Moh Zaimil Alivin

Thesis title: Muslims in the Periphery: Intersection of Religion, Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Middle Eastern Diasporic Novels

Background

Moh Zaimil Alivin is a second-year PhD student in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, at the University of Edinburgh, with a doctoral scholarship awarded by Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education, Ministry of Finance, Republic of Indonesia. Driven by a passion for language, literature and cultural studies, as well as his academic background in Literary Studies, his research interests cover diaspora writings, identity, transnational literature as well as Muslim gender and sexual minorities representations in literature. His professional trajectory includes roles in the Indonesian Islamic Boarding School/Pesantren and as an active volunteer, coordinating logistics for major events and contributing to educational initiatives. 

Qualifications

PhD, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, The University of Edinburgh

MA, Literary Studies, Universitas Indonesia

BA, English Literature, Universitas Islam Negeri Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang

Research summary

Alivin's research analyses the dynamic interrelation of identities often associated with gender and sexual minorities in Muslim societies. It is also to look at the complexity of the issues and to study their interconnectedness with each other as represented in contemporary Anglophone novels by diaspora writers with Middle Eastern heritage. 

Current research interests

World Literature; Transnational Literature; Middle Eastern Diasporic Novels; Gender and Sexuality in Muslim Societies; Anglophone Novels.

Affiliated research centres

Participant

2017: International Students Forum: Issues on Humanities for Community Advancement, Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Islam Negeri Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang and Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore.

2021: The 3rd Annual International Conference of Language, Literature, and Media (AICoLLiM), Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Islam Negeri Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang.

2021: International Conference on Linguistics and Literature (InCOLL), Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Universitas Islam Negeri Sunan Ampel Surabaya.

Papers delivered

2021: "Identity Negotiation in the Age of Global Migration in Exophonic Novels." NOBEL: Journal of Literature and Language Teaching, 12(2), 168-187.

2021: "Contesting Ignorance and Remembrance: The Identity (Re)Construction of Turkish Characters in The Bastard of Istanbul" At The 3rd Annual International Conferences on Language, Literature, and Media (No. 1, pp. 212-228).

2023: "Queer Muslim TikTok as an Online Counterpublic: Self-presentation of Queer Muslims in Digital Settings" at The Autumn School on the Anthropology of Gender, Sexuality and Religion (26-29 September 2023) - Organised by Standards of Decision-Making across Cultures, Freidrich-Alexander-Universitat (FAU) Erlangen-Nurnberg.

2024: "Representation of Muslim Gender and Sexual Minorities in Contemporary Middle Eastern Novels" - IMES Research Seminar Series: PhD Showcase - The University of Edinburgh (5th February 2024).