Honors Theses
Date of Award
Spring 5-9-2020
Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Department
Sociology and Anthropology
First Advisor
Kristin Gee Hickman
Second Advisor
Charles Joukhadar
Third Advisor
Vivian Ibrahim
Relational Format
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
For Americans of Arab descent, identity can present a number of difficulties to define within the existing ethnic and racial categories of the United States. While several scholars have looked at the ways that Muslims American of Arab descent navigate these categories, less attention has been paid to the complex self-identification Christian Arab Americans, many of whom come from Lebanese and Syrian backgrounds. It is the objective of this thesis to explore how Americans of Syrian and Lebanese descent understand their ethnic, racial, cultural, and national identities as well as how these identities both inform and are informed by religion. In this vein, this project analyzes fifty-eight video recorded oral histories from the Arab American National Museum, located in Houston, Texas. I argue that for Americans of Syrian and Lebanese descent who have been in the southern United States for several generations, expressions of their ethnic identity (e.g. Lebanese, Syrian, Arab) are inextricably entangled with expressions of their religious identity as Christian. Therefore, in contrast to previous research which shows trends among Muslims Arab Americans to increasingly identify as “Muslim Americans” (Naber 2012), my research suggests that Christian Arab Americans in the south prioritize their Lebanese, Syrian, and Arab identities – but in a way that covertly smuggles in their faith.
Recommended Citation
Moudy, Caetlind, "Syrian and Lebanese Identity in the American South" (2020). Honors Theses. 1345.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/1345
Accessibility Status
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