than subordinates to, men in these ventures. The volume relies on archival research largely drawn... more than subordinates to, men in these ventures. The volume relies on archival research largely drawn from organizational minutes, correspondence, and the institutional histories that have languished on the shelves of divinity libraries. It stands less as a “hidden” history of women’s achievement and more as a forgotten one, a story that has been supplanted by more thematic recent studies. The decision to prioritize examination of institutional structures and biographical sketches precludes placing the story of the SCM into sustained conversation with scholarship that has examined relationships between the turn-of-the-century Anglo-American missionary movement and global women’s movements, colonialism and independence movements, and the evolution of Christian internationalism. For that reason, the book may better serve as a reference work, rather than a starting point, for scholars investigating women in mission, international ecumenicalism, and Christian student groups. Nevertheless, the account shows the value of a renewed attention to the SCM, and it points to important areas for future inquiry by indicating the importance of this history to the study of contemporary global networks of student religious groups as well as debates over women’s positions in religious leadership.
This is a needed manuscript that discusses and traces the rise and popularization of transnationa... more This is a needed manuscript that discusses and traces the rise and popularization of transnational Muslim women's fashion from the 1980s to the present. It especially focuses on the beginning of the twenty-first century that witnessed the emergence of a subculture that normalizes Muslim women's ways of dress, specifically the veil, as part of contemporary mainstream fashion. This fact refutes the stereotypical Orientalists' binary assumptions of West versus East that places Muslim women's fashion as anti-Western and pre-modern. Lewis argues that Muslim fashion is a complex concept that intertwines multiple fashion systems within different levels of modernity; moreover, fashion's meanings change depending on generation, class and temporal and spatial contexts. The book provides a vivid illustration of the ever-changing cultural landscape (virtual and physical-i.e. Internet, social media, Istanbul and London streets) where "shopping, fashion, and veils" are pitched together (3). The growth
The book draws on an extensive archive of over one hundred oral narratives collected and recorded... more The book draws on an extensive archive of over one hundred oral narratives collected and recorded with Iraqi women in three settlement sites: Amman, Detroit, and Toronto. It demonstrates how the relationship between ethno-religious migrants, nation, and citizenship are shaped by the traumatic experiences of forced displacement and integration into new communities and national imaginaries. The book also examines broader historical trends that have precipitated migration from Iraq, and shaped existing networks into which these women integrate in North America. While informed by research into the limited archival documentary record on Iraqis in North America, the book is first and foremost a study of gender and memory that centers women’s oral histories. It also examines how contemporary debates on global citizenship and religious feminism resonate for the individual. By historicizing the process by which ethno-religious and ethno-national communities become fractured and remade, the book explores the expectations and realities of women as the supposed biological and cultural reproducers of the nation. In diaspora, the Iraqi women of my study asserted their claims to indigeneity and belonging across three different generations, thereby opening up spaces to discuss how sites of migration shape the ability of migrants to lobby for ‘the homeland’ even as they engage in daily struggles to advance their education and economic stability in Canada and the U.S.
This paper examines Palestinian women’s marriage preferences and the ways they incorporate nation... more This paper examines Palestinian women’s marriage preferences and the ways they incorporate national/cultural elements into their self-initiated marriage process in order to mitigate the reactions of their families and local community in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Marriage decisions among Palestinians in diaspora are a complex affair defined by notions of nationalism, kin relations, and religion, with their inherent gendered aspects. These notions reveal an array of actions and choices that testify to the ways in which women build strategies to deal with their realities and increase their agency. Their access to higher education, careers, and residences in multi-cultural locations allow them to redefine gender roles and control their marriage choices. Intermarriage outside their ethnic and national groups, increase in marriage age, and marriage processes that are self-initiated yet devised and presented in the form of customary marriage patterns emerge as visible phenomena among second-ge...
