176 pages.)
This book is a valuable contribution to the growing body of research on theexperiences and identities of British Muslim women. Intersections betweengender, ethnicity, and Islam only became a prominent theme in British socialsciences when the need for a careful and fair investigation of Muslim women’srealities arose during the last decade due to the unfolding of several Islamorientedpolicy debates (i.e., politicians’ critiques of the niqab) and th…
Transforming marginalised adult learners’ views of themselves: Access to Higher Education courses in England
Adult learners on Access to Higher Education courses struggled with institutional and social structures to attend their courses, but transformed their identities as learners through them. Although asymmetrical power relationships dominated the intentional learning communities of their courses, their work was facilitated by collaborative cultures and supportive tutors, and students gained the confidence to construct their own emergent communities …
Muslim Diaspora in the West: Negotiating Gender, Home, and Belonging By Haideh Moghissi and Halleh Ghorashi, eds. (Farnham, UK: Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2011. 228 pages.)
This excellent edited collection unpicks and disputes multifarious and intricate processes that underpin the homogenization, otherization, and vilification of immigrants from Muslim-majority countries, Muslim citizens, and individuals with a Muslim cultural background in the group of countries known as “the West.” It does so through presenting a selection of essays that offer an insight into the localized, day-to-day realities of people whose liv…
Hard-to-Reach Youth Online: Methodological Advances in Self-Harm Research
I am Just Doing my Bit to Promote Modesty: Niqabis' self-portraits on photo-sharing websites
In this article, I discuss the main arguments that deal with mainstream media representations of niqabis in the West. In distinguishing between such representations of niqabis and their self-representations distributed online on photo-sharing sites, it is my purpose to highlight the entirely different visual rhetoric that emerges from the latter by pointing to various aspects of the self-portraits. After giving an overview of the literature that …
Women are Believers in Their Own Right”: One Muslim Woman's Challenge to Dominant Discourses Shaping Gender Relations in Islam
Women and War in the Middle East: Transnational Perspectives
Piety as a concept underpinning Muslim women’s online discussions of marriage and professional career
Muslim Women's Online Discussions of Gender Relations in Islam
This paper analyses debates of Muslim women who discuss gender relations in Islam in English-speaking women-only online groups. My focus is particularly on Muslim women's engagement with Islamic sources on the levels of existing interpretations and women's own readings. There is a diversity of views on different points and women expertly refer to the Qur'an and to the Prophetic traditions to support their respective positions. I argue that this v…
Muslim Women's Online Discussions of Gender Relations in Islam
This paper analyses debates of Muslim women who discuss gender relations in Islam in English-speaking women-only online groups. My focus is particularly on Muslim women's engagement with Islamic sources on the levels of existing interpretations and women's own readings. There is a diversity of views on different points and women expertly refer to the Qur'an and to the Prophetic traditions to support their respective positions. I argue that this v…
Hard-to-Reach Youth Online: Methodological Advances in Self-Harm Research
Explaining Self-Harm: Youth Cybertalk and Marginalized Sexualities and Genders
This study investigates self-harm among young lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans (LGBT) people. Using qualitative virtual methods, we examined online forums to explore young LGBT people's cybertalk about emotional distress and self-harming. We investigated how youth explained the relationship between self-harm and sexuality and gender. We found that LGBT youth may articulate contradictory, ambiguous, and multiple accounts of the relationship but t…
Transforming marginalised adult learners’ views of themselves: Access to Higher Education courses in England
Adult learners on Access to Higher Education courses struggled with institutional and social structures to attend their courses, but transformed their identities as learners through them. Although asymmetrical power relationships dominated the intentional learning communities of their courses, their work was facilitated by collaborative cultures and supportive tutors, and students gained the confidence to construct their own emergent communities …
How do Muslim women who wear the niqab interact with others online? A case study of a profile on a photo-sharing website
This article identifies a gap in extant literature on women who wear the niqab and their representations in ‘traditional’ media: there are few academic sources that draw from these women’s own narratives. In order to address this gap, this article highlights niqabis’ self-representations in the form of photographic self-portraits published in new media and demonstrates a variety of positive ways in which these self-portraits are received by the a…
