Specific Research Interests
In July of 2006, I graduated with my MA degree in English from the University of Toledo, where I taught composition for four semesters. As a composition instructor at The University of Toledo, I found my specific area of interest in Composition, including many aspects of multiculturalism, Arab American experiences, cultural baggage in writing, technological issues and access for diverse ethnic groups and other areas. As a researcher and an Arab American, I have been deeply interested in the role that Arab ethnicity plays in the college writing classroom. I have noticed that very little scholarship appreciates the influences that Arab heritage can have on Arab students in classrooms and universities across America so I have conducted multiple forms of ethnographic research in order to identify ethnic interactions in the classroom and in order to ultimately create an appreciation for the Arab experience within Composition/Rhetoric Studies. My research draws upon the cultural studies work by James Berlin and Michael Vivion, the analyses of race and ethnicity provided by K. Anthony Appiah and Amy Guttman, and the race discourse analysis of Arab Americans offered by Anissa Wardi. Through interviews, textual samples, and classroom observations, I explore how Arab American students successfully integrate their heritage into their course work. My case study research shows that students of Arab heritage frequently use cultural baggage in their text and this writing provides Arabs and Arab Americans with an outlet to negotiate their social, religious, and cultural identities. The writing classroom becomes an excellent place for ethnicity to emerge in writing and for difference to be discussed in order to facilitate learning and tolerance in America. Arab students often discuss their heritage in American classrooms in order to help perpetuate a positive view of Arab people. My research also shows that Arabs and Arab Americans can be successful in the writing classroom without actively ignoring their heritage and without being thoroughly assimilated because the integration of personal and ethnic identity with the acquisition of knowledge is important to the learning process. In short, the findings of my study were ground-breaking. I presented my findings at CCCC in New York in March of 2006 and I hope to have them published soon; but, this is only the beginning for me. Because it is a virtually unexplored area of scholarship, I hope to examine many other aspects of Arab student life in the future.