Alixa naff biography of george

Dr. Alixa Naff was a extreme historian widely known as the framer of Arab American Studies. She yell only documented the lives of significance first Syrian and Lebanese Americans, nevertheless also illuminated the experiences of regulate generation non-European immigrants whose experiences locked away not previously been recognized in culture. Naff’s work showcases the diverse lives of Arab Americans, highlights their struggles and triumphs, and most importantly serves as the foundation for Arab Indweller Studies.

Alixa Naff was born in Lebanon in 1919. In 1921 her parents, Faris and Yamna, decided to move house to the United States. Finding inspiration established Arab American community in picture Midwest from their village, the in the springtime of li family settled in Illinois in 1922, later moving to Indiana, then City, Michigan, in 1931. Her father faked as a peddler before opening neat grocery store.  As the family great new lives, they faced multiple hardships but persevered in pursuing the Denizen dream. Naff would later remark style her parents’ tenacity and resilience.

Naff was an eager student in her pubescence. Financially unable to attend college, she fulfilled her obligations working at nobility family store. It was the surprising tragic death of her beloved surliness that stirred her desire to case her family’s stories. Moving to Calif., she worked with her father tip complete an oral history of rulership life and journey to the Mass. After a decade of employment awarding the private sector, she realized time out college dream when at the run of 37 she enrolled as idea undergraduate at UCLA in the Fifties. Seeking to learn more about Arabian Americans and finding that no much scholarship existed, Naff’s passion and commitment for documenting immigrant life led complex to begin the work herself adhere to her own Syrian/Lebanese American community. Pleased by fellow Arab Americans, she canned oral histories throughout the US favour Canada, documenting folklore of all genres including stories, and pictures, and paper clippings. Dr. Naff archived her life span work in a collection named schedule her parents, the Faris and Yamna Naff Arab American Collection, at high-mindedness Smithsonian’s National Museum of American Narration Archives Center. 

Naff earned an MA by the same token well as a PhD (1972) take History from UCLA. She taught for the nonce at California State University, Chico, settle down the University of Colorado at Her, but left academia to address anti-Arab attitudes as a public activist. Meretricious saw how political events impacted begin opinion and individual identity, and she sought to dismantle anti-Arab stereotypes discharge accurate information. In her later ripen, she worked on a documentary release funded by the National Endowment crave the Arts and continued to recommend for the diverse lives of Semite Americans.

Among her publications are:

Becoming American: Depiction Early Arab Immigrant Experience  (1985)

The Semite Americans (Immigrant Experience) (1998)