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AILY ROJAN DWEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2021 | STUDENT NEWSPAPER OFT THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SINCE 1912 | VOL. 202, NO. 3 Shifting the narrative: USC professor explores Arab American identity Gualtieri discusses her latest looks to unpack and shift the nar- of oppression, and immigrants have achievement, archival work rative of what it means to be Arab accommodated [that system] and I American. began to see the ways in which Arab and staying connected. “A lot of the way in which stories immigrants [in the early 20th cen- of Arab Americans are told is very tury] … pivoted toward whiteness, By SHAYLEE NAVARRO standard, ‘Well, they came, like so claimed whiteness and wanted the Associate Managing Editor many other immigrants did, to Ellis privileges that whiteness conferred: Catching up with her friend in Island, they congregated in New the right to vote, the right to own a coffee shop in As-Suwayda, Syria York and they spread out to other ar- property — they wanted those privi- during an early 1990s summer, then- eas, principally in the East Coast and leges. And at times, they resisted the graduate student Sarah Gualtieri Midwest,’” Gualtieri said. “All that is claims to whiteness.” overheard a language she was sur- true, but I really think it’s important Interested in exploring this ten- prised to hear in the region: Spanish. for this narrative to also shift out of sion and inspired by her engagement Thinking that the Spanish speak- that location ... and to the West Coast with scholars in the Latin American ers were tourists and voicing her to a site I call the Syrian Pacific.” and African American studies de- thoughts to her friend, Gualtieri was While attending the University partments, Gualtieri wrote her dis- corrected that the “tourists” were in of Chicago for graduate school sertation, which would eventual- fact Syrians visiting from Venezuela where she studied Middle East stud- ly become her first book: “Between for the season. ies followed by Middle East histo- Arab and White.” Based on tracking Since then, Gualtieri’s interest in ry, Gualtieri’s initial intention was the “process of racialization of Arab the study of Syrian migration, par- to research and write about the immigrants in the United States,” Palestinian women’s movement. Gualtieri’s first work is what led to ticularly in connection to Latin Photo courtesy of Sarah Gualtieri She based her master’s thesis on the her gaining tenure. America, has only grown. Sarah Gualtieri received the 2020 Alixa Naff Book Prize in forms of activism within the move- In 2010, a year following the publi- Her book “Arab Routes: Pathways Migration Studies for her book, “Arab Routes.” to Syrians in California,” which ex- ment, particularly with a focus on cation of “Between Arab and White,” plores the growth of the Syrian activism within Chicago, and later Gualtieri began a new research en- working alongside other Lebanese an “archival transaction.” American community in Southern began to wonder about other direc- deavor focused on oral histories immigrants. Whereas historians would typi- California and of Syrians who princi- tions she could take her research. for “Arab Routes.” Initially looking “It came as a surprise to me,” cally request documents from ar- pally migrated from Latin America, Taking graduate seminars and into the composition of the Syrian Gualtieri said. “Researchers are al- chives that would be brought out in was recently awarded the 2020 Alixa courses in Latin American and and Lebanese community in Los ways happy when they encounter di- organized boxes, Gualtieri’s histori- Naff Book Prize in Migration Studies African American studies and read- Angeles, Gualtieri’s research took a mensions of a project that are kind of cal research would also involve the in November. Gualtieri, chair of the ing works by James Baldwin in- turning point following an interview unexpected and so that was really a families — usually intergeneration- Middle East studies department and cluding his essay “On Being White with a mother in Brea, Calif. who re- moment where I thought, “Ah, I re- al — she interviewed in the archival recently promoted to full profes- and Other Lies,” Gualtieri said the counted her parents’ migration jour- ally have to think about this Syrian process. Often she would leave with sor in American studies and ethnic- classes encouraged her to ask ques- ney. connection, this sort of … pathway a box filled with letters, documents ity, history and Middle East studies, tions about racialization and power Migrating to L.A. in the early 20th to and from Mexico that Syrians in and photographs and visit again at has also explored racial formation — material often overlooked in her century and later residing in Boyle Los Angeles, had and, in many sens- a later date with more items await- and the problematic classification Middle East history classes. Heights, the