This course critically examines the experiences of queer, black, and non-Muslim bodies in Islamic societies, past and present. Drawing on critical theory, as well as premodern and modern literature in translation, we examine how the Islamic tradition positions itself towards the societal margin, how the margin can be used as a method of research (social and material histories), and how it structures the cosmic order (the Islamic barzakh). Throughout the course, we seek to dislodge the margin-center binary by exposing its entanglements in the modern order of knowledge, envisioning alternatives from the Islamic tradition instead.
