Professor and Director of the Interdisciplinary Peace Studies program
Social and Cultural Sciences
2024 Recipient of the Way Klingler Fellowship Award
2023 Recipient of the Nora Finnegan Werra Award for Faculty Achievement
2021 Recipient of 糖心传媒 Community Engaged Teaching Award
Education
Ph.D., Northwestern University
Research Interests
Dr. Cainkar studies the intersection of race, gender, public policy, national security, and dominant ideologies, particularly as these impact the quality of life of Arab and Muslim Americans. She has conducted research on Palestinians in the US, Arab and Muslim Americans after 9/11, the social experiences of Muslim women in the US, Islamophobia and hate crimes, citizenship and belonging among transnational Arab American youth living in Yemen, Palestine, and Jordan, the impact of economic sanctions on women and children in Iraq, the forced migration of Palestinians and Jordanians from Kuwait, and the policing of Arab and Muslim American communities. Her current research focuses on the resettlement of Afghans in the US post 2022 and the FIFA world cup, Morocco, and Arab and African diasporas.
Community Service
MENA/Arab American Briefs for the Illinois MENA Committee of the MENA Governmental Advisory Council of Illinois
Board Member and Treasurer, Arab American Action Network, Chicago
Professional Affiliations
- Association of Middle East Women鈥檚 Studies. Board Member & Treasurer. 2012-present.
- Arab American Studies Association. Past President, President, and Board Member. 2014-19.
- Review of Middle East Studies. Associate Editor. 2017-present.
- Sociology of Religion. Associate Editor. 2017-2020
- Committee on the Status of Racial and Ethnic Minorities in Sociology, American Sociological Association. Appointed by President. 2016-2018. Re-appointed, 2018-2022.
Professional Interests
Teaching interests:
- Arab American studies
- Muslims in diaspora
- International migration, migrants and refugees
- Social justice
Publications
Book
2023
- Louise Cainkar, Pauline Homsi Vinson, and Amira Jarmakani, eds. . (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press).
2022
- Michael Suleiman, Suad Joseph, and Louise Cainkar, eds. (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press).
2009
Selected Articles & Chapters
2023
鈥淩acial Control under the Guise of Terror Threat: Policing of US Muslim, Arab, and SWANA communities.鈥� Critical Studies on Terrorism 16:1, 152-175.
2022
鈥淭he Social Construction of Difference and the Arab American Experience Revisited.鈥� The I.B.Tauris Handbook of Sociology and The Middle East, edited by Fatma 惭眉驳别 骋枚莽别办 & Gamze Evcimen. (London: I.B. Tauris).
2021
2019
- 鈥淗egemonic Femininity and Hijab as a Human Right.鈥� in Arabs at Home and in the World: Human Rights, Gender Politics, and Identity, edited by Karla McCanders. (New York: Routledge). Pp 3-24.
- 鈥淚slamophobia and the US ideological infrastructure of White Supremacy.鈥� in Routledge International Handbook of Islamophobia. Irene Zempi and Imran Awan, eds. (London: Routledge). Pp 239-251.
2018
- 鈥淔luid Terror Threat: A Genealogy of the Racialization of Arab, Muslim, and South Asian Americans.鈥� Amerasia Journal. Vol. 44 (1): 27-60.
- 鈥淩eview of Race Scholarship and the War on Terror.鈥� Journal of the Sociology of Race and Ethnicity; Vol. 4 (2): 165-177.With Saher Selod.
2017
- 鈥淭he Arab American Experience: From Invisibility to Heightened Visibility鈥� in The Routledge Handbook of Asian American Studies. (New York: Routledge). Cindy I-Fen Cheng, editor.
2015
- 鈥淩ace and Racialization: Demographic Trends and the Process of Reckoning Social Place鈥� in Handbook of Arab American Psychology. (New York: Routledge). Mona Amer and Germine Awad, editors.
Honors and Awards
糖心传媒 Community Engaged Teaching Award, 2021
Additional Information
Dr. Louise Cainkar糖心传媒
