Arab and Arab American Feminisms: Gender, Violence, and Belonging

Acknowledgments

ix Acknowledgments Arab and Arab American Feminisms has been a collaborative journey that began in 2002. It came together through ongoing conversations with colleagues, mentors , friends, and loved ones. We are indebted to everyone who has been there for us along this journey. As members of the American Studies Association’s (ASA) annual meetings organizing committee of 2003, Amy Kaplan and Melani McAlister enthusiastically supported two roundtable discussions we organized that helped to spark this book project. Maha Yahya invited us to edit a special issue of the MIT Electronic Journal of Middle East Studies, following the ASA meeting, at a time when area studies journals were not as interested in transnational discussions , let alone gendered transnational frameworks. The special MIT-EJMES issue on Arab and Arab American feminisms (spring 2005) was instrumental to the development of this book. We are indebted to Maha for her patience, support, the extensive time and energy she put into the journal’s special issue, as well as her unwavering commitment to the project of Arab and Arab American feminist knowledges as a valuable, legitimate, and necessary scholarship. We recognize our colleagues who participated in the roundtable discussion or the special MIT-EJMES issue who were unable for one reason or another to contribute to this book. In this respect, we acknowledge the important contributions of Hala Nassar, Amal Abdelrazek, Alia Malek, Lara Deeb, Nathalie Handal, and Rosina Hassoun to conversations on Arab and Arab American feminisms in the earlier stages of this project. This project would not have been possible without the love, support, and sisterhood of every contributor in this book. We would like to thank Deena AlAdeeb , Anan Ameri, Amal Amireh, Janaan Attia, Emanne Bayoumi, Moulouk Berry, Youmna Chlala, Susan Darraj, Christina Dennaoui, Mona El-Ghobashy, Nada Elia, Noura Erakat, Amal Hassan Fadlalla, Suheir Hammad, Mervat F. Hatem, Happy/L. A. Hyder, Huda Jadallah, Amira Jarmakani, Randa Jarrar, Joe Kadi, Mohja Kahf, Lisa Suhair Majaj, Dunya Mikhail, Therese Saliba, Sherene x | Acknowledgments Seikaly, Ella Habiba Shohat, Ameena Sultan, Kyla Wazana Tompkins, Kathy Wazana, Imani Yatouma, and Zeina Zaatari. We thank LeAnn Fields at University of Michigan Press who offered us feedback from anonymous reviewers and who encouraged us to develop the journal issue into a book manuscript. Mary Selden Evans, Marcia Hough, Lisa Renee Kuerbis, Kelly Lynne Balenske , and Kay Steinmetz at Syracuse University Press provided us with untiring assistance and support. We are appreciative of Mary Selden Evans’s steadfast dedication to emerging scholarship in the fields of Arab and Arab American studies. Working with an editor who was deeply sensitive to the historical and political issues that framed our book was not only a pleasure but also an essential ingredient in turning the idea of this book into a concrete reality. We are especially grateful to our students Andrew McBride, Kenny Garcia, Vanessa Saldivar, Sriya Shrestha, and Lee Ann Wang. Their remarkable assistance in logistical work, editing, proofreading, and formatting the journal issue and book manuscript was truly invaluable. We are also grateful to Rabia Belt for proofreading and for developing our index. We enjoyed working with these emerging scholars and learning from their insights. Each of us gives thanks to the mentorship, comradeship, and support of exceptional feminist scholars and activists with whom we have had the privilege to work over the years. We would like to acknowledge Ella Shohat, Suad Joseph, Cherríe Moraga, Jacqui Alexander, Drucilla Cornell, Penelope Eckert, Sondra Hale, Neferti Tadiar, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Ruthie Gilmore, Barbara Harlow, Rosalind Petchesky, and Kent Ono, who have been instrumental in our lives. We would also like to acknowledge the organizations and movements that have contributed to the shaping of our political consciousness over the years: the African and Caribbean People’s Resource Center; American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, San Francisco Chapter; Association of Arab American University Graduates (AAUG); Arab American Resource Center; Arab Movement of Women Arising for Justice; Arab Women’s Solidarity Association; Center for Political Education; Center for Women’s Development, Medgar Evers College; Committee for a Democratic Palestine; El Centro Puerto Ricaño at Hunter College ; Feminist Arab American Network; General Union of Palestine Students; General Union of Palestinian Women; INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence ; Organization of Asian Women; Palestine Solidarity Committee; Patrice Lumumba Coalition; Radical Arab Women’s Activist Network; South West Asian North African Bay Area Queers; Union of Palestinian Women’s Associations in Acknowledgments | xi North America...