The Intricate Web of ‘Islamic Sexualities’ and the Injunctions of Coloniality in the Balkans

Dr Piro Rexhepi will give a presentation on ‘The Intricate Web of ‘Islamic Sexualities’ and the Injunctions of Coloniality in the Balkans’ at this seminar organised by the UCL SSEES South-East European Studies Seminar Series

This presentation picks up several questions regarding the politics of post-socialist sexuality, situating them in a larger historical context to examine the ways in which nationalist heteronormative masculinities were, and continue to be, constructed against imagined Islamic sexualities in the Balkans. Specifically, it will look at how orientalist depictions of Muslim men in historical fiction and fictionalized histories in Albania and Bulgaria converge with the contemporary politics of gender, race and class to convey and propel new forms of nationalism and coloniality. 

Bio: Dr. Rexhepi is holds a PhD in Politics from the University of Strathclyde and has held research fellowships at the Centre for Southeast European Studies at University of Graz, the Center for Advanced Studies of Southeastern Europe at the University of Rijeka, and teaching positions at the State University of New York, City University of New York and New York University. His research focuses on the politics of religion, sexuality and coloniality in international relations, with a particular focus on the relationship between the Balkans and the Middle East. Previously, his work has examined the intersection of EU enlargement politics with sexual rights, exploring the production of Islamophobia in Muslim-majority countries in the Balkans. His current research interrogates the ways in which the politics of preservation in Sarajevo and Salonika fuel urban renewal, gentrification, and Europeanization, having drastic effects on the lives of migrant and marginalized urban communities.

All welcome to attend, no registration required.