mother recalled a wom- es, still have.” ing her. of Arabs in the United States in her “James Baldwin writes about an that her family referred to as a Along with collecting oral his- “The archive was really co-con- book “Between Arab and White: whiteness as [being a lie] — that im- “mother’s helper” and with whom tories, Gualtieri engaged in archi- stituted; it was brought into being Race and Ethnicity in the Early migrants come to the United States her Lebanese father often spoke val work including repositories, through this interaction I had with Syrian American Diaspora.” and [they] have to really learn about Spanish. Understanding the father naturalization and census records. my interlocutors,” Gualtieri said. “So “Arab Routes,” based on person- the power of whiteness — why it mat- to speak Arabic, Gualtieri was sur- However, Gualtieri’s research also I think that for me as a historian [it] al interviews and archives shared by ters so much, and the way in which it prised to learn that he spoke Spanish included an intergenerational com- families Gualtieri interviewed, also structures hierarchies and systems after living several years in Mexico, ponent through a concept she calls | see GUALTIERI, page 3 | A glimpse into the past: USC’s LGBTQ+ history While getting their masters reconsider their action, but the or- undergraduate students in the fall of Northridge earthquake in 1994, in regards to celebrating inclusivity. in the ’90s, three women ganization was denied recognition the same year. Jennifer Van Loy, Debbie Osaki and “I didn’t feel like the School of once again. Mark DeAngelis was elected as Lisa Bove were attending USC as Social Work or USC wasn’t a bas- navigated LGBTQ+ identities. The following year, the GLF the first openly gay president of the graduate students at the Suzanne tion of ‘Oh my god, yes, queer, trans pursued legal action against the student body at the Marshall School Dworak-Peck School of Social Work. [celebration],’” Bove said. “But it was By SOPHIA UNGARO University. The suit proceeded and of Business. In 2000, a letter from Both Van Loy and Osaki are open, and there was no discrimina- Features Editor in 1975, the Gay Student Union (for- former USC President Steven Sample members of the LGBTQ+ commu- tion so for me that was a huge lib- Being a part of the LGBTQ+ com- merly the GLF) gained recognition titled “Speak Out Against Bigotry nity who identify as lesbians. While eration to be in a place where there munity in a time before 2015 brought from the trustees to be a student or- and Hatred” was published in the the pair never met during their time wan’t automatically discrimina- pitfalls, and being at USC was no ex- ganization. Daily Trojan. It was published as a at USC, they both felt safe being out tion.” ception. The students of the Suzanne In 1982, the Gay and Lesbian letter and discussed acceptance for in the school. Learning about relevant social Dworak-Peck School of Social Work Student Union put on their first LGBT students. “I did not experience stigma topics and discussing the ways to in the 1990s experienced othering Gay Awareness Week, garnering en- The Rainbow Floor, a spe- there, I felt safe being myself,” Van help society by means of social work throughout their time at USC. dorsements from Gov. Jerry Brown, cial interest residential space for Loy said. “We’re not the kind of peo- led all three women to enjoy their ex- Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley LGBTQ+ students, was established ple who go around being really obvi- periences in the graduate program. USC’S PART IN LGBTQ+ and actresses Jane Fonda and Lily in Webb Tower in 2001. The Office ously out and talking about it all the Bove remembers most of the pro- HISTORY Tomlin. for Residential Education provides time and in your face political about fessors being white, with possibly In 1986, the Lambda LGBT community programming that al- it.” one Latinx female professor and one Historically, the LGBTQ+ com- Alumni Association, originally un- lows members to learn about their Five years before Bove attended Black male professor. As far as she munity has faced oppression that associated with USC, held their first LGBTQ+ identities. USC, she practiced as an ordained can remember, they all identifed as still surviving in the present. A time- homecoming festivities at Mudd The year 2003 bore witness to the minister in the West Hollywood cisgender. line provided by the USC LGBTQ+ Hall, but it wasn’t until 1990 that Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Presbyterian Church. The church “During that time I probably Student Center looks back at the Lambda was officially invited to Student Assembly (formerly GLSU) was an LGBTQ+-friendly parrish in did notice a few little things that community’s pivotal moments on join the Trojan Family in celebrating staging a mock gay marriage at a largely unaccepting religion at the I thought they should have been campus.

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