News

Jul 21, 2016

A Lebanese-American Rock Musician in Texas

This article is written by Matt Kadane. He has performed or written music on over two-dozen albums, mostly with the bands Bedhead and The New Year, which released its fourth full-length album in 2017. Matt is also a history professor at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in New York and the author of The Watchful…

Jul 5, 2016

Teaching the History of Lebanon

This article is written by Dr. Akram Khater, Director, Khayrallah Center and Professor of History at North Carolina State University.  In 1989 a national committee was convened in Lebanon to write a singular history textbook to be used by all schools. In the intervening 25 years the committee has failed to reach a consensus and to…

Jun 21, 2016

Albinos in the Laager* – Being Lebanese in South Africa

This article is written by Cecile Yazbek who was born into a Lebanese family in East London, South Africa. She is the author of four books all related to the Lebanese diaspora. This is the first in a three-part series including The Chasm of Assimilation and Transplanted Family Trees. All photos courtesy of author. *…

Jun 7, 2016

Moving Beyond the Soundbyte: Refugees and Oral History

This post is written by Renée Michelle Ragin, a PhD student in Literature at Duke University where her research focuses on the negotiation of national identity in post-conflict Middle Eastern and Latin American states. Her last article with the Khayrallah Center focused on war, memory, and archiving. In 2015, approximately 5,000 refugees from around the world resettled…

Jun 6, 2016

Mapping the Life, Work of Lebanese-American Business Owners

NC State's Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies recently launched the first phase of Mapping the Mahjar, a digital humanities project that recounts the history of Lebanese immigrants around the world. Through an interactive visual display, the first phase tells the story of business owners who were part of the initial wave of the Lebanese diaspora in the United States.

May 25, 2016

“The Many Labors of Progress”: Digitally Mapping the Arab-Argentine Community

This blog post is co-authored by Dr. Lily Balloffet, current Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Khayrallah Center, and Darby Hehl, Spanish Language & Education Major (class of 2019) at NC State. Darby became involved with the Khayrallah Center after taking a Latin American History course with Dr. Balloffet in Fall 2015. Dr. Balloffet spent the…

May 11, 2016

Meet Elizabeth Saylor, 2016-2017 Khayrallah Center Post-Doctoral Fellow

The Khayrallah Center Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Middle East Diaspora Studies (with preference given to Lebanese Diasporas). This award is open to scholars in the humanities and social sciences whose scholarly work addresses any aspect of Middle East Diasporas. The Center congratulates Elizabeth on her contribution to the field.  What drew you to apply for the Khayrallah Center…

Apr 28, 2016

Re-Collecting Beirut

On August 4th, 2020 a chemical explosion in warehouse number 12 in the port of Beirut, devastated the city. The explosion left hundreds dead, thousands wounded, and hundreds of thousands homeless. Leading up to this event, and amid the Covid-19 global pandemic, Lebanon has been facing a political crisis, a failure in its infrastructures, a financial…

Apr 27, 2016

“Syrians” and Race in the 1920s

This article is written by Dr. Akram Khater, Director, Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies and a professor of history at North Carolina State University. He has published extensively on Lebanese migration to the United States. He is also the Khayrallah Chair in Lebanese Diaspora Studies, a University Faculty Scholar and the editor of the International…

Apr 15, 2016

Dr. Maha Shuayb’s talk on Syrian refugees draws packed house and lively Q&A

On Monday, April 11, 2016, Dr. Maha Shuayb, the director of the UK-based Centre for Lebanese Studies delivered a public talk titled Bringing Back Hope: The Status of Education of the Syrian Refugee Children in Lebanon. A packed room on NC State University’s campus of over 80 people, Dr. Shuayb spoke for 40 minutes and…