The purpose of this study is to explore the experiences of Muslim mothers of children with disabi... more The purpose of this study is to explore the experiences of Muslim mothers of children with disabilities. Many studies have addressed the challenges faced by family caregivers in Western societal settings and little is known about the challenges of Muslim mothers of children with disabilities faced and the impact to their well-being. The study revealed several themes regarding the values in caregiving, disparity, fortitude, and needs. It provided a unique perspective on the intersection of gender with culture, religion, and immigrant status for the caregivers. The implication on the cultural stigmatization of disability in Muslim communities is discussed.
We have systematically derived the analytical expressions of the magnetic moments of the spin-1 2... more We have systematically derived the analytical expressions of the magnetic moments of the spin-1 2 heavy baryons to the next-to-next-to-leading order in the heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory (HBChPT). We include the spin-1 2 and spin-3 2 heavy hadrons as the intermediate states in the chiral loops and estimate the low energy constants (LECs) with the help of the quark model and lattice QCD simulations. We give the numerical results to the next-to-leading order for the anti-triplet heavy baryons and to the next-to-next-to-leading order for the sextet states.
World of Diasporas: Different Perceptions on the Concept of Diaspora, 2018
This study focuses on two distinctive periods: the 1950s-1980s and 1990s-2000s. As a point of cla... more This study focuses on two distinctive periods: the 1950s-1980s and 1990s-2000s. As a point of clarification, I am using the term 'First Generation' to apply to immigrants who were born outside the United States, and 'Second Generation' for their American-born children. This study utilizes at least 60 interviews conducted during the last six years among Muslim immigrants and their offspring in the greater Milwaukee region. 40 of these interviews are with women of Palestinian descent. 1 In addition to scholarly research, community members' photographs, and focus-group discussion, I use my personal observations as a member of the Arab and Muslim community in Milwaukee.
This paper examines the narratives of twenty-two Palestinian immigrant women who settled in the M... more This paper examines the narratives of twenty-two Palestinian immigrant women who settled in the Milwaukee area in order to demonstrate the particular ways in which they used their dress as a means to claim places of importance and exert influence in their communities. While women’s clothing conventions are the product of social and cultural powers that operate to ‘discipline the body,’ nevertheless, women subject to these forces deliberately choose to maneuver within their society’s standard code of dress for mobility. Because of this, the standards for dress do not simply discipline; they are a means by which women can reassign their roles within their communities. That is, the deliberate use of clothing within a defined temporal and spatial context allows women to position themselves in places of authority and power. This paper illuminates how Palestinian women identified themselves with their families, communities, regions, religion, and ethnicity during two distinctive periods b...
This dissertation examines the Quakers\u27 Ramallah Mission by focusing on the Friends Girls Scho... more This dissertation examines the Quakers\u27 Ramallah Mission by focusing on the Friends Girls School, a case study of the interaction between Americans and Palestinians. It shows how both sides arrived at a meeting ground reflecting their shared values, such as a high regard for education and womanhood training skills. This encounter catalyzed a cross-cultural process in which both groups through a process of trial and error recognized their mutual interests and benefited from them. Neither of the two groups overwhelmed nor dominated the other during this interchange. Two stages of interaction developed between 1889 and 1948, reflecting a process of change in missionary perceptions towards Palestinians and their culture. Before World War I, American Quakers viewed Palestinian women mostly through their own American womanhood ideals. These chauvinistic ideals constructed Arab women as inferior mothers and wives living in an oppressive backward culture. During the second stage (1920-1948) American missionaries changed their previous conceptions of Palestinian culture. Contributing to this altered vision was the cooperation policy among the different Protestant missions after World War 1 that established language programs to enhance missionary communication with the local population. This linguistic and cultural training, as well as the long period of interaction with Palestinians made Quaker women such as Mildred White, who served in the Mission for over three decades, advocate the devolution policy. This sea change called for a gradual transfer of the Mission\u27s control to Palestinians. Another reason for this change in attitude was their sympathetic imagination of the Holy Land, that attributed greater value to local customs as biblical cultural vestiges from Biblical times. Thus, the missionaries increasingly appreciated local food, clothing, and wedding customs. Indeed, they celebrated Arab women\u27s hospitality as exemplifying the Virgin Mary\u27s genteel habits. In general, American teachers and their students respected, if not cherished one another. The Quaker teachers used the school as a key site of cross-pollination to introduce their religious beliefs as well as different aspects of the American culture. The Palestinian students emerged from this cultural convergence with an identity that was neither identical to nor totally removed from their missionary teachers or traditional Arab culture. They constructed a hybridity that served their emerging national society well
