BOOK
Between the Ottomans and the Entente: the First World War in the Syrian and Lebanese Diaspora, 1908- 1925 comes out in March 2019 with Oxford University Press. A social history of transnational activism in the Syrian and Lebanese diaspora from the 1908 Young Turk Revolution through the early French Mandate.
Read more on the OUP website here.
ARTICLES
“Former Ottomans in the ranks: pro-Entente military recruitment among Syrians in the Americas, 1916–1918” in the Journal of Global History (2016).
Full text here.
“Sound minds in sound bodies: transnational philanthropy and patriotic masculinity in al-Nadi al-Homsi and Syrian Brazil, 1920–1932” in International Journal of Middle East Studies (2014).
Full text here.
“Transnational modes and media: the Syrian press in the Mahjar and emigrant activism during World War I” in Mashriq & Mahjar (2013).
Full text here.
SELECTED SHORT-FORMAT ORIGINAL WORK
BOOK REVIEWS
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
Cultural Exchange in a Time of Global Conflict: Colonials, Neutrals, and Belligerents during the First World War Sourcebook, King’s College London/Humanities in the European Research Area (HERA), November 2016.
- “Photograph of an Arab American military intelligence officer, 1919”
- “Letter by an Arab American soldier writing home from the front, 1918”
“The Syrian and Lebanese American Federation: a Case for Connection.” In Connections and Ruptures: America and the Middle East, edited by Robert Myers, 273-288. Beirut: American University of Beirut Press, 2011.
“Mother Syria and Syrian Motherhood: Imagining Mahjar Nationality between Ideal and Real.” Zaytoon Graduate Student Journal 1 (Spring 2009), 5-16.
PH.D. DISSERTATION
Making Nations, in the Mahjar: Syrian and Lebanese Long-Distance Nationalisms in New York City, São Paulo, and Buenos Aires, 1913–1929. Northeastern, 2014.
- Awarded the 2016 Syrian Studies Association Outstanding Dissertation Prize.
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The Latest 30 Posts
- New Book! Between the Ottomans and the Entente is shipping!
- New Publication: “An Archaeology of Rare Books in Arab Atlantic History” in Journal of American Ethnic Studies
- Public Talk on Passports and Post-Ottoman Nationalities, May 29 at the University of Washington
- Book review: Jeffrey Grey’s The War with the Ottoman Empire
- Brief piece online: The Power of Small Stories: a Syrian Abroad in World War I
- Found: George Matook (Massachusetts State Library Archives)
- Book Review: Crescent over Another Horizon: Islam in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Latino USA in the Journal of American Ethnic History
- Interview on CSPAN’s American History Television
- New piece published: “Teaching Migrant and Refugee Histories in the Shadow of Trump” in IEHS Online
- April 4 event on Fresno State campus: Symposium for Syrian Refugees
- New collaboration: AJ+ digital short on Syrian immigration to Boston
- New piece, “What We Can Learn from America’s Other Muslim Ban (Back in 1918),” appears in Tropics of Meta
- Ottoman Minorities Workshop at Fresno State: a summary of events
- Fresno Media coverage of Trump’s Executive Order and its impact on campus life
- State of the Field Roundtable session at OAH meeting in New Orleans
- In the press: interview with Fresno’s GV Wire on Syrian conflict
- In the press: Armenian Action covers Elyse Semerdjian’s visit at Fresno State
- Making Nations in the Mahjar awarded Syrian Studies Association Dissertation Prize
- SSA special roundtable at the Middle East Studies Association Annual Meeting in Boston
- Elyse Semerdjian to present “Ottoman History from the Margins” at Fresno State
- New Web Publication: Arab American sources for Sourcebook on Cultural Exchanges during First World War
- New position: Visiting Assistant Professor of Islamic World History at California State University, Fresno
- New web publication on 2015 meeting with USCIS Asylum officers on Syrian refugees
- Talk at Berkeley’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies
- New article published: “Former Ottomans in the Ranks” at Journal of Global History
- Paper presented at Kings College London: “Becoming Syrian on the Battlefield”
- Meeting with US-CIS Asylum Officers to Discuss Syria and refugee resettlement
- New web piece: “The Other Arab Revolt,” a blog post on the NEH Summer Seminar page, WWI in the Middle East
- New article published: “Sound Minds in Sounds Bodies” in the International Journal of Middle East Studies
- New article published: “Transnational Modes and Media” on the Syrian Diaspora and its Press in WWI in Mashriq & Mahjar