Abstract
Muslim people from diverse backgrounds experienced discrimination and violence leading up to, and months after, the 2016 US presidential election. Yet, the Muslim student experience is unique as a result of the intersectional nature of Islamophobic sentiment in subtle on-campus interactions and more overtly in public spaces off-campus. These incidents mimic the experiences of the Muslim community after 9/11 where Muslim people were increasingly subject to unique threats of discrimination, suspicion, and harassment. Reflections and observations in this chapter emerge from an exploratory qualitative study that examines the perceptions of Muslim undergraduate and graduate students (n=50) across gender, race/ethnicity, and immigrant identity in the months after the 2016 US presidential election. Methodological issues related to obtaining entry into the Muslim community and utilizing insider/outsider identity, as well as the complexity of utilizing the researcher’s own intersecting identities to build trust and facilitate access, are examined in relation to subject safety and vulnerability in cross-cultural interviewing contexts.