Beyond the Label: Arab American Faces, Places, and Traces
Arab American National Museum
Dearborn, Michigan
April 4-6, 2014
A conference organized by the Arab American Studies Association and the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, MI., in honor of Alixa Naff (1919-2013).
3-7:30 p.m. Fri., April 4, 2014
8 a.m.-8:30 p.m. Sat., April 5, 2014
8:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Sun., April 6, 2014
About the Conference
The label “Arab American” is imbued with layered meanings within both academic settings and public arenas. Variously embraced, sometimes contested, often redefined, Arab American identity constructions have been influenced by historical factors, discourses of self-identification, and normative processes of data collection. Foremost in promoting understanding of the changing nature of the Arab American label have been influential works by archivists and historians such as Alixa Naff, whose contributions to archiving Arab American history include a collection of oral histories and artifacts that she catalogued and donated to the Archives Center, National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. Her preeminent publication, Becoming American: The Early Arab-American Experience, remains a pioneering and influential history of Arab Americans.
Panel themes include
Arab American Feminist Studies; Early Visions of Arabs in America; Arabs on Screen and Stage; Arabs as Ethnic Minorities in the United States; Arab American Writers; Religion, Race, and Class; and Transnationalism in Arab American Identity
Keynote Address Suad Joseph, Distinguished Professor, University of California, Davis
