Name: Sara Abdelghany

Recipient Year: 2025

Major: American Studies

Description: Sara Abdelghany is an MA student in American Studies at George Washington University. In 2020, she received a BSc (Hons) in Culture and Politics from Georgetown University Qatar, with a double minor in Arabic and History. Her undergraduate thesis examined Muslim American activism on gendered space in American mosques after 9/11. In this work, she compared Progressive Muslim activism to reform women’s spaces in American mosques to the work of mainstream Muslim organizations. Sara’s work can be placed in the context of wider ongoing debates about religious authority in Islam, the role of women in Islam and Muslim communities, and Islam’s religious and spatial fluidity. Her current research is concerned with Muslim representation in popular culture. She is interested in how Muslims represent their experiences with identity, immigration, and religious practice and work to challenge mainstream, often Islamophobic, narratives and stereotypes about Islam and Muslims (Ramy, Mo, Americanish, #1 Happy Family USA).

School Name: George Washington University

Sponsor: Ghulam and Arifa Azad Family Scholarship

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sara-abdelghany-55a6071b4/