White Habitus Among Polish White Female Converts to Islam
This article addresses the question of how the racial habitus of Polish White female converts (PWFCs) to Islam is performed in different social settings. We draw from in-depth interviews with 35 PWFCs living in Poland and the United Kingdom. While the notion of habitus has been used to analyze socialization into Islam, racial habitus has not been analyzed in relation to White converts to Islam. We argue that White habitus is an important concept …
Theorizing the Religious Habitus in the Context of Conversion to Islam among Polish Women of Catholic Background
This article explores the conversion processes of Polish women of Catholic background to Islam. Data from participant observation of mosque-based, women-only weekend gatherings for converts and in-depth interviews with 29 Polish female converts to Islam are presented to illustrate the dialectic between the persistence and transformation of religious habitus. Our analysis demonstrates that in the conversion process, Catholic habitus remains pervas…
Piety as a concept underpinning Muslim women’s online discussions of marriage and professional career
Being Muslim, Polish, and at home: Converts to Islam in Poland
This article focuses on converts to Islam in Poland, taking into account the specific socio-cultural, political, and historical contexts and new trends that have emerged with the gradual growth of the Muslim population. We draw attention to the unique patterns of practices related to Islam and patterns of belonging. Eastern European Islam remains relatively under-researched and, as a consequence, there is little clarity whether processes identifi…
Online Islamic Spaces as Communities of Practice for Female Muslim Converts Who Wear the Niqab
This article focuses on online narratives of female converts to Islam who wear or plan to wear the niqab. There is little discussion in research literature about motivations leading to adoption of the niqab or experiences of women who wear it. Instead, the discourse on niqab has been sensationalised by tabloid media which construct it as a symbol of otherness and separation from the host culture and, recently, one of radicalisation. This begs the…
I am Just Doing my Bit to Promote Modesty: Niqabis' self-portraits on photo-sharing websites
In this article, I discuss the main arguments that deal with mainstream media representations of niqabis in the West. In distinguishing between such representations of niqabis and their self-representations distributed online on photo-sharing sites, it is my purpose to highlight the entirely different visual rhetoric that emerges from the latter by pointing to various aspects of the self-portraits. After giving an overview of the literature that …
Women are Believers in Their Own Right”: One Muslim Woman's Challenge to Dominant Discourses Shaping Gender Relations in Islam
Wearing the Niqab in the UK: Exploring the Embodied “Shape a Moral Action Can Take”
The niqab (Islamic face veil) frequently features in political controversies in the United Kingdom, where negative opinions of the niqab are reforged into political currency (such as the “burka ban” proposals) by conservative and liberal actors alike. Drawing from Saba Mahmood’s conceptualizations of agency and moral action, I analyze twelve interviews I conducted with niqab wearers in the UK. This article centers insider perspectives on the niqa…
The experiences of face veil wearers in Europe and the law
This edited collection of 14 chapters provides a multifaceted analysis of issues faced by niqab (face veil) wearers Europe. The editor identified a gap in academic literature about the niqab, namel
On reflection: Mature students’ views of teaching and learning on Access to Higher Education Courses
Mature students’ experiences of learning and teaching on Access to Higher Education course are coloured by their socio-economic backgrounds, their prior experiences of learning and their relationships with their tutors. After giving informed consent, 60 students and 20 tutors across seven colleges in a region of England in 2012–2013 took part in interviews on these topics, the former group on three occasions during the academic year. A further 50…
Muslim Women's Online Discussions of Gender Relations in Islam
This paper analyses debates of Muslim women who discuss gender relations in Islam in English-speaking women-only online groups. My focus is particularly on Muslim women's engagement with Islamic sources on the levels of existing interpretations and women's own readings. There is a diversity of views on different points and women expertly refer to the Qur'an and to the Prophetic traditions to support their respective positions. I argue that this v…
Piety as a concept underpinning Muslim women’s online discussions of marriage and professional career
Women and War in the Middle East: Transnational Perspectives
Muslim Diaspora in the West: Negotiating Gender, Home, and Belonging By Haideh Moghissi and Halleh Ghorashi, eds. (Farnham, UK: Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2011. 228 pages.)
