As the political and human casualties of the Israel-Palestine crisis continue to increase and shape the current state of the Arabic world, there has been a rise in instances of Islamophobia as well as a rise in protests, especially on university campuses, against this surging anti-Islamic sentiment. During this episode, panelists will discuss the history of the concept Islamophobia, its impact on American culture, and what other concepts might better explain the historical and contemporary moments that we face. The panelists will also explore the relationship between antisemitism and Islamophobia and why scholars and thinkers of religion are uniquely placed to think through the complex and often unclear relationship of these phenomena. Join us for a conversation at the intersection of religion, Islamophobia, and the current state of political unrest.

Khadija Khaja is Associate Professor of Social Work at Indiana University Indianapolis. Her research interests include building inclusive teaching and learning climates, international social work practice, Islamophobia, Muslim social work needs, bullying of Muslims, civil discourse in higher education, the practice of female circumcision, addressing the growth of white nationalist movements, and effective teaching/learning in online communities.

Zareena Grewal is Associate Professor of American Studies, Ethnicity, Race, & Migration, and Religious Studies at Yale University. She is a historical anthropologist and a documentary filmmaker whose research focuses on race, gender, religion, nationalism, and transnationalism across a wide spectrum of American Muslim communities. Her first book, Islam Is a Foreign Country: American Muslims and the Global Crisis of Authority (NYU 2013), is an ethnography of transnational Muslim networks that link US mosques to Islamic movements in the post-colonial Middle East through debates about the reform of Islam.

Talha Kahf, a senior at the Indiana University School of Social Work, is a Muslim Syrian living in the Midwest. Born to a mother who came from a refugee background, Talha grew up learning to identify structural gaps in society. Along the journey, Talha and his family experienced Islamophobia within the education, healthcare, and legal systems. With each experience, Talha developed his personal values and began on a journey of ancestral connection and decolonization.

Kayla Renée Wheeler is Assistant Professor of Critical Ethnic Studies and Theology and the Africana Studies Program Director at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. Dr. Wheeler is an expert in Black Islam, Islamic bioethics, and digital religion. Currently, she is writing a book entitled, Fashioning Black Islam, which provides a history of Black Muslim fashion in the United States from the 1930s to the present. She is the author of the digital humanities project, Mapping Malcolm’s Boston, which explores Malcolm X’s life in Boston from the 1940s to 1950s. Dr. Wheeler is also the curator of the award-winning Black Islam Syllabus.

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Antisemitism has deep roots in American history and has continued to shape popular and political culture in the contemporary moment. Yet in many mainstream discussions in the United States, we often talk about it as if it were something new. This panel—featuring the authors of and experts featured on the podcast Antisemitism, U.S.A.—will discuss the long history of antisemitism, and how the fields of religious studies and American religious history think through the significance of that form of discrimination and violence in relation to the rest of American history. Join us for a conversation at the intersection of religion, American culture, and the history of antisemitism.

Lincoln Mullen is Professor of History at George Mason University and Executive Director of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media. He is the author of The Chance of Salvation: A History of Conversion in America (2017), America’s Public Bible: A Commentary (2022), and Antisemitism, U.S.A.: A History (2024).

John Turner teaches and writes about the the place of religion in American history. He came to George Mason University in 2012, having earned a Ph.D. in American History from the University of Notre Dame and a Masters of Divinity from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Turner is the author of several books, including Joseph Smith: The Rise and Fall of an American Prophet (Yale, 2025); They Knew They Were Pilgrims (Yale, 2020), and Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet (Harvard, 2012). He co-wrote the scripts for Antisemitism, U.S.A.

Sarah Imhoff is Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein Chair in Jewish Studies and Professor in the Department of Religious Studies and the Borns Jewish Studies Program at Indiana University, Bloomington. She writes about religion and the body with a particular interest in gender, sexuality, race, and disability. She is author of Masculinity and the Making of American Judaism (Indiana University Press, 2017) and The Lives of Jessie Sampter: Queer, Disabled, Zionist (Duke University Press, 2022) and, with Susannah Heschel, The Woman Question in Jewish Studies (Princeton University Press, forthcoming 2025). She is the founding co-editor of the journal American Religion.

Britt Tevis is Backer Assistant Professor in Jewish Studies in the Department of History at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. She teaches courses on the history of antisemitism in the United States as well as American Jewish history. Her anthology of historical texts illuminating various dimensions of antisemitism in the United States will be published by Yale University Press in 2025. She earned her Ph.D. and J.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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