Introduction In the late nineteenth century the Palestinian town of Ramallah began receiving Amer... more Introduction In the late nineteenth century the Palestinian town of Ramallah began receiving American missionary women who embodied their middle-class ideology of womanhood and ventured to discourse on Arab women and culture. Their conviction of the American woman as the model for other "unfortunate" women prevented these missionaries from integrating in the Palestinian cultural context. Consequently, this americentric belief led them to construct overwhelmingly negative views of Palestinian women as oppressed, living in ignorance and degraded conditions, and of Arab culture as backward and inept. However, American women missionaries after World War I grew in their cultural and linguistic understanding of Arab culture. this change in perspective came as a result of numerous social and cultural developments in Palestine and the United States that prepared these women to establish an accommodative middle ground between them and the Palestinians, thus modifying their previous...
This paper focuses on the Friends Girls School (FGS) in Ramallah as a site of interaction between... more This paper focuses on the Friends Girls School (FGS) in Ramallah as a site of interaction between Americans and Palestinians during the British Mandate between 1920 and 1947. It draws on extensive archival records as well as Palestinian students' writings and oral accounts to trace how Quakers' education and the nationalist discourse in the country influenced the students' personal and national identities. Palestinian students utilized Quaker education as a springboard for the subversion of gendered religious, political and Orientalist discourses which were prevalent during this time period. American Quaker missionaries founded the Girls Training Home (GTH), known as Friends Girls School (FGS) after World War I, in 1889. Their values of peaceful coexistence, academic preparation, domestic training, and community service and engagement shaped the students' personal and national identities. Like other Western missionaries, they held a universal perception of their role as those who would enlighten and uplift Palestinians. They perceived Palestinian women as victims of social and cultural degradation and in need of rescue. Nevertheless, the process of producing educated mothers and wives brought with it a complicated discourse that enabled FGS students to argue for and design their role in an anticolonial and nation-building context. They utilized Quaker education to transform their traditional roles within the home, while demanding the right to claim public spaces as teachers and members of charitable organizations. This led them to play active roles in the nationalist movement and to advocate for gender and cultural equality within Palestinian society. They also internalized Quaker ideals of internationalism and nonviolent means of conflict resolution, which motivated them to support unity across tribal and religious lines.
This is a needed manuscript that discusses and traces the rise and popularization of transnationa... more This is a needed manuscript that discusses and traces the rise and popularization of transnational Muslim women’s fashion from the 1980s to the present. It especially focuses on the beginning of the twenty-first century that witnessed the emergence of a subculture that normalizes Muslim women’s ways of dress, specifically the veil, as part of contemporary mainstream fashion. This fact refutes the stereotypical Orientalists’ binary assumptions of West versus East that places Muslim women’s fashion as anti-Western and pre-modern. Lewis argues that Muslim fashion is a complex concept that intertwines fashion systems within different levels of modernity; moreover, fashion’s mean- ings change depending on generation, class and temporal and spatial contexts. The book provides a vivid illustration of the ever-changing cultural landscape (virtual and physical – i.e. Internet, social media, Istanbul and London streets) where “shopping, fashion, and veils” are pitched together (3). The growth of this youth fashion subculture is an expression of identity negotiation in which a young generation of Muslims acquire more than one type of cultural capital (using Pierre Bourdieu’s theory) that enables their communication and “engage- ment with mainstream fashion” and with “coreligionists and to majority of non- Muslim observers alike” (3).
