Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This research examines rare pre-2001 data on attitudes about Arab Americans, providing a baseline for understanding current public reactions to this important ethnic minority group.
Of particular interest are patterns that distinguish whites' views about Arab Americans from views held about other racial/ethnic minorities. White respondents to the 1992 and 1994 Detroit Area Studies rated Arab Americans as harder to get along with and more un-neighborly than whites or any other racial/ethnic minority. In other words, years before the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001, Arab Americans were seen as more antagonistic, less congenial than any other racial/ethnic group. To the extent that white Detroiters' perspective on Arab-origin residents was shared among whites across the country, there was fertile soil for the strain and hostility toward Arab Americans that mushroomed after 9/11.
Also, the social distance scores white respondents assigned to Arab Americans are nearly as high as those assigned to blacks, and about one-third again as high as the social distance scores assigned to Hispanics and Asian Americans. The racial status of Arab Americans has sometimes been described as "not quite white." It may be more accurate to describe the status of this group as almost black.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: With new data from the Detroit Area Study (DAS) and Detroit Arab American Study (DAAS), we consider the long-term effects of 9/11 and its aftermath on identity, trust, confidence in institutions, stress, and perceived safety and security among residents of the Detroit three-county region. The DAS is a representative sample (n=508) sample of the general population; the DAAS is a representative oversample (n=1005) of the diverse community of Arab Americans living in the same region. We analyze four sets of factors: (1) experiences since September 11th, such as harassment, support, perceptions of safety and security, reactions to the "war on terrorism," and reactions to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East; (2) respondent characteristics, including socioeconomic variables, ethnicity, national origin, generation, cohort of immigration, religious affiliation and practices, language use, and residential characteristics; (3) the increasing prevalence of transnational ties, such as exposure to international sources of news, entertainment, and information, international social and business networks, and post-September 11th restrictions; and (4) the connection to sources of local social capital, such as employment and business ownership, social networks, organizational memberships, and political participation.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Scholars have examined descriptive and substantive representation of minority interests. I build on the existing literature by focusing on Arab American representation. Studying this group allows me to test whether 9/11 affected representation.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper examines post-9/11 shifts in the U.S. public's foreign policy attitudes and their underlying paradigms. Determination of shifts in attitudes and specific foreign policy preferences are based on comparisons of 84 questions taken before and after 9/11/01, including 21 measures used on the 10/98 and 6/02 surveys of the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations (CCFR). Some of these questions provide relatively long-term trends that can be traced back several decades and/or forward to 2003-2004.

The 2002 CCFR goals data yielded a 4-factor attitudinal model (global altruism, global interests, domestic issues in which foreign policy impinges on local concerns and military security issues), similar to a best-fitting model obtained from the 1998 survey. These findings are based on confirmatory factor analyses of CCFR foreign policy goals questions that have been regularly repeated on their quadrennial surveys.

Examination of the trend data shows a relatively large number of increases after 9/11/01 in measures relating to Military Security (e.g., concern about terrorism and support for increased defense spending), as well as general International Involvement items (e.g., support for an active and cooperative U.S. international role abroad). On the other hand, support for measures of Global Altruism (e.g., foreign aid) experienced a relatively large number of declines after 9/11. Results were mixed for Global Interests measures (an upswing in support for the U.N. and preventing WMD proliferation, a decline in support for environmental protection) and for Domestic Issues (increased support for immigration restrictions, reduced concern about energy supplies and mixed results regarding job protection and protection from drug trafficking).

Analysis of 17 trend measures that were asked shortly before and shortly after 9/11 and repeated in 2003-2004 shows several cases where the initial 9/11 effect has been largely dissipated -- for example, the early increased support for military spending and the early increased opposition to immigration. However, ten of these trend measures continued to retain at least two-thirds of their initial post-9/11 impact on the latest readings in 2003-2004. These include two measures showing sustained support for U.S. involvement in world affairs (increased interest in news about U.S. foreign relations and increased desire that the U.S. take an “active part” in world affairs) and five trend items showing continuing reduced concern about environmental protection.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The current study seeks to dispel monolithic representations of Arab American Families by showing realities of Arab American life through the lens of queer men and women living in the San Francisco Bay Area. I intend to utilize surveys, in-depth interviews and participant observation fieldwork. I will attempt to understand the ways in which queer Arab Americans navigate their lives in relation to their families. I will also seek to understand the ways in which families of origin respond to the queer/s in the family. By looking at the range of responses and the multiple ways of negotiating and changes over time we can arrive at a more nuanced understanding of Arab American families. Additionally, by looking at families that queer Arab Americans create we expand the limited understanding of what Arab American families look like. An important comparative component to this project is the study of similarities and differences between the experiences of queer Arab American men and women. I will be seeking to understand the intersections of gender and sexuality here. Some important questions which I seek to answer are “If families of origin respond differently to men than women with regard to their sexual transgression, how do they respond differently?” I also seek to understand if queer Arab men and women have similar or different resources or modes of dealing with family reactions.