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
  • Vintage Over Digital: Alumnus Dan Cohen’s Voyager CD Bag Merges Music and Fashion
    Monday, July 7, 2025, By John Boccacino
  • Empowering Learners With Personalized Microcredentials, Stackable Badges
    Thursday, July 3, 2025, By Hope Alvarez
  • WISE Women’s Business Center Awarded Grant From Empire State Development, Celebrates Entrepreneur of the Year Award
    Thursday, July 3, 2025, By Dawn McWilliams
  • Paulo De Miranda G’00 Received ‘Much More Than a Formal Education’ From Maxwell
    Thursday, July 3, 2025, By Jessica Youngman
  • Law Professor Receives 2025 Onondaga County NAACP Freedom Fund Award
    Thursday, July 3, 2025, By Robert Conrad

More In Arts & Culture

Vintage Over Digital: Alumnus Dan Cohen’s Voyager CD Bag Merges Music and Fashion

Bucking the trend of streaming music platforms and contrary to what one might expect of a member of his generation, musician Dan Cohen ’25 prefers listening to his favorite artists on compact disc (CD) and record players. His research and…

VPA Announces New Drama Department Chair

The College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) has appointed Eleanor Holdridge as the new chair of the Department of Drama effective July 1. Holdridge comes to Syracuse University from the Catholic University of America, where she served as professor…

Swinging Into Summer: Syracuse International Jazz Fest Returns With Star Power, Student Talent and a Soulful Campus Finale

Get ready for the sweet summer sounds of jazz in the city and on campus. The University is again a sponsor of the Syracuse International Jazz Fest, a five-day celebration of world-class jazz music and community spirit, taking place June…

Tiffany Xu Named Harry der Boghosian Fellow for 2025-26

The School of Architecture has announced that architect Tiffany Xu is the Harry der Boghosian Fellow for 2025–26. Xu will succeed current fellow, Erin Cuevas, and become the tenth fellow at the school. The Boghosian Fellowship at the School of…

Syracuse Stage Concludes 2024-25 Season With ‘The National Pastime’

Syracuse Stage concludes its 2024-25 season with the world premiere production of “The National Pastime,” a provocative psychological thriller about state secrets, sonic weaponry, stolen baseball signs and the father and son relationship in the middle of it all. Written…

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.