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Recently, I attended the Arab American Studies Association Conference (AASA) which takes place once every three years. It was hosted by the Arab American National Museum (AAMN) in Dearborn, MI, in April 2024. The conference theme was Critical Futures in Arab American Studies. The murmurings of the attendees throughout the conference described the event as a “place of healing” and a “safe space.” Such spaces are significant in a national climate where college campuses negatively respond to students, faculty, and staff organizing in solidarity for a ceasefire in Gaza, thus constraining the academic freedom and activism of faculty. Another aspect that I noted was the majority woman presence at the conference among the faculty attendees, the panels presented, and the staff of organizers. This was unlike anything I have ever witnessed in my entire academic career. Political Science conferences comparatively seem overwhelmingly male. In fact, in the 16 years that I have been attending academic conferences, I have not once sat on a woman majority panel, let alone witnessed an entirely woman panel. This raised the question, why was the AASA such a different experience? I found that the AASA is a feminist space due to its genuinely intersectional nature of gender, politics, identity, sexuality, and class intertwined with goals of academic empowerment.

My exploration of the AASA conference programming emerged out of a place of personal curiosity. Why did this conference feel like home and a place of “healing?” I intended to seek answers on the presence of women and feminist underpinnings. This led to the observation of three main features of the conference. The first, the openness to discuss the issue of Palestine and the ongoing genocide, in a space that does not penalize academics, as is happening all around the country. The second, the intersectional approach of the conference in terms of shared struggles and lessons learned from Indigenous peoples of the Americas as well as Black American experiences and relationality. The third, an academic space shaped and influenced by women, which naturally cultivates a space of openness for women, men, and LGBTQIA+ to explore their research. Due to the history of male dominated academic spaces, women and LGBTQIA+ faculty (not mutually exclusive) have had to push against those structures and systems. This, alongside Dearborn, Michigan’s history, plays a significant role in shaping the context of the program.  

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Dearborn is the first Arab majority city in the United States, holding significance for the community alongside its deep ties to the labor movement (Hernandez 2024). There is a significant impact of unionization in Michigan, particularly with the auto industry and a long history beginning as early as 1935 in which the United Auto Workers union formed (Detroit News 2016). Accordingly, Michigan union memberships are above the national average (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2023).  Using UM-Dearborn as an example, the union has made significant strides in empowering faculty. UM-Dearborn relies less on part-time faculty (30%) compared to national averages (51.4%); and women have a significant presence on the Dearborn campus (51.2%) (College Factual 2024).

The clear-cut gender binary, while not helpful to understanding our world, is still the dominant framework in which we operate, often including women’s studies. In fact, this binary shapes our academic institutions; Men dominate higher ranked positions at universities; and women deal with issues of implicit bias of “feminized” research, as well as structural problems, despite increasing numbers of women with PhDs (Stanford News 2021). Moreover, women still receive less pay on average than their male counterparts, making roughly 82 cents for every dollar (Spitalniak 2022). LGBTQIA+ academics face additional struggles as they continue to experience microaggression in their daily careers, even in countries such as Canada that protects gender identity and sexual orientation (Beagan et al 2021). Yet, the conference attendees did not uniformly ascribe to the male/female nor sexual binary. While some attendees publicly identified as non-binary and/or LGBTQIA+, it is entirely possible that attendees may use the binary publicly, but privately identify otherwise.  

The intersectionality at the AASA 2024 conference is important to understand the feminist nature of the conference. There was a significant effort within the AASA to pay homage to the history of Indigenous peoples in the Americas as well as the experiences of Black Americans. Panelists moved beyond performative DEIJ rhetoric and really began to grapple with the intertwined histories of Indigenous peoples, Black American history and experiences of colonization, the question of “respectability politics” and disrupting the framing of the Black / white binary in America. A few panels/papers that explored these intersections included: 1) Decolonizing Tongues, Weaving Futures: Indigenous / Arab Solidarity, Creativity and Linguistic Self-Determination; 2) the paper “Indigeneity Matters: On Refugees and Exilic Belonging;” 3) Black/Arab Relationalities: Mapping Community Connections Beyond the Black/White Binary; and 4) Hijab Beyond Misrepresentation: Historical Realities and Contemporary Pushback.  

The conference continuously challenged heteronormativity as well with the representation of LGBTQIA+ and queerness at the conference. While it is impossible to quantify that representation, some panelists publicly identified as non-binary or LGBTQIA+ over lunches, on panels, and in larger discussions by sharing pronouns. It is important to keep in mind that queerness in the Arab community is still largely a private matter due to stigmatization. However, this was challenged with books such as This Arab is Queer (2022) and researchers like Mejdulene Bernard Shomali who published Between Banat: Queer Arab Critique and Transnational Arab Archives (2023).  

In studying Arab queerness, academics still face quite a challenge. Yet, some papers at the AASA explored the intersections of Arab queerness, such as the panel titled Queer Pasts, Queer Futures. However, due to panelists unable to attend, papers dealing with Arab queerness were grouped into other panel sessions, such as the paper “Historical Sites of Arab American Queerness, Queer Sites of Arab American History” which was moved to the panel Critical Futures & Histories. One cannot overlook the multiplicity of voices represented at the AASA in terms of intersectional identities across race, ethnicity, gender, and colonial histories.  

Demographically, the AASA was indeed a woman dominated space, particularly woman of color.  

