Sara Abdelghany

MA Student

Sara Abdelghany is a Masters student in the Department of American Studies. She received a BSc (Hons) in Culture and Politics from Georgetown University Qatar, where her thesis focused on Muslim American activism in mosques after 9/11. Sara’s graduate work is at the intersection of media studies, Arab American studies, Muslim American studies, and Islamophobia studies, addressing themes of race, representation, and diaspora in American popular culture. She is interested in how Muslims represent their experiences with identity, immigration, and religious practice, while challenging mainstream narratives and stereotypes about Islam and Muslims. Her current research project focuses on representations of Muslimness and Arabness in Ramy Youssef’s #1 Happy Family USA (2025).

Student Spotlight

If you could only listen to one album for the rest of your life what would it be and why?
Probably some mix of 2000s Amr Diab songs, jumbled with some Abdel Halim Hafez classics. Arabic music has always been a source of comfort for me. I’ve produced my work and had my best car drives with a Amr Diab party blasting in my ears or a Abdel Halim mawaal on replay.

Tell us the most interesting thing you’ve learned related to American studies?
In 1788, North Carolina representatives questioned whether a Mohammedan (a Muslim) should/could run for president as they debated the Constitution’s ban on religious tests for holding office (Denise Spellberg, “Could a Muslim be President?”).

Is there one book/piece of media that inspired you to pursue the field of American Studies? If so, which one and why?
There’s so much that has motivated me, but the work inspiring my current research is Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People (2006). In this documentary, scholar Jack Shaheen demonstrates how Arabs, and by extension Muslims and other Arab and Muslim-adjacent people, have been negatively represented in American film. From Aladdin to Homeland, these characterizations have cemented horrible stereotypes that have been normalized in the minds of American media audiences. Twenty years on, many of the tropes Shaheen criticized still appear in media representations of Arabs, Islam, and Muslims.