The Role of Religion in Shaping Identity among Diaspora Palestinians in Chicago

FAIN: FA-57116-13

Loren Diller Lybarger
Ohio University (Athens, OH 45701-1361)

Discussion of religion among Palestinians in the United States emphasizes either links to Islamist groups like Hamas or the abuse of their civil rights as Arabs and Muslims. Both approaches ignore the processes of identity formation internal to the community itself. This book project offers the first detailed ethnography of how Muslim and Christian Palestinians in the US have reconfigured their identities in response to processes of religious return since the early 1990s. Initial findings indicate that religious and secular tendencies interacting across gender, class, sect, and generation have produced new hybrid orientations at the individual level. These findings challenge the notion that Palestinians merely reproduce the global Islamic revival. They also show that concepts of "secular" and "religious" remain heuristically valuable despite recent criticisms of these notions. I seek a NEH Fellowship to complete the fieldwork and begin write up of the initial chapters of my monograph.

Associated Products

Palestinian Chicago: Identity in Exile (Book)
Title: Palestinian Chicago: Identity in Exile
Author: Loren D. Lybarger
Abstract: Chicago is home to one of the largest, most politically active Palestinian immigrant communities in the United States. For decades, secular nationalism held sway as the dominant political ideology, but since the 1990s its structures have weakened and Islamic institutions have gained strength. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and interview data, Palestinian Chicago charts the origins of these changes and the multiple effects they have had on identity across religious, political, class, gender, and generational lines. The perspectives that emerge through this rich ethnography challenge prevailing understandings of secularity and religion, offering critical insight into current debates about immigration and national belonging.
Year: 2020
Primary URL: http://https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520337619/palestinian-chicago
Primary URL Description: University of California Press website for this book
Secondary URL: http://https://www.amazon.com/Palestinian-Chicago-Identity-Directions-Studies/dp/0520337611
Secondary URL Description: Amazon site for the book
Access Model: open acces (electronic) and also a paperback (which is for sale)
Publisher: University of California Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9780520337619
Copy sent to NEH?: No

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