This project assembles incidences of namāz (daily Muslim ritual prayer) offered in jamāt (congregation) by those worshippers who have found themselves marginalized, disciplined, and disoriented from mainstream Muslim ritual life due to their gender or sexual orientation. It follows assays in, and commitments to, a livable Muslim life as it unfolds from the stories of disoriented Muslim worshippers at prayer together. It looks first at the religious life stories of a network of queer Pakistanis contending with the heteropatriarchal and cisgender norms of mainstream Muslim life, in struggle to continue their orientation towards Allāh alongside their own existential reality. It then narrates the last rites of two Pakistani women by describing the circumstances in which their namāz-e-janāza, i.e. their funeral prayers were performed. These funerals are moments and spaces that alter the received understanding of jamāt so that disoriented worshippers who have been made unwelcome in the larger collectivity can reorient towards compassionate convening with each other and with Allāh.  The portraits of Muslims convened for prayer that are drawn together here bring into conversation multiple ways of being Muslim and describe an emergent queer Muslim praxis that expands the parameters of what is thinkable in Islam. This narrative ethnography sheds light on how it is that mainstream Pakistani religious life disorients women as well as transgender and queer folks by narrowing the space available to these bodies within the jamāt. Deploying multiple methodological approaches in a number of research sites, this dissertation draws on events and lived experiences of ritual and religious convenings to propose and advance an understanding of the jamāt as both a congregation of worship and a congregation of care. This dissertation is an exploration of the conditions of possibility for livable life for those who are disoriented in the space of Muslim communal gathering—a life that is queer, Muslim, safe from harm, and joyful—arguing that for queer and disoriented Muslims, solidarity and a livable life go hand in hand.

Undertaking an intellectual history and employing a diachronic approach, this study seeks to unravel both the continuity and change in the ulama’s discourse on the usurpation of power from the 2nd - 9th Islamic Era or between the 8th-15th Common Era, the early twentieth century, and the period of the Arab Spring. I define usurpation in this study as an unlawful encroachment against a ruler which consists of one of the three following actions: military coup (al-taghallub), domination (al-ḥijr), and seizure of local territory (al-ʿistīlāʾ ʿalā al-ʾimāra). In doing so, I pay particular attention to discursive strategy and shift: the ways in which the ulama construct their discourses within the paradigms of the existing Islamic legal and theological schools and the way the Western political philosophies, particularly constitutionalism and legitimacy, may have shaped their ideas. I also discuss the extent to which they called for reformulation of Islamic political tradition. I argue that the ulama responded to recurrent phenomena of usurpation in history by mobilizing historical arguments from Islamic intellectual legacy (turāth). Despite their divergent substantive opinions and approaches to the issue of usurpation, they share a commitment to Islamic tradition. This reliance on tradition contrasts with the tendency of the Western Post-Enlightenment thinkers who perceive the past as darkness and immaturity. My dissertation also demonstrates how modernity informs contemporary ulama to generate various approaches to the agreed-upon pre-modern legal norms of usurpation of power.

In theory, all that are involved in same-sex practices in Islam based on thecommon and mainstream interpretation of the story of the people of Lut are treated the same. In reality, however, and in the Arab world today, the penetrated and penetrator are not equally abnormal and deviant. Although Western activism involved in gay rights in the Middle East and local communities in several countries who call themselves Mujtamaa Al Meem, the community of the letter Meem, which is a localization of the term LGBTQA+ community, are advocating for gay rights for all Middle Eastern/Arab/Muslim “gay men” whatever role they play in those practices. The local culture of those societies does not do the same, nor do they believe in their normality. By looking at different interpretations of religious scripture, role of Westernization in local “gayness” and “homosexuality”, and how a penetrator/society-forced womanhood status, this thesis will discuss their effect on how a Muslim man, who takes on a penetrated role in same-sex activities navigate faith and sexual practices, and how religiosity, my existence as a Muslim, and my gender identity and/or expression are not measured by how sinless/sinful I am or by which sin I commit.

This study uses an exploratory questionnaire to identify major barriers that Syrian refugees face when obtaining basic healthcare. To supplement questionnaire data, providers were also interviewed in order to understand whether identified barriers were internal, due to refugee perceptions, or external, due to gaps in the system that prevented refugees from obtaining healthcare. The study also proposes solutions to enhance health services in order to achieve health equity.

By volunteering with a microfinance program in the historic coastal town of Saint-Louis, Senegal in the fall of 2016, I became embedded within the Senegalese culture and gained a unique perspective on the loan process. Coordinated by the for-profit organization, Projects Abroad, the microfinance office aimed to help women and Talibés (young men studying the Quran) gain financial independence through small-scale sustainable entrepreneurship while simultaneously providing its volunteers with meaningful experiences.

The purpose of my thesis is to examine the interactions among the Senegalese staff, international volunteers, and Senegalese loan participants, and the ways in which their constantly evolving reactionary relationships impacted the program. The paper provides a context of Saint-Louis, Senegal as well as the Projects Abroad Organization and outlines the loan process prior to examining the daily activities of the program. I highlight important factors such as religion, education, gender roles, and saving techniques in order to show how juxtaposing values and traditions played key roles in the program’s evolution. Ultimately, I argue that the heterogeneity of values, norms, and expectations among those participating in the program created both obstacles and opportunities for program implementation and the ways in which to gauge its success.

By sharing my personal observations and experiences, I hope to provide the reader with a greater understanding of the complexities of intercultural communication in the microfinance arena. In the words of the American economist and philosopher Tyler Cowen, “Real cultural diversity results from the interchange of ideas, products, and influences, not from the insular development of a single national style.”

Nations have a vital interest in creating a citizenry with certain attributes and beliefs and, since education contributes to the formation of children's national identity, government authorities can influence educational curricula to construct their ideal citizen. In this thesis, I study the educational systems of Pakistan and Arizona and explore the historical and conceptual origins of these entities' manipulation of curricula to construct a particular kind of citizen. I argue that an examination of the ethnic studies debate in Tucson, Arizona, in conjunction with Pakistan's history education policy, will illustrate that the educational systems in both these sites are developed to advance the interests of governing authorities. Resource material demonstrates that both educational systems endorse specific accounts of history, omitting information, perspectives, and beliefs. Eliminating or reimagining certain narratives of history alienates some students from identifying as citizens of the state, particularly when contributions of their ethnic, cultural, or religious groups are not included in the country's textbooks.