Azza Basarudin

Azza Basarudin is Assistant Professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB). Her research interests include transnational feminisms, gender/sexuality in Muslim cultures, counterterrorism and national security, and human rights with an emphasis on Southeast Asia. She has held visiting positions and fellowships at Harvard Divinity School, Syracuse University, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Sains Malaysia, and the American University in Cairo. Her research has been supported by the University of California Humanities Research Institute (UCHRI), the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), and the National Science Foundation (NSF), among others. Her writings have appeared in journals, edited anthologies, and popular forums including: “The Contours of Speaking Out: Gender, State Security, and Muslim Women’s Empowerment,” (Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism, 2020, with K. Shaikh); “The Shape of a Life,” (Departures in Critical Qualitative Research, 2019); and “Meditations on Friendship: Politics of Feminist Solidarity in Ethnography” in Dissident Friendships: Imperialism, Feminism, and the Possibility of Transnational Solidarities (E. Chowdhury and L. Philipose, eds, 2016, with H. Bhattacharya). Her first book, Humanizing the Sacred: Sisters in Islam and the Struggle for Gender Justice in Malaysia was published by the University of Washington Press (2016). Basarudin is a longtime resident of Los Angeles and a founding member of a feminist task force in Southern California to tackle Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism.