Amira Jarmakani

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Amira Jarmakani

Amira Jarmakani, she/they, is Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and affiliated faculty with the Center for Islamic and Arabic Studies and LGBTQ+ studies at San Diego State University. Her book An Imperialist Love Story: Desert Romances and the War on Terror (NYU Press 2015) explores the crucial role of desire in perpetuating the imperialist war on terror. She also authored Imagining Arab Womanhood: The Cultural Mythology of Veils, Harems, and Belly Dancers in the U.S. (Palgrave Macmillan 2008), which won the National Women’s Studies Association Gloria E. Anzaldúa book prize. She is co-editor, with Pauline Homsi Vinson and Louise Cainkar, of Sajjilu Arab American: A Reader in SWANA Studies (Syracuse University Press, 2022) and a Series Advisor for the Critical Arab American Studies Series with Syracuse University Press. She has served as president of the Arab American Studies Association (2018-2022), board member for the Association of Middle East Women’s Studies (2017-2019) and Assistant Editor for the Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures (2011-2013). She is an organizer with the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition and a member of the Palestinian Feminist Collective.

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