Saher Selod joined Simmons in 2012 after completing her PhD at Loyola University Chicago. Her research interests are in race and ethnicity, gender, religion, and surveillance. Her scholarship examines how Muslim Americans experience racialization in the United States. Her book Forever Suspect: Racialized Surveillance of Muslim Americans in the War on Terror (Rutgers University Press 2018) examines how Muslim men and Muslim women experience gendered forms of racialization through their surveillance by the state and by private citizens.
Selod is writing a book with colleagues on the Global Racialization of Muslims, which is under contract at Polity Press. She is also collaborating on a second project that looks at surveillance, policing and political participation of Muslims in the United States that includes the experiences of African American and Black immigrant Muslims.
Dr. Selod serves on the Editorial Boards of Ethnic and Racial Studies and Critical Sociology. She is a member of the Scholars Strategy Network and is a Faculty Affiliate for the Center for Security, Race and Rights at Rutgers University.
Saher Selod in the News
Honoring the National Day of Racial Healing
January 21, 2025 — the day after Martin Luther King Jr. Day — is the ninth annual National Day of Racial Healing (NDORH). Created by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, NDORH "is an opportunity to engage in collective action to create a more just and equitable world."
Associate Professor Saher Selod Historicizes Islamophobia in the United States
Simmons’ Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ODEI) hosted “Islamophobia in the United States: Understanding Past and Present Anti-Muslim Discrimination,” a virtual lecture by Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of Research for the Institute of Social Policy and Understanding Saher Selod. This talk chronicled the history of anti-Muslim racism and demonstrated how 9/11 instituted a new era of the racialization of Muslims.
The Global Racialization of Muslims: An Interview with Associate Professor Saher Selod
Sociology Professor Saher Selod discusses the latest chapter of her forthcoming book "21st Century Racism: The Racialization of Muslims Globally," which uncovers the processes of the global racialization of Muslims.
Shout-outs from Students and Alums
Karla Alba ’23, Inaugural Jennifer Eckert Leadership Fellow for DEI, Knows the Importance of Difficult Conversations
Jennifer Eckert '08MSW, a member of the Simmons University Board of Trustees, provided a generous donation to support the mission of Simmons University to become a beacon of leadership in the world of higher education. A portion of these funds...
Be the Change: Gender and Culture Studies Alum Promotes Intersectional Feminist Policy with Mass NOW
Co-Director of Mass NOW, Bria Gambrell ’19MA, ’19MPP, shares her motivation behind pursuing a dual degree in gender and cultural studies and public policy, and why she finds her position with Mass NOW so rewarding.