Zareena Grewal

Zareena A Grewal is an Associate Professor of American Studies, Religious Studies, and Anthropology. Her research focuses on race, gender, religion, nationalism, and transnationalism across a wide spectrum of American Muslim communities. Her first book, Islam is a Foreign Country: American Muslims and the Global Crisis of Authority (NYU 2013), is a historical ethnography of transnational Muslim networks that link US mosques to Islamic movements in the post-colonial Middle East through debates about the reform of Islam. Her first documentary film, By the Dawn’s Early Light: Chris Jackson’s Journey to Islam (Cinema Guild 2004), explores the conversion story of NBA guard Mahmoud Abdul Rauf, who some have dubbed the “Colin Kaepernick of the nineties” and was recently featured on ESPN. Her forthcoming book, titled “Is the Quran a Good Book?”, combines ethnographic and cultural studies analyses with historical research to trace the place of the Islamic scripture in the American imagination, particularly in relation to national debates about tolerance. She has received awards for her writing and research grants from the Fulbright, Wenner Gren and Luce Foundations.