Out of the nineteen sessions, there were no panels or roundtables that were made up only of male presenters. Only one panel was male dominated (AASA 2024, #2, pg 13). Two panels were split evenly between men and women presenters (AASA 2024, #12, 14, pg 16-17). Roughly only 5% of the panels contained a male majority panel, roughly 11% included a balance between men and women presenters, and the remaining panels (84%) at the conferences were predominantly made up of women.  

Seven sessions contained a fully woman panel (AASA 2024, # 4, 6, 7, 8, 11, 17, 18; pg 13-20) and eight were woman dominated (AASA 2024, #3, 5, 9, 10, 13, 15, X, 19, pg 13-21). Among the panels, research contained a wide range of topics; such as, advocacy, agency, activism, local case studies of community, health statistics, Arab queerness and love, issues of war, displacement, statehood, religious racialization, archival data, literature and memory, as well as gender and sexuality. Therefore, it is clear that not all the research was exclusively “feminized.” At the same time, “feminist” topics were explored and presented through the intersectionality of different themes, such as issues of resistance, activism, and agency that fall into the scope of “feminist” research.  

In analyzing the program of the 2024 AASA conference, I found it an intersectional and feminist space. This led me to question whether the woman dominated programming was exclusive to this year. I found that the AASA has been consistent since its inception in 2012.  First, I learned that the founding board members of the AASA were all women: Suad Joseph, Randa K. Privett, Pauline H. Vinson, and Rita Stephen (AASA Website). The feminist thematic pattern amongst the first three conferences maintained the women-centered approach of the AASA’s founding.  

The first AASA conference held in 2014 did not have a fully posted program, its themes included feminist studies, artistic and cultural contributions, historical and political contributions, as well as research regarding identity, class, religion, and transnationalism (AASA 2014). By highlighting Alixa Naff’s contributions to the Arab American community and Suad Joseph’s keynote address, it is clear that the conference did center the work of Arab women in American academia.

The second conference (2017) held ten sessions made up of panels, roundtables, and open discussions. One session was a male majority roundtable, one was a fully woman panel, and the remaining seven sessions held a woman majority (AASA 2017). Topics ranged mainly on issues of activism, media, intergroup relations, books on Arab Americans, intersectionality, and the question and impact of imperialism on Arabs.  

The third conference was held in 2022, made up of nineteen sessions; 14 of which were panels. One panel was entirely male, two sessions had an equal ratio of men and women presenters, and remaining eleven panels were either entirely made up of women or had a woman majority (AASA 2022). Topics spanned with issues dealing directly with women, and others dealt with political issues of nationhood, borders, decolonization, statehood, imperialism, militarization and resistance movements, migration, identity, diversity and inclusion, and issues within Arab American Studies as a field of academia. While some of the topics dealt with “women's issues” and “feminized” research, much of the research dealt with politics, identity as a whole, and the future of the field.  

It is clear based on the past AASA conferences and the current 2024 conference that Arab American Studies has a predominantly woman emphasis to it. The active role women play at the AASA could be due to multiple factors such as: a) the history of women as nurturers of culture; b) the role of unionization in empowering women faculty (ie in the Dearborn area); c) Increased visibility of women’s labor; d) the founders of the AASA being an all-woman team; e) the nature of area and interdisciplinary studies as being intersectional and more representative; and f) general trends of increased presence of women in higher education and in the workplace over the last 60 years, and even more so, in the last 20 years due to women’s rights gains in the United States.  

As a woman myself, I have first-hand encountered dismissiveness of my contributions in research and teaching. While teaching in a department as the only woman history teacher, a former student reported that my colleague, who was a man, would often say “Women don’t know how to teach history” and “girls are bad at history.” This microaggression, while anecdotal on my part, is a shared experience for many woman teachers (and workers as a whole) in male dominated spaces. This is why the AASA conference was so healing for many people. It was a space in which woman researchers were able to engage in their own academic agency, without the male dominated structures in most academic institutions. It allowed the exploration of intersecting identities and issues, creating a robust opportunity for feminist analysis.

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While all my questions are not fully answered, I found that the AASA is a women and feminist space. The AASA has cultivated a space in which women identifying and LGBTQIA+ academics can share their research openly and safely. The conference has ensured to build a transformative process engaging participants in open floor discussions and reflections, using their own work, to help inform the future of Arab American Studies, which grants agency to the participants. With much of the defunding and downsizing Arab American Studies programs have been facing (as well as other ethnic studies programs), the conference gave significant voice to faculty who at times feel voiceless within their own institutions. Additionally, with the events unfolding in the Middle East and in particular with Palestine, being able to openly discuss the realities and its impact in academia, is crucial to faculty within Arab American Studies. Lastly, as an Arab American who has research involving Muslim Americans with its intersection among gender, race, and ethnicity– I would echo the sentiment of many other participants that the conference was a healing space. Ideally, Arab American Studies continues to develop with intersectionality in mind, openness and transparency in practice, and transformational critique.  This will lead to solidarity and relationship building across ethnic studies programs, particularly with Indigenous and Black communities in the Americas, as well as the empowerment of all people through the lens of feminism which I believe that the AASA has demonstrated.  

Reem is a lecturer of Political Science and Arab American Studies at the University of Michigan, Dearborn and Ann Arbor. Her research involves Arab identity, Muslim American patriotism, concentric identity, and analyzing the writings of WEB DuBois. Reem is currently working on an oral history project titled The Return to Culture focusing on Muslim American first and second generation millennial women and the use of outward expressions of culture in professional and public spaces.  

Sources:

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