Beyond Refuge in Arab Detroit

As its residents struggle for change on their own terms, they no longer perceive greater Detroit as a sanctuary or temporary home, but as a place were Arabs and Chaldeans can live permanently as citizens.

Yasmeen Hanoosh is a fiction writer, literary translator, and professor of Arabic at Portland State University. She is the author of The Chaldeans: Politics and Identity in Iraq and the American Diaspora and Ardh al-Khayrat al-Mal’unah (The Land of Cursed Riches), a collection of short stories in Arabic. Sally Howell is professor of history at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. She has written and edited numerous books including Arab Detroit 9/11: Life in the Terror Decade and Hadha Baladuna: Arab American Narratives of Boundary and Belonging (both Wayne State University Press); the latter named a Michigan Notable Book and recipient of an Arab American Book Award. Howell is also a curator of public history projects, including the Halal Metropolis exhibition series. Andrew Shryock is the Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan. He has authored and edited many books including Arab Detroit: From Margin to Mainstream, Arab Detroit 9/11: Life in the Terror Decade (both Wayne State University Press), and Islamophobia/Islamophilia: Beyond the Politics of Enemy and Friend.