Arab New York: Politics and Community in the Everyday Lives of Arab Americans

Emily Regan Wills

Published by New York University Press 2019

Arab New York

Politics and Community in the Everyday Lives of Arab Americans

Emily Regan Wills

https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9781479897650.001.0001

Overview
Contents

About this book

From Bay Ridge to Astoria, explore political action in Arab New York

Arab Americans are a numerically small proportion of the US population yet have been the target of a disproportionate amount of political scrutiny. Most non-Arab Americans know little about what life is actually like within Arab communities and in organizations run by and for the Arab community. Big political questions are central to the Arab American experience—how are politics integrated into Arab Americans’ everyday lives?

In Arab New York, Emily Regan Wills looks outside the traditional ideas of political engagement to see the importance of politics in Arab American communities in New York. Regan Wills focuses on the spaces of public and communal life in the five boroughs of New York, which are home to the third largest concentration of people of Arab descent in the US. Many different ethnic and religious groups form the overarching Arab American identity, and their political engagement in the US is complex.

Regan Wills examines the way that daily practice and speech form the foundation of political action and meaning. Drawing on interviews and participant observation with activist groups and community organizations, Regan Wills explores topics such as Arab American identity for children, relationships with Arab and non-Arab Americans, young women as leaders in the Muslim and Arab American community, support and activism for Palestine, and revolutionary change in Egypt and Yemen. Ultimately, she claims that in order to understand Arab American political engagement and see how political action develops in Arab American contexts, one must understand Arab Americans in their own terms of political and public engagement. They are, Regan Wills argues, profoundly engaged with everyday politics and political questions that don’t match up to conventional politics.

Arab New York draws from rich ethnographic data and presents a narrative, compelling picture of a community engaging with politics on its own terms. Written to expand the existing literature on Arab Americans to include more direct engagement with politics and discourse, Arab New York also serves as an appropriate introduction to Arab American communities, ethnic dynamics in New York City and elsewhere in urban America, and the concept of everyday politics.

Author / Editor information

Wills Emily Regan :

Emily Regan Wills is Associate Professor of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa.

Reviews

Engages the general reader and wrestles with primary questions of Arab American identity.

A solid example of how ethnographic research can help political leaders, scholars, and the public to understand the reality of Arab American communities in urban America. Arab New York provides a credible picture of a community interacting with politics while also celebrating its ethnic values. Through her interpretive research and participation in everyday social spaces, Wills played a role closer to an insider and accessed public and private moments of contestation and conversation. She provides a multidimensional perspective on American Arab communities and highlights how politics impact their everyday lives.

Amaney A. Jamal,Author of Of Empires and Citizens: Pro-American Democracy Or No Democracy at All?:
Wills has written an extraordinary book that captures the politics underlying the everyday lives of Arab Americans. By focusing on the ways in which Arab Americans understand and assign meaning to their political roles in society, [she] offers a compelling, rich and fascinating account of Arab American political experiences.

Louise Cainkar,Author of Homeland Insecurity: The Arab American and Muslim American Experience After 9/11:
A highly readable ethnographic account offering a refreshing perspective on everyday politics and Arab American communities. It has much to offer scholars in a wide range of disciplines, as well as those who are curious about the ways silenced communities find and raise their voices.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Note on Arabic transliteration Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Part I. Everyday lives
1. Everyday politics in Arab new york: what does it mean to be Arab American? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	3
2. Mapping Arab new york: complexity and community Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	26
Part II. Everyday contestations
3. Making ‘Arabiya: education and identity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	63
4. The panopticon of bay ridge: young women as community leaders Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	82
Part III. Everyday identities
5. From the east river to the sea: organizing for Palestine Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	113
6. Thawra fii times square: revolution in diaspora Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	145
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	169
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	183
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	185
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	197
About the author Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	199

Language: English
Publisher: New York University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;

eBook

Published: February 26, 2019
ISBN: 9781479881369