Submission deadline: September 15, 2026
Call for Chapter Abstracts: Muslim Cultural Production in the Wake of the War on Terror
Nearly twenty-five years after the attacks of September 11, 2001, it is undeniable that the event’s geopolitical aftermath has permanently transformed the existing world order. Iterations of the global “War on Terror” in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, and other Muslim-majority countries around the world have produced civil instabilities that, in turn, have triggered waves of mass migration out of those imperiled nations. The rise of the surveillance state, escalating anti-Muslim sentiment, and the exponential increase of asylum-seekers have called into question the parameters of modern citizenship in the global North and South alike. The first quarter of this century has produced an entire generation of Muslims across the world who have come of age amidst the precarity of the post-9/11 era. Though much work has been published on topics such as 9/11 in American fiction, Islamophobia in literature, and media representations of Muslims, less prominent is scholarship on post-9/11 cultural production from the perspective of Muslims themselves that depicts the existential effects of living through two and half decades of the “War on Terror.” Work by such artists as Mohsin Hamid, Kamila Shamsie, H.M. Naqvi, Warsan Shire, Ramy Youssef, Etaf Rum, Shirin Neshat, and Wafaa Bilal all portray, at different points in this century, various ways that Muslims have incorporated the exigencies of the post-9/11 era into the practice of everyday life.
This edited volume asks: how do we see the cascading geopolitical effects of the “War on Terror” expressed in literary, visual, cinematic, musical, theatrical and televisual art that centers the experience of Muslims in the twenty-first century? We invite chapter abstracts that explore questions such as: How does art portray the experience of twenty-first century Muslims grappling with belief and crises of faith in response to the mainstream faulty conflation of Islam and terrorism? How are the societal consequences of inhabiting specific modes of dress or grooming depicted in the visual and literary arts? How do we see the specter of interrogation and detention affect modes of speech and writing? Are there genres of visual and literary arts more prevalent in representing the precarious citizenship of Muslim immigrants, migrants, and refugees? Other theoretical, formal, or philosophical inquiries into the experience of Muslims in the post-9/11 era as reflected in cultural production are certainly welcome.
Please submit abstracts (250-300 words), along with a short biographical note (50 words), to [email protected] by September 15th, 2026. Draft chapters will be expected in early 2027. We (the co-editors) are currently in conversation with Palgrave to publish this volume.
Co-editors: Dr. Nasia Anam (University of Nevada-Reno) and Dr. Samina Gul Ali (Kean University)
Important Dates:
Chapter Abstracts due: 9/15/26
Notification of Abstract Acceptance: Fall 2026
Full chapter submission deadline: 3/31/27
(Finalized chapters should be approximately 6000 words, including endnotes and bibliography.)
Please note that we are not interested in work generated by (or with the assistance of) AI technologies at any stage of this project (abstract submission, chapter drafts, finalized collection).