than subordinates to, men in these ventures. The volume relies on archival research largely drawn... more than subordinates to, men in these ventures. The volume relies on archival research largely drawn from organizational minutes, correspondence, and the institutional histories that have languished on the shelves of divinity libraries. It stands less as a “hidden” history of women’s achievement and more as a forgotten one, a story that has been supplanted by more thematic recent studies. The decision to prioritize examination of institutional structures and biographical sketches precludes placing the story of the SCM into sustained conversation with scholarship that has examined relationships between the turn-of-the-century Anglo-American missionary movement and global women’s movements, colonialism and independence movements, and the evolution of Christian internationalism. For that reason, the book may better serve as a reference work, rather than a starting point, for scholars investigating women in mission, international ecumenicalism, and Christian student groups. Nevertheless, the account shows the value of a renewed attention to the SCM, and it points to important areas for future inquiry by indicating the importance of this history to the study of contemporary global networks of student religious groups as well as debates over women’s positions in religious leadership.
This is a needed manuscript that discusses and traces the rise and popularization of transnationa... more This is a needed manuscript that discusses and traces the rise and popularization of transnational Muslim women's fashion from the 1980s to the present. It especially focuses on the beginning of the twenty-first century that witnessed the emergence of a subculture that normalizes Muslim women's ways of dress, specifically the veil, as part of contemporary mainstream fashion. This fact refutes the stereotypical Orientalists' binary assumptions of West versus East that places Muslim women's fashion as anti-Western and pre-modern. Lewis argues that Muslim fashion is a complex concept that intertwines multiple fashion systems within different levels of modernity; moreover, fashion's meanings change depending on generation, class and temporal and spatial contexts. The book provides a vivid illustration of the ever-changing cultural landscape (virtual and physical-i.e. Internet, social media, Istanbul and London streets) where "shopping, fashion, and veils" are pitched together (3). The growth
The book draws on an extensive archive of over one hundred oral narratives collected and recorded... more The book draws on an extensive archive of over one hundred oral narratives collected and recorded with Iraqi women in three settlement sites: Amman, Detroit, and Toronto. It demonstrates how the relationship between ethno-religious migrants, nation, and citizenship are shaped by the traumatic experiences of forced displacement and integration into new communities and national imaginaries. The book also examines broader historical trends that have precipitated migration from Iraq, and shaped existing networks into which these women integrate in North America. While informed by research into the limited archival documentary record on Iraqis in North America, the book is first and foremost a study of gender and memory that centers women’s oral histories. It also examines how contemporary debates on global citizenship and religious feminism resonate for the individual. By historicizing the process by which ethno-religious and ethno-national communities become fractured and remade, the book explores the expectations and realities of women as the supposed biological and cultural reproducers of the nation. In diaspora, the Iraqi women of my study asserted their claims to indigeneity and belonging across three different generations, thereby opening up spaces to discuss how sites of migration shape the ability of migrants to lobby for ‘the homeland’ even as they engage in daily struggles to advance their education and economic stability in Canada and the U.S.
This paper examines Palestinian women’s marriage preferences and the ways they incorporate nation... more This paper examines Palestinian women’s marriage preferences and the ways they incorporate national/cultural elements into their self-initiated marriage process in order to mitigate the reactions of their families and local community in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Marriage decisions among Palestinians in diaspora are a complex affair defined by notions of nationalism, kin relations, and religion, with their inherent gendered aspects. These notions reveal an array of actions and choices that testify to the ways in which women build strategies to deal with their realities and increase their agency. Their access to higher education, careers, and residences in multi-cultural locations allow them to redefine gender roles and control their marriage choices. Intermarriage outside their ethnic and national groups, increase in marriage age, and marriage processes that are self-initiated yet devised and presented in the form of customary marriage patterns emerge as visible phenomena among second-ge...
