Sociology Assistant Professor Neda Maghbouleh was recently featured in the U of T News discussing her latest book, The Limits of Whiteness: Iranian Americans and the Everyday Politics of Race. In the article Professor Maghbouleh explains the motivations for her research as well as the methods she employed to learn about Iranian-American youth experiences in the USA.
We have posted an excerpt of the article below.
U of T’s Neda Maghbouleh explores culture, identity and discrimination in new book about Iranian-Americans
By Romi Levine | Oct. 26, 2017
When President Donald Trump introduced an executive order barring people from six majority-Muslim countries from entering the U.S., it was further confirmation for Neda Maghbouleh of what she learned from years spent researching her latest book The Limits of Whiteness: Iranian Americans and the Everyday Politics of Race.
“The people it affected the most proportionately were Iranians and it was precisely because of the predicament I'm describing in the book,” says Maghbouleh, an assistant professor in the department of sociology at University of Toronto Mississauga.
The Limits of Whiteness explores the grey area where Iranian-Americans exist – they’re legally categorized as white but socially and culturally are often excluded and discriminated against, she says.
To get a real understanding of what it’s like to be an Iranian-American, Maghbouleh interviewed and shadowed 84 young people living across the United States whose parents were born in Iran.
“I was interested in knowing more about the nitty-gritty of everyday life,” she says. “There was so little written about Iranians and I was in the field with my ears open to try to see what were the salient issues.”
Read the full article here.