{"627418":{"#nid":"627418","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Natalie Khazaal Awarded Fellowship by American Council of Learned Societies","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.iac.gatech.edu\/people\/faculty\/khazaal\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ENatalie Khazaal\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, assistant professor in the Georgia Institute of Technology \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/modlangs.gatech.edu\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESchool of Modern Languages\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, has been awarded the 2019 fellowship by the \u003Cstrong\u003EAmerican Council of Learned Societies (ACLS)\/Luce Program in Religion, Journalism, and International Affairs\u003C\/strong\u003E for her work on the making of a novel minority of atheists in Arab communities.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAs a fellow, Khazaal will be doing research on Arab atheist communities both in the Arab world and in Arab diasporas while writing a book on the subject, entitled\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.acls.org\/research\/fellow.aspx?cid=A3E4AF25-3A1F-E911-80E4-000C296A63B0\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cem\u003EArab Apostates: Media and the Making of a Defiant Minority\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E.\u0026nbsp;In addition, she will be forging connections with media organizations and journalists to catalyze conversations about this subject area.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EHer book, which will be published by ACLS, seeks to understand how religious minorities in the Arab world fight stigma in the digital age.\u0026nbsp;This project explores the effect of the Arab uprisings on Arab identity by focusing on the controversial case of Arab apostates in the context of a defiant turn where minorities use media to reject unifying nationalist narratives centered on Islamic identity.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EArab Apostates\u003C\/em\u003E is based on the textual analysis of a large corpus of primary Arabic-language apostate accounts transmitted through a variety of media and is informed by theories of stigma and debates about post-secularism, contemporary Islams, and political questions about contemporary religious movements. As a critical cultural studies project, it challenges the academic neglect of a phenomenon with potentially dramatic consequences for the Middle East. It also corrects a bias in the apostasy literature, which favors apostates from cults, restoring the significance of the accounts of apostates from mainstream religions.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/modlangs.gatech.edu\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EThe School of Modern Languages\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E is a unit\u0026nbsp;of the Georgia Tech Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.iac.gatech.edu\/people\/faculty\/khazaal\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ENatalie Khazaal\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, assistant professor in the Georgia Institute of Technology \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/modlangs.gatech.edu\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESchool of Modern Languages\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, has been awarded the 2019 fellowship by the \u003Cstrong\u003EAmerican Council of Learned Societies (ACLS)\/Luce Program in Religion, Journalism, and International Affairs\u003C\/strong\u003E for her work on the making of a novel minority of atheists in Arab communities.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"As a fellow, Khazaal will prepare a book about Arab atheist communities both in the Arab world and in Arab diasporas"}],"uid":"34559","created_gmt":"2019-10-09 19:00:56","changed_gmt":"2019-10-09 21:34:17","author":"pdemerritt3","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2019-10-09T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2019-10-09T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"627419":{"id":"627419","type":"image","title":"Natalie Khazaal","body":null,"created":"1570647782","gmt_created":"2019-10-09 19:03:02","changed":"1570647782","gmt_changed":"2019-10-09 19:03:02","alt":"A portrait photo of Natalie Khazaal.","file":{"fid":"238882","name":"Natalie very low res headshot cropped in.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Natalie%20very%20low%20res%20headshot%20cropped%20in.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Natalie%20very%20low%20res%20headshot%20cropped%20in.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":104985,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Natalie%20very%20low%20res%20headshot%20cropped%20in.jpg?itok=Z7FNdTuc"}}},"media_ids":["627419"],"groups":[{"id":"1281","name":"Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts"},{"id":"1284","name":"School of Modern Languages"}],"categories":[{"id":"151","name":"Policy, Social Sciences, and Liberal Arts"}],"keywords":[{"id":"182622","name":"Natalie Khazaal"},{"id":"173819","name":"ACLS"},{"id":"167342","name":"School of Modern Languages"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39511","name":"Public Service, Leadership, and Policy"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ERebecca Keane\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nDirector of Communications\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nrebecca.keane@iac.gatech.edu\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n404.894.1720\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["rebecca.keane@iac.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}