How have public history projects celebrated Arab American life and culture and countered anti-Arab bias and discrimination? The editor and contributors to Arab American Public History show how this vibrant community creates their own narratives through writing, blogging, curating, collaborating, and broadcasting. They also consider how the larger social and political contexts affect their work and offer self-reflection.

Arab American Public History is an invitation to engage more deeply with Arab American communities. Chapters examine Arab Americans’ origins, ethnic identities, and efforts to belong in America through case studies of the community’s food cultures, genealogy research, cultural production, and neighborhood enclaves.   

The first formal study of Arab American public history, this exciting volume charts various ways Arab Americans have interpreted their past as a source of defiant humanity, cultural enfranchisement, social solidarity, and political power.

Contributors: Reem Awad-Rashmawi, Chloe Bordewich, Richard M. Breaux, Maria F. Curtis, Lydia Harrington, Randa A. Kayyali, Matthew Jaber Stiffler, Rebecca K. Shrum, and the editor

In the series History and the Public

Edward E. Curtis IV is a community-engaged scholar of Black, Muslim, and Arab American history and life. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books, including Muslims of the Heartland: How Syrian Immigrants Made a Home in the American Midwest, which received the 2023 Evelyn Shakir book prize from the Arab American National Museum. The winner of two regional Emmys as executive producer and cowriter of Arab Indianapolis: A Hidden History, Curtis has also been awarded Mellon, Fulbright, Carnegie, and National Endowment for the Humanities grants and fellowships. He serves as the William M. and Gail M. Plater Chair of the Liberal Arts and Director of the Arabic Studies Program at Indiana University, Indianapolis.