The Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies Studies Department is excited to welcome Dr. Taneem Husain for the Bruce Gray Postdoctoral Fellowship. Dr. Husain joins us after completing her Ph.D. in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Ohio State University, where she also earned her master’s degree. Dr. Husain will be teaching three courses during her year at Gustavus, one each in fall, IEX, and spring term. This fall she is teaching a course entitled Gender, Media and Islam that focuses on “the origin of popular stereotypes of Muslims, mainstream media’s rejection of these stereotypes, and Muslim American self-representations that respond to mainstream media.” This topic was also a focus of Dr. Husain’s doctoral dissertation, entitled Reimagining Race: Muslim Americans and the Politics of Inclusion. When reflecting on what initially drew her to women’s studies, Taneem shared that “growing up Muslim, I really wanted to find out the connections between Islam and Feminism and I think studying Women’s Studies helped me do that.”
The Bruce Gray Fellowship, in cooperation with the Consortium for Faculty Diversity, provides recent doctoral graduates mentoring and guidance as they develop their research, publication, and teaching skills during their time at Gustavus. The Gray Fellowship supports the Consortium’s goal of increasing faculty diversity at our nation’s liberal arts colleges. Currently, Dr. Husain is continuing research in the area of her dissertation and hopes to put together a book proposal during her time here. Of her first few weeks of research and teaching, Dr. Husain said she was really enjoying her experience and that it’s the first time she has had the opportunity to be part of a small liberal arts school. She noted, “everyone is super friendly and willing to help and people are really invested in making the community work. The students seem really involved and invested in social justice work, which I think is really important.” Dr. Husain said that she is excited to connect with students and become integrated into the faculty community. When asked what she’d like to bring to students during her time here, she explained, “I’m invested in student growth and I really like to see where students go, and I want to be available to students, especially as a young professor of color who is open and willing to engage with student on a variety of levels.”
During the January term, Dr. Husain will offer a course titled “Actualizing Activism: How Can We Make Social Justice Happen?” In the spring term, she will lead an upper-level seminar titled “Theorizing Intersectionality” in which participants will deploy key critical perspectives to examine oppression and privilege across overlapping identity categories such as race, class, gender, and sexuality.