The Arab American Studies Association has signed on as a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Michigan and the Arab-American Civil Rights League.
The ban limits our ability to function as an organization in a variety of ways. We will be unable to mentor new scholars from affected countries, or to recruit them into our academic programs. Scholars from the affected countries will be unable to attend our conferences, and we would be unable to consider holding an academic conference outside the US, as members without citizenship or permanent residency would be unable to attend. Further, members who are not US citizens or permanent residents cannot conduct transnational research, which is an integral part of our field. Beyond issues of scholarship, though, as researchers who understand that transnational ties are important to the immigrant experience, we recognize that this ban has the potential to negatively impact those personal relationships.
We are especially interested in hearing from members who are nationals of the six banned countries or who have been affected tangentially by the ban. Please contact us at board@arabamericanstudies.org.
You can read more about the lawsuit here.