This excellent edited collection unpicks and disputes multifarious and intricate processes that underpin the homogenization, otherization, and vilification of immigrants from Muslim-majority countries, Muslim citizens, and individuals with a Muslim cultural background in the group of countries known as “the West.” It does so through presenting a selection of essays that offer an insight into the localized, day-to-day realities of people whose liv…
Hard-to-Reach Youth Online: Methodological Advances in Self-Harm Research
I am Just Doing my Bit to Promote Modesty: Niqabis' self-portraits on photo-sharing websites
In this article, I discuss the main arguments that deal with mainstream media representations of niqabis in the West. In distinguishing between such representations of niqabis and their self-representations distributed online on photo-sharing sites, it is my purpose to highlight the entirely different visual rhetoric that emerges from the latter by pointing to various aspects of the self-portraits. After giving an overview of the literature that …
Women are Believers in Their Own Right”: One Muslim Woman's Challenge to Dominant Discourses Shaping Gender Relations in Islam
British Asian Muslim Women, Multiple Spatialities, and Cosmopolitanism: By Fazila Bhimji (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. 176 pages.)
This book is a valuable contribution to the growing body of research on theexperiences and identities of British Muslim women. Intersections betweengender, ethnicity, and Islam only became a prominent theme in British socialsciences when the need for a careful and fair investigation of Muslim women’srealities arose during the last decade due to the unfolding of several Islamorientedpolicy debates (i.e., politicians’ critiques of the niqab) and th…
Transforming marginalised adult learners’ views of themselves: Access to Higher Education courses in England
Adult learners on Access to Higher Education courses struggled with institutional and social structures to attend their courses, but transformed their identities as learners through them. Although asymmetrical power relationships dominated the intentional learning communities of their courses, their work was facilitated by collaborative cultures and supportive tutors, and students gained the confidence to construct their own emergent communities …
The Burqa Affair across Europe: Between Public and Private Space By Alessandro Ferrari and Sabrina Pastorelli, eds. (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2013. 268 pages.)
This edited collection provides a comprehensive analysis of the legal contextswithin which the “burqa affair” is located across Europe. It was published followingthe December 2012 “Secularism and Religious Diversity in Europe:Opportunities and Perspectives” conference organized under the auspices ofthe RELIGARE project (Religious Diversity and Secular Models in Europe).Its aims are ambitious and commendable: to analyze the socio-legal situationof…
On reflection: Mature students’ views of teaching and learning on Access to Higher Education Courses
Mature students’ experiences of learning and teaching on Access to Higher Education course are coloured by their socio-economic backgrounds, their prior experiences of learning and their relationships with their tutors. After giving informed consent, 60 students and 20 tutors across seven colleges in a region of England in 2012–2013 took part in interviews on these topics, the former group on three occasions during the academic year. A further 50…
Muslim Women Speak Online
Online Islamic Spaces as Communities of Practice for Female Muslim Converts Who Wear the Niqab
This article focuses on online narratives of female converts to Islam who wear or plan to wear the niqab. There is little discussion in research literature about motivations leading to adoption of the niqab or experiences of women who wear it. Instead, the discourse on niqab has been sensationalised by tabloid media which construct it as a symbol of otherness and separation from the host culture and, recently, one of radicalisation. This begs the…
Explaining Self-Harm: Youth Cybertalk and Marginalized Sexualities and Genders
This study investigates self-harm among young lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans (LGBT) people. Using qualitative virtual methods, we examined online forums to explore young LGBT people's cybertalk about emotional distress and self-harming. We investigated how youth explained the relationship between self-harm and sexuality and gender. We found that LGBT youth may articulate contradictory, ambiguous, and multiple accounts of the relationship but t…
How do Muslim women who wear the niqab interact with others online? A case study of a profile on a photo-sharing website
This article identifies a gap in extant literature on women who wear the niqab and their representations in ‘traditional’ media: there are few academic sources that draw from these women’s own narratives. In order to address this gap, this article highlights niqabis’ self-representations in the form of photographic self-portraits published in new media and demonstrates a variety of positive ways in which these self-portraits are received by the a…
