15 February 2019: Today I received the first copy of my new book, Between the Ottomans and the Entente: the First World War in the Syrian and Lebanese Diaspora in the mail! The book is an actual object, headed out into the world. I am very excited to share this project with you, and hope it will make a… Read More
8 May 2018: a new brief piece of mine appears in the Spring 2018 issue of the Journal of American Ethnic Studies. “An Archaeology of Rare Books” is part of a JAEH Forum on Arab American history and features work by Charlotte Karem Albrecht, John Tofik… Read More
23 April 2018: Next month I will visit the Middle East Center at the University of Washington in Seattle to talk about the French Mandate’s use of passports to claim Syrian and Lebanese migrants living abroad for political purposes after the fall of the Ottoman Empire.… Read More
2 March 2018: my review of Jeffrey Grey’s 2016 book, The War with the Ottoman Empire, appears in the current issue of the International Journal of Turkish Studies. The book is part of an Oxford series on the Great War in Australian history (full text available here). From the review: Proceeding… Read More
22 January 2018: I’ve posted a reflection on microhistory in the Syrian mahjar over at Medium. Based on the life of one Syrian migrant living in Boston, the piece considers how the pursuit of individual stories can challenge the expectations of nationalist histories and area studies alike. From… Read More
12 December 2017: a friend recently discovered an image of Syrian American U.S. Army translator George Abraham Matook, a figure who plays a major role in chapter 3 of my forthcoming book, Between the Ottomans and the Entente. Born in Boston, Massachusetts to Syrian parents, George Matook… Read More
5 August 2017- my review of Maria Narbona, Paulo Pinto, and John Karam’s edited collection, Crescent over Another Horizon: Islam in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Latino USA appears in the current issue of the Journal of American Ethnic History. (full text available here). From the review: Despite five… Read More
17 June 2017- my interview with CSPAN3’s American History TV ran today on Syrian migrants in the United States during the First World War. The interview took place at the Organization of American Historians annual meeting in April in a series of tapings to commemorate the centenary of… Read More
27 March 2017: a new brief piece of mine on teaching migration and refugee history appears on IEHS ONLINE, the website of the Immigration and Ethnic History Society. My Spring 2017 course, Migrants and Refugees in the Middle East, meets Tuesday evenings, and it seems like… Read More
On April 4, Fresno State will host speakers from US CIS, a variety of organizations devoted to resettlement of Syrian refugees, as well as Dr. Keith Watenpaugh, historian of refugees and human rights at UC-Davis. The all-day event features expertise on all sides of the… Read More
