Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Arts & Culture
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Arts & Culture

Professor Examines ‘Citizenship, Belonging’ in Arab-American Literature

Wednesday, June 4, 2014, By Rob Enslin
Share
College of Arts and Sciences

The changing face of Arab-American literature, particularly since 9/11, is the focus of a new book by a professor in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Carol Fadda-Conrey

Carol Fadda-Conrey

Carol Fadda-Conrey, associate professor of English and an expert in U.S. ethnic literatures, is the author of “Contemporary Arab-American Literature: Transnational Reconfigurations of Citizenship and Belonging” (New York University Press, 2014). In it, she examines cultural and literary texts by Arab-American writers, paying close attention to how the idea of an Arab homeland is negotiated and constructed transnationally by different generations of Arabs living in the United States.

“The last couple of decades have witnessed a flourishing of Arab-American literature across multiple genres,” says Fadda-Conrey, whose expertise also extends to ethnic and minority studies and to diaspora and transnational studies. “Yet increased interest in this literature is paralleled by bias against Arabs and Muslims that erroneously depicts their long presence in the United States as a recent and unwelcome phenomenon.”

In “Contemporary Arab-American Literature,” Fadda-Conrey presents poetry, fiction, nonfiction and visual art by established and emerging Arab-American voices, including Naomi Shihab Nye, Joseph Geha, Rabih Alameddine, Randa Jarrar and Suheir Hammad.

Many of these writers, she says, exhibit strong yet complex attachments to the United States and to their original Arab homelands.

“My book seeks to understand how these writers’ depictions of Arab homelands produce complex understandings of Arab-American identities,” says Fadda-Conrey, who also has published essays on gender, race, ethnicity, war trauma and transnational citizenship in Arab and Arab-American texts. “By asserting themselves within a U.S. framework and maintaining strong connections to the Arab world, these writers contest Arab-Americans’ subjection to blanket representations and ultimately alter dominant understandings of U.S. citizenship and belonging.”

Fadda-Conrey hopes her book will help emphasize a transnational approach to the study of minority U.S. literatures, one that fosters a more nuanced understanding of Arab and Muslim identities in the wake of 9/11.

Fadda_Conrey_FRONTMoreover, the book’s multidisciplinary framework highlights its contributions to various fields and areas of study, including Middle Eastern studies, race and ethnic studies, gender studies and diaspora studies.

“Carol Fadda-Conrey offers an original analysis of the ways in which Arab American literature articulates new forms of citizenship, forms that are transnational in scope and reconfigure notions of geography and belonging,” says Evelyn Alsultany, associate professor of American culture at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and author of “Arabs and Muslims in the U.S. Media Post 9/11” (NYU Press, 2012). “It will be the go-to book on Arab-American literature.”

Also affiliated with the Middle Eastern Studies Program, Department of Women’s and Gender Studies, and LGBT Studies Program at Syracuse University, Fadda-Conrey has taught at the University of Sharjah (United Arab Emirates); Purdue University, where she earned a Ph.D. in contemporary American literature; and St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. Fadda-Conrey grew up in Lebanon, where she earned graduate and undergraduate degrees from the American University of Beirut. She is the recipient of a summer stipend from the National Endowment for the Humanities and a Future of Minority Studies Fellowship.

  • Author

Rob Enslin

  • Recent
  • Arts and Sciences Hosts Inaugural Scholarship and Research Gala
    Friday, May 9, 2025, By Sean Grogan
  • Chancellor Kent Syverud Honored as Distinguished Citizen of the Year at 57th Annual ScoutPower Event
    Thursday, May 8, 2025, By News Staff
  • New Maymester Program Allows Student-Athletes to Develop ‘Democracy Playbook’
    Thursday, May 8, 2025, By Wendy S. Loughlin
  • From Policy to Practice: How AI is Shaping the Future of Education
    Thursday, May 8, 2025, By Christopher Munoz
  • Kohn, Wiklund, Wilmoth Named Distinguished Professors
    Thursday, May 8, 2025, By Wendy S. Loughlin

More In Arts & Culture

School of Architecture Faculty Pablo Sequero Named Winner of 2025 Architectural League Prize

School of Architecture faculty member Pablo Sequero’s firm, salazarsequeromedina, has been named to the newest cohort of winners in the biennial Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers, one of North America’s most prestigious awards for young practitioners. “An…

A&S Cool Class: Chinese Art

Exploring diverse artistic traditions is one way students in the College of Arts and Sciences develop global perspectives and enhance their cultural awareness, necessary for success in today’s connected world. Artworks from around the world, including those from China, offer…

Jane Austen Returns to Syracuse Stage With Fresh and Fun ‘Sense and Sensibility’

Syracuse Stage continues its 2024/25 season with celebrated actor and playwright Kate Hamill’s whirlwind adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility.” Directed by Jason O’Connell, “Sense and Sensibility” will run April 23-May 11 in the Archbold Theatre at Syracuse Stage,…

Syracuse Student Co-Headlines Society for New Music Concert April 13

Music by Syracuse University graduate student Rolando Gómez is part of the Society for New Music (SNM)’s annual Prizewinners Concert on Sunday, April 13, at 4 p.m. at CNY Jazz Central (441 East Washington St., Syracuse). A master’s student in…

Faculty, Staff Invited to Participate in This Year’s ‘On My Own Time’ Celebration

The University is pleased to announce its participation in “On My Own Time”—a celebration of local visual arts that highlights the often-unsung artists who create art on their own time. This year is the 52nd anniversary of this program, organized…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2025 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.