English Language and Literature ETDs

Publication Date

Summer 7-28-2026

Abstract

Through a lens of metic/Sufi embodiment, this rhetorical analysis addresses the tensions around the discourses of apostates from a Muslim background, especially as circulating in the Western-Islamic public sphere and in the context of blasphemy and apostasy laws in the Arabic-speaking world. Studying the popular Syrian TV drama Lipstick, this dissertation contrasts a rhetoric of mitigation with a rhetoric of shared-labor emotional co-regulation between apostates and their religiously conservative communities (RCC). The study invites apostates and their RCC to adopt the latter, crossing borders of normative discourse towards one another to better navigate multiple layers of traumas and the systems generating them. In this spirit, the study suggests healing-centered rhetorical strategies for apostates and their RCC to enact an intention of mutual survival, healing, and community building. The study concludes with recommendations for Western liberals to expand practices of transnational feminist solidarity beyond the Western economy of rights.

Degree Name

English

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

English

First Committee Member (Chair)

Bethany Davila

Second Committee Member

Cristyn Elder

Third Committee Member

Nicole Khazaal

Fourth Committee Member

Rebecca Joubin

Keywords

Embodiment, Ex-Muslims, Syrian TV drama, public pedagogy, transantional feminist rhetoric

Document Type

Dissertation

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Available for download on Friday, July 28, 2028

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