ABSTRACT
Muslims in the U.S. receive disproportionate and negative media coverage that rarely centers Muslim voices. This creates a need for platforms that recognize Muslim bodies and their allyship capacities. This chapter examines the process of organizing a “Muslims in Academia” Symposium at a private liberal-arts university in the U.S. South in an area that has been marked by high-profile anti-Muslim incidents. In this chapter, I describe how organizing such a symposium can reveal silences in institutional policy, and highlight strategies for protecting vulnerable faculty and ameliorating institutional cultures. Additionally, I explore how equity work can insist on more intersectional approaches and resist being siloed from other social-justice issues, and I call on marginalized individuals to demonstrate allyship capacities.
