CURA Colloquium: The Case of Young Muslim Iranian Migrants in Massachusetts

The essay investigates hope in the lives of a community of young Muslim Iranian migrants. Taking an ethnographic approach, Mahtab will explore how "hope" defines their move to America and a different kind of "hope" helps them cope with the shock of the new. This group of migrants roughly fall within the category that previous anthropologists have studied. She focuses on the status of hope within this group mainly after their migration to America. She argues that a new kind of hope which is related to these people’s religious identities defines and characterizes this community in exile. Mahtab will supplement the interview data with data that she has collected through participant observation in my informants’ weekly religious gatherings. *Reading the working paper in advance is required for attendance.* Email cura@bu.edu for your copy. Co-sponsored with the School of Theology