The purpose of this study is to explore the experiences of Muslim mothers of children with disabi... more The purpose of this study is to explore the experiences of Muslim mothers of children with disabilities. Many studies have addressed the challenges faced by family caregivers in Western societal settings and little is known about the challenges of Muslim mothers of children with disabilities faced and the impact to their well-being. The study revealed several themes regarding the values in caregiving, disparity, fortitude, and needs. It provided a unique perspective on the intersection of gender with culture, religion, and immigrant status for the caregivers. The implication on the cultural stigmatization of disability in Muslim communities is discussed.
We have systematically derived the analytical expressions of the magnetic moments of the spin-1 2... more We have systematically derived the analytical expressions of the magnetic moments of the spin-1 2 heavy baryons to the next-to-next-to-leading order in the heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory (HBChPT). We include the spin-1 2 and spin-3 2 heavy hadrons as the intermediate states in the chiral loops and estimate the low energy constants (LECs) with the help of the quark model and lattice QCD simulations. We give the numerical results to the next-to-leading order for the anti-triplet heavy baryons and to the next-to-next-to-leading order for the sextet states.
World of Diasporas: Different Perceptions on the Concept of Diaspora, 2018
This study focuses on two distinctive periods: the 1950s-1980s and 1990s-2000s. As a point of cla... more This study focuses on two distinctive periods: the 1950s-1980s and 1990s-2000s. As a point of clarification, I am using the term 'First Generation' to apply to immigrants who were born outside the United States, and 'Second Generation' for their American-born children. This study utilizes at least 60 interviews conducted during the last six years among Muslim immigrants and their offspring in the greater Milwaukee region. 40 of these interviews are with women of Palestinian descent. 1 In addition to scholarly research, community members' photographs, and focus-group discussion, I use my personal observations as a member of the Arab and Muslim community in Milwaukee.
This paper examines the narratives of twenty-two Palestinian immigrant women who settled in the M... more This paper examines the narratives of twenty-two Palestinian immigrant women who settled in the Milwaukee area in order to demonstrate the particular ways in which they used their dress as a means to claim places of importance and exert influence in their communities. While women’s clothing conventions are the product of social and cultural powers that operate to ‘discipline the body,’ nevertheless, women subject to these forces deliberately choose to maneuver within their society’s standard code of dress for mobility. Because of this, the standards for dress do not simply discipline; they are a means by which women can reassign their roles within their communities. That is, the deliberate use of clothing within a defined temporal and spatial context allows women to position themselves in places of authority and power. This paper illuminates how Palestinian women identified themselves with their families, communities, regions, religion, and ethnicity during two distinctive periods b...
This dissertation examines the Quakers\u27 Ramallah Mission by focusing on the Friends Girls Scho... more This dissertation examines the Quakers\u27 Ramallah Mission by focusing on the Friends Girls School, a case study of the interaction between Americans and Palestinians. It shows how both sides arrived at a meeting ground reflecting their shared values, such as a high regard for education and womanhood training skills. This encounter catalyzed a cross-cultural process in which both groups through a process of trial and error recognized their mutual interests and benefited from them. Neither of the two groups overwhelmed nor dominated the other during this interchange. Two stages of interaction developed between 1889 and 1948, reflecting a process of change in missionary perceptions towards Palestinians and their culture. Before World War I, American Quakers viewed Palestinian women mostly through their own American womanhood ideals. These chauvinistic ideals constructed Arab women as inferior mothers and wives living in an oppressive backward culture. During the second stage (1920-1948) American missionaries changed their previous conceptions of Palestinian culture. Contributing to this altered vision was the cooperation policy among the different Protestant missions after World War 1 that established language programs to enhance missionary communication with the local population. This linguistic and cultural training, as well as the long period of interaction with Palestinians made Quaker women such as Mildred White, who served in the Mission for over three decades, advocate the devolution policy. This sea change called for a gradual transfer of the Mission\u27s control to Palestinians. Another reason for this change in attitude was their sympathetic imagination of the Holy Land, that attributed greater value to local customs as biblical cultural vestiges from Biblical times. Thus, the missionaries increasingly appreciated local food, clothing, and wedding customs. Indeed, they celebrated Arab women\u27s hospitality as exemplifying the Virgin Mary\u27s genteel habits. In general, American teachers and their students respected, if not cherished one another. The Quaker teachers used the school as a key site of cross-pollination to introduce their religious beliefs as well as different aspects of the American culture. The Palestinian students emerged from this cultural convergence with an identity that was neither identical to nor totally removed from their missionary teachers or traditional Arab culture. They constructed a hybridity that served their emerging national society well
