New Book: Far From Mecca – Globalizing the Muslim Caribbean

Book Cover

Muslims have lived in the Caribbean for centuries. Far From Mecca: Globalizing the Muslim Caribbean (Rutgers University Press, 2020) examines the archive of autobiography, literature, music and public celebrations in Guyana and Trinidad, offering an analysis of the ways Islam became integral to the Caribbean, and the ways the Caribbean shaped Islamic practices.

Aliyah Khan recovers stories that have been there all along, though they have received little scholarly attention.

The interdisciplinary approach takes on big questions about creolization, gender, politics and cultural change, but it does so with precision and attention to detail.

Aliyah Khan is an assistant professor of English and Afroamerican and African studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Aliyah Khan

Aliyah R. Khan (Ph.D., University of California, Santa Cruz, 2012 M.F.A., Hunter College of the City University of New York, 2006) is Assistant Professor in the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies (DAAS) and the Department of English Language and Literature. Her interdisciplinary research and writing focus on indigeneity, sexuality, and Islam in the postcolonial Caribbean and its diasporas. Professor Khan’s current book project is a study of Islam in the Caribbean imaginary that comparatively considers Indo- and Afro-Muslim literary figuration and creolization discourses in Guyana, Trinidad, Jamaica, and Suriname. Her dissertation Calling the Magician: The Metamorphic Indo-Caribbean was awarded the 2011-2012 UC President’s Dissertation Fellowship. Professor Khan’s teaching interests include Caribbean and Muslim postcolonial literatures, critical theory, the post-humanities and animal theory, gender and sexuality, graphic novels, and creative writing (fiction). She has also taught courses on Black Britain in the U-M Center for Global and Intercultural Study’s program in London, United Kingdom; co-organized the recent “Black Feminist Think Tank” and “How Sweet It Is: Conjuring the Caribbean” University of Michigan conferences; and been featured on Chicago’s Radio Islam as a commentator on contemporary Muslim and Islamic literatures. 

 

Affiliation(s)
  • Arab and Muslim Studies Program
  • Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies Program
  • Department of Afroamerican and African Studies
  • English Language and Literature 
Field(s) of Study
  • Caribbean Literature
  • English Language & Literature, DAAS
  • Gender and Sexuality
  • Muslim and Islamic Literature