The experiences of face veil wearers in Europe and the law
This edited collection of 14 chapters provides a multifaceted analysis of issues faced by niqab (face veil) wearers Europe. The editor identified a gap in academic literature about the niqab, namel
Wearing the Niqab in the UK: Exploring the Embodied “Shape a Moral Action Can Take”
The niqab (Islamic face veil) frequently features in political controversies in the United Kingdom, where negative opinions of the niqab are reforged into political currency (such as the “burka ban” proposals) by conservative and liberal actors alike. Drawing from Saba Mahmood’s conceptualizations of agency and moral action, I analyze twelve interviews I conducted with niqab wearers in the UK. This article centers insider perspectives on the niqa…
Wearing the Niqab: Muslim Women in the UK and the US
Bringing niqab wearers’ voices to the fore, discussing their narratives on religious agency, identity, social interaction, community, and urban spaces, Anna Piela situates women’s accounts firmly within UK and US socio-political contexts as well as within media discourses on Islam. The niqab has recently emerged as one of the most ubiquitous symbols of everything that is perceived to be wrong with Islam: barbarity, backwardness, exploitation of w…
I Discovered I Love to Pray Alone Too”: Pluralist Muslim Women’s Approaches to Practicing Islam during and after Ramadan 2020
Public health guidelines implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic have changed the way many people practice religion. In the realm of Islam, practices from the margins—attending online mosques and prayer groups, or praying alone—suddenly became commonplace. This paper addresses the question: What religious processes have become more evident among pluralist Muslim women during the pandemic? Based on 34 open-ended online surveys completed by plural…
Theorizing the Religious Habitus in the Context of Conversion to Islam among Polish Women of Catholic Background
This article explores the conversion processes of Polish women of Catholic background to Islam. Data from participant observation of mosque-based, women-only weekend gatherings for converts and in-depth interviews with 29 Polish female converts to Islam are presented to illustrate the dialectic between the persistence and transformation of religious habitus. Our analysis demonstrates that in the conversion process, Catholic habitus remains pervas…
The Role of the Internet in the Formation of Muslim Subjectivity Among Polish Female Converts to Islam
In this article, we discuss the main arguments related to female Muslim converts' formation of a religious subjectivity in the context of studying Islam in online spaces. In distinguishing between Western and Eastern Europe, it is our purpose to highlight the significance of online sources for converts who inhabit geographic “peripheries” of Islam. After giving an overview of the literature that discusses Muslim subject formation among converts, …
Being Muslim, Polish, and at home: Converts to Islam in Poland
This article focuses on converts to Islam in Poland, taking into account the specific socio-cultural, political, and historical contexts and new trends that have emerged with the gradual growth of the Muslim population. We draw attention to the unique patterns of practices related to Islam and patterns of belonging. Eastern European Islam remains relatively under-researched and, as a consequence, there is little clarity whether processes identifi…
Stealing My Religion: Not Just Any Cultural Appropriation, by LIZ Bucar
Journal Article Stealing My Religion: Not Just Any Cultural Appropriation, by LIZ BUCAR Get access Stealing My Religion: Not Just Any Cultural Appropriation, by LIZ BUCAR. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2022, 272 pp.; $24.95 (hardback). Anna Piela Anna Piela Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA [email protected] https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3589-1822 Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociolo…
White Habitus Among Polish White Female Converts to Islam
This article addresses the question of how the racial habitus of Polish White female converts (PWFCs) to Islam is performed in different social settings. We draw from in-depth interviews with 35 PWFCs living in Poland and the United Kingdom. While the notion of habitus has been used to analyze socialization into Islam, racial habitus has not been analyzed in relation to White converts to Islam. We argue that White habitus is an important concept …
Sociology (23 works) · Political science (16 works) · Gender Studies (12 works) · Islam (12 works) · Law (12 works) · Gender Studies (10 works) · Law (10 works) · Psychology (10 works) · Philosophy (9 works) · Social science (9 works)