Saqer Almarri
Humanities Research Fellow
Affiliation: NYU Abu Dhabi
Education: BBA, American University in Dubai; MA, American University of Sharjah; PhD, Binghamton University–State University of New York
Research Areas: Translation Studies, Trans* and Intersex Studies, Decoloniality Studies, Coloniality of Gender, and Gender and Islam
About Saqer
Saqer A. Almarri’s research explores depictions of non-binary subjects in the Arabic and Islamic intellectual tradition. Saqer’s work on this topic began at Binghamton University, where he defended his doctoral dissertation in May 2019 on the depictions of the khunthā in Islamic jurisprudence and translations of the conceptualization of the khunthā across scholarly languages.
As a fellow at NYUAD, Saqer will expand his research beyond Islamic law into examining the depictions of the khunthā in literature, philosophy, and biographies. Saqer will also examine how modern scholarship employs the khunthā subject to specifically address modern identity and gender notions.
Publications
Journals
Almarri, Saqer A. “Non-Binary Sexual and Gender Identities in the Community: The Khunthā as an Isolated Being in the Mosque.” Body and Religion 3, no. 2 (2020): 5-25.
Almarri, Saqer A. “Identities of a Single Root: The Triad of the Khunthā, Mukhannath, and Khanīth.” Women & Language 41, no. 1 (Fall 2018): 97-109.*
*Republished in a colloquy at ARCADE: Literature, the Humanities & the World titled “Comparative Literatures: Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Turkish, Urdu,” curated by Alexander Key. 2020.
Almarri, Saqer A. “‘You have made her a man among men’: Translating the Khuntha’s Anatomy in Fatimid Jurisprudence.” TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 3, no. 3-4 (2016): 578-586.
Book Chapters
Almarri, Saqer. “A Rich Constellation of Identities.” In The Queer Arab Glossary, ed. Marwan Kaabour. Saqi Books, 2024.
Almarri, Saqer A. “Sex and the stability of a legal gender system: Dilemmas of defining intersex in Islamic law.” In The Complexity of Social-Cultural Emergence, eds. Kobus Marais, Reine Meylaerts and Maud Gonne, 109-127. JB Publishing, 2024.
Almarri, Saqer. "Nonbinary Sexual and Gender Identities in the Community: The Khuntha as an Isolated Being in the Mosque." In The Religious Body Imagined, eds. Pamela D. Winfield, Mina Garcia and Katherine C. Zubko. Equinox Publishing, 2024.
Almarri, Saqer. “Translating is Incarnating.” In Syntax Freezone, eds. Rahel Aima and Ahmad Makia, 65-74. Dubai: The State magazine and Maraya Art Centre, 2015.
Translations
Mbarki, Nisrine, Robin Moger, and Saqer Almarri, tr. Femme Ghosts by Mona Kareem. Rotterdam: Publication Studio Rotterdam and Poetry International, 2019.
Webinar
“The Khunthā and the Gender System: Early Narratives”
