Sumayya Kassamali

Sumayya Kassamali

First Name: 
Sumayya
Last Name: 
Kassamali
Title: 
Assistant Professor
Biography : 

Sumayya Kassamali is Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology and the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies at the University of Toronto. Kassamali’s research addresses the transformation of gender, race, religion, and language in the context of transnational migration. Her current book project, Black Beirut, is an ethnography of African and Asian migrant labour in Beirut, Lebanon, and examines the experiences of primarily Ethiopian women who travel to Lebanon as domestic workers, only to flee conditions of abuse and enter the undocumented underground of the city. Black Beirut opens up new possibilities for understanding the afterlife of “temporary” migration through urbanization and diaspora-formation, focusing on practices of intimacy, forms of belonging outside citizenship, and new relationships to the Arabic language.

Education: 
PhD

People Type:

Areas of Interest: 

Kassamali’s additional research interests lie in global jihad, Third World internationalism, and the Muslim diasporas of South Asia, East Africa, and North America.

Cross-Appointments: 
Department of Anthropology

Campus:

Meta Description: 
Sumayya Kassamali is Assistant Professor in the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies at the University of Toronto