Profile picture for Asena Karipek

Contact Information

702 S Wright Street
3059 Lincoln Hall
Urbana, IL 61801

Office Hours

By appointment
PhD Candidate
Graduate Teaching Assistant

Research Interests

postcolonial feminism, racialization of religion, gender, Islamophobia, decolonization

Research Description

I’m a sociologist of gender, religion, and postcoloniality who studies postcolonial feminism to show how women’s bodies are policed and how women of color resist colonial understandings of beauty. Using comparative qualitative methods, I link lived experience to institutional rules to show how Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism operate and how women resist, moving debates beyond Western-centric assumptions about beauty and feminism. My current project treats the hijab as a site where aesthetics, faith, and power meet: how policies, media, and everyday encounters frame it—and how hijabi women themselves redefine beauty, autonomy, and belonging in response. By exploring micro-level experiences, I clarify the mechanisms producing inequality and the strategies of resistance. The result is a theory of beauty politics that provincializes Western frames and centers Muslim women’s knowledge.

Education

M.A. Sociology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2024
M.A. Religion, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2020
B.A. Islamic Theology, Istanbul University, 2017

Grants

  • 2025: Ralph A. Gallagher Travel Grant. Association for the Sociology of Religion
  • 2025: ASA Travel Grant. Department of Sociology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • 2024-2025: Foreign Language & Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship. Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • 2024: ASA Travel Grant. Department of Sociology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • 2023: Block Grant/Summer Writing Scholarship. Department of Sociology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • 2023: ASA Travel Grant. Department of Sociology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • 2020: Conference Travel Award. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Graduate College
  • 2019: Conference Travel Award. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Graduate College
  • 2019: Conference Travel Grant. Department of Religion, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Awards and Honors

  • Teacher Ranked as Excellent by Students, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2017
  • Teacher Ranked as Excellent by Students, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2018
  • Teacher Ranked as Excellent by Students, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2019
  • Teacher Ranked as Excellent by Students, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2020
  • Teacher Ranked as Excellent by Students, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2021
  • Teacher Ranked as Excellent by Students, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2022

Courses Taught

  • Fall 2025: Introduction to Sociology (Graduate Instructor)
  • Spring 2025: World Religions (TA/Discussion Section Leader)
  • Fall 2024: World Religions (TA/Discussion Section Leader)
  • Spring 2024: Criminal Justice System (TA)
  • Spring 2024: Introduction to Poverty (TA)
  • Fall 2023: Social Research Methods (TA/Discussion Section Leader)
  • Fall 2023: Religion & Society in a Global Age (Graduate Instructor)
  • Spring 2023: Criminal Justice System (TA)
  • Fall 2021-fall 2022: Introduction to Sociology (TA/Discussion Section Leader)
  • Spring 2021: Sociology of Political Polarization: Bigots and Snowflakes (TA)
  • Winter 2021: Introduction to Sociology (TA)
  • Fall 2020: Race, Religion, and Resistance (Guest Lecturer)
  • Fall 2019: Elementary Standard Arabic I (Graduate Instructor)
  • 2017-2020: World Religions (TA/Discussion Section Leader)

Highlighted Publications

Karipek, Asena. 2020. "Portrayals of Jihad: A Cause of Islamophobia." Islamophobia Studies Journal 5(2): 210-225.