Challenging Islamophobia Through Visual Media Studies: Inquiring Into a Photograph of Muslim Women on the Cover of Canada's National News Magazine

Contextualizing Theories and Practices of Bricolage Research

“…In the following discussion, I draw on various works to contextualize and articulate Kincheloe's conceptualization of bricolage as a critical research praxis. While my focus is on Kincheloe's texts, I continue to draw on the scholarship and research of others, (e.g., Berry, 2004a;McLean, 2008;Watt, 2008;, who theorize or adopt bricolage approaches (or similar processes) in their works. This intersection enables me to theoretically situate Kincheloe's bricolage while also exploring concrete examples of what the approach looks like in research contexts.…”

“…Like Denzin and Lincoln's (1999) interpretive bricoleur, Kincheloe's critical bricoleurs draw from a range of critical theories (e.g., feminism, Marxism, post-colonialism), to explore the taken-for-granted ways power shapes knowledge and objects of inquiry. Watt's (2008Watt's ( , 2011 work, which investigates representations of Muslim women in Western media, mirrors Kincheloe's critical hermeneutic approach. She employes multiple theoretical lenses (e.g., feminist, anti-racist) and multiple methodological tools (e.g., semiological analysis, discursive analysis) to engage in multiple readings of Muslim women's representations in various news, magazine, and television texts.…”

“…As Kincheloe (2004a) explains, "critical hermeneutics is employed by bricoleurs to understand the historical and social ways that power operates to shape meaning and its lived consequences" (p. 11). Watt's (2008Watt's ( , 2011 study exemplifies this critical hermeneutic approach. Her interest in how racialization shapes media texts shows her understanding that an object of inquiry can never be quarantined from dominant powers.…”

“Cautela com os amores”. Declarações do Cardeal de Lisboa vistas pela imprensa portuguesa*

“…por exemplo, Bullock, 2002;Fekete, 2008;Hasan, 2012;Sian, Law e Sayyid, 2012;Kassam, 2008;Navarro, 2010;Ehrkamp, 2010;Fundación Trés Culturas del Mediterráneo, 2010;Hancock, 2008;Tarlo, 2010;Meer e Modood, 2012;Watt, 2008;Shadid e van Koningsveld, 2005), parecem constituir um exemplo de uma "obsessão colonial" que se manifesta no "desejo metafórico de 'desvelar' culturas alheias, 'expondo-as' e tornando-as conformes com as normas ideológicas do poder dominador" (Macdonald, 2006: 9) que classifica, separando, "civilizados" e "não-civilizados" (Asad). No caso do material analisado, como já vimos, o móbil para estabelecer esta linha divisória passa pela menção aos "sarilhos" decorrentes de casar com muçulmanos e pela referência ao "regime das mulheres muçulmanas".…”

Perceptions about Muslims in Western Societies

“…Islamophobia is characterized as a fear or hatred of Islam and its followers. It translates into individual, ideological, and systematic forms of discrimination and oppression (Watt, 2008). According to Alam and Husband, it includes eight constitutive negative components that are based on "'closed views' of Islam (as opposed to open views that reflect the positive connotations of ethnic and cultural diversity)" (2013, p. 237): Islam is seen as (1) a monolithic bloc, static and unresponsive to new realities; (2) separate and other; (3) inferior to the West, barbaric, irrational, primitive, sexist; (4) violent, aggressive, threatening, supportive of terrorism, engaged in a clash of civilizations; (5) a political ideology used for political or military advantage; (6) that its criticisms of "the West" are rejected; (7) that hostility toward it justifies discriminatory practices against Muslims; and (8) that anti-Muslim hostility is accepted as natural and normal.…”