Arabs in America

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

Arabs are an under-studied, and often poorly understood, ethnic group in the United States. This course introduces students to the history of Arab immigration to, and racial formation in, the United States from the late-19th century to the present. By racial formation I mean the social, historical and legal processes by which communities are “made into races.” For example, Arabs who came to the United States and other parts of the Americas in the early 20th century were from Asia but were classified as ‘white’ by the US Federal Government. Why and how was this the case? We will explore common themes in Arab immigrant experiences, and discuss salient differences along the lines of class, national origin, religion, gender, sexuality and other factors. The goals of this course are to have students gain an understanding of the political and economic processes that have propelled Arab migration to the United States, to compare patterns of settlement and community building within the Americas, to trace Arab-American ethnicity across generational lines, and discuss challenges faced by Arab immigrants and their children in relation to the state and dominant American culture. Throughout the semester, we will assess how concepts such as race, transnationalism, and diaspora relate to the study of Arab communities in the United States. While primarily historical in approach, other disciplinary approaches, including sociological, cultural and anthropological will supplement our study.