Associate Teaching Professor of the Comparative Study of Religions, Dr. Diana Murtaugh Coleman recently published her article “Suspended in al Barzakh” in the August volume of Sargasso: A Journal of Caribbean Literature, Language, & Culture, “Camps, (In)Justice, & Solidarity. Her essay draws on the religio-philosophical concept of al barzakh as a liminal time/space, intentionally using a framework internal to Islam. This multivalent concept is rooted in Qur’anic verses and Hadith passages, and prominent in Islamic philosophy, literature, and thought. A richly generative term, al barzakh provides a framework to reflect back on former prisoner experiences in the detention camps in the U.S.
military prison at Guantánamo Bay. It also assists in analyzing the experiences of Muslims living as racialized and minoritized subjects in Western spaces in the decades since 11 September 2001. Finally, Ibn Arabi’s conception of al barzakh translates as a productive space to contemplate the encroaching and accelerating climate disaster.
As the Caribbean Studies Association notes, “Sargasso is a peer reviewed academic journal that has been edited at the University of Puerto Rico’s Rio Piedras campus for over 35 years.” Congratulations Dr. Murtaugh Coleman!