Ellen Derrer
Pronouns: she/her
Research Mentor(s): Adi Bharat
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Romance Languages and Literatures / LSA
Program: UROP
Session: Session 1 (9:00am – 9:50am)
Authors:
Abstract
While media coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the 1973 Oil Crisis, the Iranian revolution, and the Iranian hostage crisis all contributed to a reductive conflation of Islam with violence, war, and terrorism, 9/11 ushered in an accelerated stage in the development of American Islamophobia. In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, there was a significant increase in individual hate crimes directed towards Muslims (and those perceived as Muslim, including turban-wearing Sikh men) and repressive government policies and actions such as round-ups and detentions of Muslims in New York City and surveillance programs targeting Muslim communities. In addition, as scholars have noted, the Bush administration used the attacks to ground a new sense of post-Cold War American imperial purpose and identity in opposition to Islamist terrorism, with Bush famously declaring that “you’re either with us or against us.” A reductive rendering of Islam, in other words, become the primary frame for interpreting events and facts related to Muslims and the Muslim world. In this context, our study seeks to determine the impact of 9/11 on news reporting on Islam and Muslims. In order to answer this question, our study draws on theoretical and methodological insights and approaches from Critical Discourse Analysis, Critical Race Theory, and postcolonial studies to examine news articles published in the New York Times prior to 9/11 and directly after 9/11.
