Saeeda Islam

Saeeda Islam is a PhD candidate in American Studies and a fellow for the Public Humanities Working Group and a former fellow at the Yale Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration (RITM). Islam’s research interests include the intersection of immigration, political and carceral history. She examines how U.S. federal policies from the 1980s through the early 2000s produced interconnected regimes of surveillance, criminalization, and detention that shaped the racialization of Latine and Muslim citizens and noncitizens. Of Mexican and Pakistani heritage, Islam was born and raised in Stockton, California. She received her B.A. and M.A. in History from California State University of Sacramento (CSUS). She has worked in civil rights advocacy, youth leadership, teaching and as the Faculty Affairs Coordinator at Columbia University. She is also the co-founder of a webinar and podcast series titled: In Conversation with Historians. As a community organizer and educator, Islam is dedicated to immigration reform, diversity and inclusion. She is passionate about working with incarcerated women and providing them with resources they need. Islam is invited as a speaker at university events and lectures regularly, to speak on issues relevant to women’s rights, interfaith building and socio-political topics affecting the community. In her spare time she enjoys being in nature, playing the violin, and creating art.

She also is working on an ongoing research project on indigeneity and Islam, currently she is studying the Indigenous Muslim Communities in Mexico.