With the “Hear, Here” series, we aim to facilitate conversations around new research in the humanities. Faculty fellows at the Institute for the Humanities will discuss a part of their current project in a short talk followed by a Q & A session.

About this talk: This talk will examine the proliferation of transnational moral panics over gender and sexuality between the US and the Middle East. I will examine how the export of US-style homophobic rhetoric to countries such as Lebanon constitutes a form of cultural imperialism. I refer to this “export” as “imperial homophobia” and argue that this strange coupling of far-right, white Christian activists with Arab and Muslim American communities is part of a larger strategy to shore up the far-right’s domestic agenda in the US and US political influence in the MENA region.

Umayyah Cable is a 2024-25 Richard & Lillian Ives Faculty Fellow at the Institute for the Humanities and Assistant Professor of American Culture and Film, Television, & Media.