Congratulations to Professor Tahseen Shams who recently received an honourable mention from the Global and Transnational Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association (ASA) for her scholarly article titled "Successful yet Precarious: South Asian Muslim Americans, Islamophobia, and the Model Minority Myth" in Sociological Perspectives. Professor Shams received the honourable mention for her excellence of writing and discussion in a sociological topic.
Professor Shams is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at University of Toronto, with teaching responsibilities on the St. George Campus. Her research focuses on immigration, globalization, race, ethnicity, and nationalism.
We have posted the abstract and the citation of the article below. The article can be accessed through U of T Libraries:
Tahseen Shams, "Successful yet Precarious: South Asian Muslim Americans, Islamophobia, and the Model Minority Myth," Sociological Perspectives, (December 2019): 1-17.
Precariousness is the notion that unstable and temporary employment can induce feelings of vulnerability and insecurity. As a “successful” minority because of their high education levels and economic attainments, South Asian Americans can hardly be described as precarious. However, ethnographic observations reveal a collective precariousness felt by this group. Despite measures of success, their positionality as a racialized and stigmatized religious “Other” induces in them an insecurity akin to that felt by those un(der)employed. They fear that despite their achievements, they can be discriminated against in their workplace because of their race and religion. This anxiety influences their education and career choices, and political engagements. Theoretically, precariousness is largely conceptualized as a phenomenon contained within national borders. However, South Asian Muslim Americans’ precariousness is influenced by that of Muslims of other nationalities abroad, underscoring the transnational dimension of precariousness and how it can extend beyond immediate networks and physical borders.