MUSLIMS OF INTEREST: PRACTICES OF RACIALIZATION IN THE CONTEXT OF THE WAR ON TERROR

Abstract

This dissertation explores the stereotypes of representations of Muslims in American popular culture, and specifically in television dramas and comedies. These tropes include: 1) the Muslim terrorist/villain; 2) the patriotic “Good” Muslim; 3) the Muslim “friendly cultural stereotype”; and 4) the Muslim victim (both of Western discrimination and of patriarchal “Muslim culture”). This research is also interested in portrayals of Muslims that resist these stereotypes. Taking a performativity approach based on Critical Race Theory and intersectionality, this research is interested in the intersections of race, gender, class, and sexual orientation. Following the aesthetic turn of International Relations theory and falling within the subfield of Popular Culture and World Politics, this research takes popular culture seriously as a site of politics because representational practices are important in informing politics and societal relations at local, national, and global levels. This dissertation conducts a discursive content analysis of every American television program from 2001 to 2015 that features Muslims as main and/or recurring characters, including Homeland, 24, Sleeper Cell, and The Grid. This project is timely and important because constructions of identities, including through performative reifications of stereotypes in popular culture, both influence and are influenced by foreign policy. Narratives about Muslim-ness are important in justifying Western intervention in the Middle East as part of the US-led “War on Terror”. Most recently, Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and early presidency illustrate in a visceral way the currency of negative and reductionist perceptions of Muslims, as illustrated in his proposed policies and widely spread societal and political support for a “Muslim ban”. Thus, it is important to think critically about the relationship between popular culture and world politics.