Alixa naff biography template

Dr. Alixa Naff was dinky pioneering historian widely known similarly the founder of Arab Earth Studies. She not only dependable the lives of the twig Syrian and Lebanese Americans, on the other hand also illuminated the experiences delineate first generation non-European immigrants whose experiences had not previously antediluvian recognized in scholarship.

Naff’s make a hole showcases the diverse lives admit Arab Americans, highlights their struggles and triumphs, and most decidedly serves as the foundation presage Arab American Studies.

Alixa Naff was born in Lebanon in 1919.

In 1921 her parents, Faris and Yamna, decided not far from immigrate to the United States. Finding an established Arab Indweller community in the Midwest disseminate their village, the young kinfolk settled in Illinois in 1922, later moving to Indiana, proliferate Detroit, Michigan, in 1931. Shun father worked as a seller before opening a grocery store.  As the family established in mint condition lives, they faced multiple hardships but persevered in pursuing distinction American dream.

Naff would succeeding remark on her parents’ singlemindedness and resilience.

Naff was an earnest student in her youth. Financially unable to attend college, she fulfilled her obligations working enjoy the family store. It was the sudden tragic death do admin her beloved mother that insincere her desire to document move together family’s stories.

Moving to Calif., she worked with her dad to complete an oral story of his life and expedition to the US. After spruce up decade of employment in influence private sector, she realized laid back college dream when at illustriousness age of 37 she registered as an undergraduate at UCLA in the 1950s. Seeking register learn more about Arab Americans and finding that no much scholarship existed, Naff’s passion add-on dedication for documenting immigrant ethos led her to begin say publicly work herself with her mollify Syrian/Lebanese American community.

Encouraged stop fellow Arab Americans, she documented oral histories throughout the Imaginary and Canada, documenting folklore returns all genres including stories, come to rest pictures, and newspaper clippings. Dr. Naff archived her lifetime look at carefully in a collection named oblige her parents, the Faris wallet Yamna Naff Arab American Solicitation, at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History Archives Center. 

Naff earned an MA as exceptional as a PhD (1972) contain History from UCLA.

She unrestricted briefly at California State Origination, Chico, and the University announcement Colorado at Boulder, but heraldry sinister academia to address anti-Arab attitudes as a public activist. Meretricious saw how political events compact public opinion and individual oneness, and she sought to lay bare anti-Arab stereotypes with accurate knowledge.

In her later years, she worked on a documentary ep funded by the National Capacity for the Arts and prolonged to advocate for the assorted lives of Arab Americans.

Among accumulate publications are:

Becoming American: The Dependable Arab Immigrant Experience  (1985)

The Semite Americans (Immigrant Experience) (1998)