Histories of Arab America often begin with the Syrian merchant peddler, a historical 'main character' whose commercial prowess seems to explain the immigrant community's upward economic mobility through the twentieth century. In this talk, Stacy Fahrenthold, professor of history and Middle East/South Asia studies at UC Davis, explores the consequences of assuming the Syrian mahjar (diaspora) lacks an industrial past. Pursuing the stories of textile workers as they organized across the Arab Atlantic, Fahrenthold introduces us to alternative narrators: union activists who led street demonstrations, women who shut down kimono factories, child laborers who threw snowballs at police, and the merchant capitalists who contended with all of them.

This event is hosted by UW 1020 Professor Nabila Hijazi in collaboration with the Cotsen Textile Traces Study Center, and funded by the Office of the Vice Provost for Research and the University Seminars Funding Program.