Louise Cainkar
Assistant Professor
Office: 359 Lalumiere Hall
Phone: (414) 288-5714
Contact via e-mail
Louise Cainkar is a sociologist and assistant professor in the Department of Social and Cultural Sciences. Her areas of expertise include international migration, US immigration, and immigrant integration; Arab American studies; and Muslims in the United States. She is currently writing a book [Homeland Insecurity] based on her Russell Sage Foundation-funded study of the impact of the September 11th attacks on the Arab/Muslim community in metropolitan Chicago. In 2004 she received the Carnegie Corporation Scholar Award for her work on Islamic revival in the United States. Her work in this area examines Islamic revival among second-generation Arab and South Asian Americans and the roles of local, domestic, transnational, and global factors in its appeal.
Professor Cainkar is a consulting scholar on the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) project “Reframing the Challenge of Migration and Security.” Her empirical study “US Muslim Leaders and Activists Evaluate Post 9/11 Domestic Security Policies” is available on-line. An article from her early data collection in the Post 9/11 study is also on SSRC’s website and in the book: "The Impact of 9/11 on Muslims and Arabs in the United States," in John Tirman, ed., The Maze of Fear: Security & Migration After September 11th (New York; The New Press) Spring, 2004.
Professor Cainkar has presented her work internationally including at the Institute for Diplomacy in Amman, Jordan and the Danish National Institute of Social Research, and has participated in joint meetings with French scholars of Muslims at Stanford University and in Nantes, France. In December she will participate as an invited speaker at Harvard University’s International Conference on Transatlantic Islamophobia.
Professor Cainkar also conducts engaged research with urban non-profits and community organizations. With the Arab American Action Network she is conducting a study of barriers and resources affecting domestic violence intervention in Arab/Muslim families. In 2004 she completed a study for the Annie E. Casey Foundation on the capacity of American Muslim community institutions to provide services to low-income Muslims. She has conducted studies of immigrants in Illinois for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, where she once worked as a grant maker to immigrant community organizations. She is currently writing a report on Immigrant Integration in Illinois for Governor Blagojevich in partnership with the immigrant Coalition.
Recent Publications
“The Social Construction of Difference and the Arab American Experience” Journal of American Ethnic History. Twenty Fifth Anniversary Issue. Immigration, Incorporation, Integration, and Transnationalism: Interdisciplinary and International Perspectives. Vol. 25: Volume 2-3. Winter-Spring. 2006.
“Criminalization and Cultural Citizenship: Arab and South Asian Muslims in the United States” Amerasia Journal, Vol 31, # 3. 2006. With Sunaina Maira.
“Space and Place in the Metropolis: Arabs and Muslims Seeking Safety ” City and Society, Vol. 17, #2. 2005. (Berkeley: University of California Press)
“Violence Unveiled”. Contexts. (Washington DC: American Sociological Association). Vol.14, No.4. Fall. 2005.
“Islamic Revival Among Second-generation Arab Muslims in Chicago: The American Experience and Globalization Intersect” Bulletin of the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies. 6 (2):99-120. Autumn/Winter. 2004. http://francestanford.stanford.edu/Conferences/Papers/Cainkar.pdf
"The Impact of 9/11 on Muslims and Arabs in the United States," in John Tirman, ed., The Maze of Fear: Security & Migration After September 11th (New York; The New Press) Spring, 2004. Excerpt: www.ssrc.org/programs/gsc/gsc_activities/migration/
Editor, Journal of Comparative Studies of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, Special Issue on Global Impacts of the September 11th attacks. (Duke University Press). Winter. 2004. http://www.cssaame.ilstu.edu/issues/24%2D1/
Strategies for What Matters Most: Low-Income Muslim Communities in the US. Report for the Annie E. Casey Foundation (Baltimore: Annie E. Casey Foundation). 2004.
“Migration as a Method of Coping with Turbulence among Palestinians” Journal of Comparative Family Studies, Special Issue on the Middle East. Winter. 2003. With Ali Abunimah and Lamia Rai’. pp 229-240.
“A Fervor for Muslims: Special Registration” Journal of Islamic Law and Culture. Volume 7, #2. 2003. Pp. 73-101.
“Targeting Muslims, at Ashcroft’s Discretion” Middle East Report On-Line (Washington DC: MERIP) March 14. 2003. www.merip.org/mero/mero031403.html
“No Longer Invisible: Arab and Muslim Exclusion After September 11” Middle East Report (Washington DC: MERIP) Fall. Volume 224. 2003. pp. 22-29. K"http://www.Merip.org/mer/mer224/224_cainkar.html"
www.Merip.org/mer/mer224/224_cainkar.html.
“US Muslim Leaders and Activists Evaluate Post-September 11th Domestic Security Policies” Social Science Research Council, Program on Global Security and Cooperation; Reframing the Challenge of Migration and Security. 2003. www.ssrc.org/programs/gsc/gsc_activities/migration/
Recent Book Reviews
“Review of All American Yemeni Girls: Being Muslim in a Public School”. Anthropology and Education Quarterly. volume 37, # 1. 2005. (Berkeley: University of California Press).
Review of Culture, Class, and Work Among Arab American Women, by Jen’nan Ghazal Read. (New York: LFB Scholarly Publishing, 2004, 161 pp.) in Work and Occupations: An International Sociology Journal (Sage Publications). 2005