Introduction In the late nineteenth century the Palestinian town of Ramallah began receiving Amer... more Introduction In the late nineteenth century the Palestinian town of Ramallah began receiving American missionary women who embodied their middle-class ideology of womanhood and ventured to discourse on Arab women and culture. Their conviction of the American woman as the model for other "unfortunate" women prevented these missionaries from integrating in the Palestinian cultural context. Consequently, this americentric belief led them to construct overwhelmingly negative views of Palestinian women as oppressed, living in ignorance and degraded conditions, and of Arab culture as backward and inept. However, American women missionaries after World War I grew in their cultural and linguistic understanding of Arab culture. this change in perspective came as a result of numerous social and cultural developments in Palestine and the United States that prepared these women to establish an accommodative middle ground between them and the Palestinians, thus modifying their previous...
This paper focuses on the Friends Girls School (FGS) in Ramallah as a site of interaction between... more This paper focuses on the Friends Girls School (FGS) in Ramallah as a site of interaction between Americans and Palestinians during the British Mandate between 1920 and 1947. It draws on extensive archival records as well as Palestinian students' writings and oral accounts to trace how Quakers' education and the nationalist discourse in the country influenced the students' personal and national identities. Palestinian students utilized Quaker education as a springboard for the subversion of gendered religious, political and Orientalist discourses which were prevalent during this time period. American Quaker missionaries founded the Girls Training Home (GTH), known as Friends Girls School (FGS) after World War I, in 1889. Their values of peaceful coexistence, academic preparation, domestic training, and community service and engagement shaped the students' personal and national identities. Like other Western missionaries, they held a universal perception of their role as those who would enlighten and uplift Palestinians. They perceived Palestinian women as victims of social and cultural degradation and in need of rescue. Nevertheless, the process of producing educated mothers and wives brought with it a complicated discourse that enabled FGS students to argue for and design their role in an anticolonial and nation-building context. They utilized Quaker education to transform their traditional roles within the home, while demanding the right to claim public spaces as teachers and members of charitable organizations. This led them to play active roles in the nationalist movement and to advocate for gender and cultural equality within Palestinian society. They also internalized Quaker ideals of internationalism and nonviolent means of conflict resolution, which motivated them to support unity across tribal and religious lines.
This is a needed manuscript that discusses and traces the rise and popularization of transnationa... more This is a needed manuscript that discusses and traces the rise and popularization of transnational Muslim women’s fashion from the 1980s to the present. It especially focuses on the beginning of the twenty-first century that witnessed the emergence of a subculture that normalizes Muslim women’s ways of dress, specifically the veil, as part of contemporary mainstream fashion. This fact refutes the stereotypical Orientalists’ binary assumptions of West versus East that places Muslim women’s fashion as anti-Western and pre-modern. Lewis argues that Muslim fashion is a complex concept that intertwines fashion systems within different levels of modernity; moreover, fashion’s mean- ings change depending on generation, class and temporal and spatial contexts. The book provides a vivid illustration of the ever-changing cultural landscape (virtual and physical – i.e. Internet, social media, Istanbul and London streets) where “shopping, fashion, and veils” are pitched together (3). The growth of this youth fashion subculture is an expression of identity negotiation in which a young generation of Muslims acquire more than one type of cultural capital (using Pierre Bourdieu’s theory) that enables their communication and “engage- ment with mainstream fashion” and with “coreligionists and to majority of non- Muslim observers alike” (3).
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