“Today, we teach the kids where we are from": Event filmmaking and diasporic homemaking among Indian Muslims in North America

Author(s)

Sanderien Verstappen

Abstract

How do people make themselves at home in situations of movement, dispersal, and marginalization? Migration scholars have destabilized the idea that a home is bound to a dwelling, and developed more processual ways of conceptualizing home. In this article I bring this research agenda into conversation with the anthropology of events, to conceptualize social events as a diasporic home-making practice. Methodologically, I demonstrate how event filmmaking, a genre of ethnographic filmmaking, can be used as a research method in event studies. To develop this conceptual and methodological contribution, I draw on my experiences while making a film about the Vohra families reunion, a community event for Indian Gujarati Muslims (Vohras) in the United States and Canada. I interpret the reunion’s potential as a home-making practice in the light of the social position of Muslims as a religious minority in the United States, in India, and in the Indian diaspora.

Organisation(s)

Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology

Journal

HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory

Volume

14

Pages

162–175

No. of pages

14

ISSN

2049-1115

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1086/729992

Publication date

2022

Peer reviewed

Yes

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

504017 Cultural anthropology, 504021 Migration research

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Anthropology

Portal url

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/ca87965d-4860-4143-9e58-f9426fd2a70c