Refugee/Migrant/Citizen: Making Early Middle Eastern-American Race Amidst M

In this talk, Dr. Sophia Armen recasts the early racial classification of Middle Eastern/SWANA (South West Asian North African) peoples in the United States from the perspectives of refugees and community organizers, arguing that refugeehood was central to the formation of early SWANA racialization during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, or "racial prerequisite era." Drawing on experiences of Ottoman Arab, Armenian, and Assyrian communities in the U.S., she explores the ways in which racial categories were shaped not only through top-down state power and legal outcomes, but also from below, as migrants and refugees contested their classification, built community formations, and organized transnationally amidst genocide, mass displacement, deportations, and racial terror. Uniting critical refugee studies, Asian American studies, and critical gender studies, she asserts that examining early Middle Eastern refugee lifeworlds offers insight into larger systems of race, power, citizenship, and empire. Ultimately, she demonstrates that anti–Middle Eastern racism is not a product of the post-9/11 present, but foundational to U.S. racial regimes.

Dr. Sophia Armen is a UC Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the Asian American Studies Center at UCLA and holds a Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies from UC San Diego.

Date: April 30, 2025

Time: 4:00-6:00pm

Location: Rolfe 2125

Refreshments will be served.

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Host or Publisher UCLA Asian American Studies Center