The Institute for Women’s Studies in the Arab World (IWSAW) at the Lebanese American University is soliciting articles for a forthcoming issue of its quarterly publication Al-Raida on the topic : “Arab Women in Latin America”.

The presence of Lebanese and Arab communities throughout Latin America and the Caribbean can be traced back to the late 19th century, with subsequent waves of migration linked to regional socio-political and economic factors. Recent scholarly interest in Levantine communities throughout Latin America has sought to retrace the history of this migration, thus enriching our understanding of both Latin America and the Arab culture in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This issue of Al-Raida seeks to add to this new-found interest by focusing on the role Lebanese and Arab women have played in the transplanting of Lebanese and Arab communities to Latin America. What role have gender differences played in the Lebanese and Arab experience in Latin America ? Topics of interest may include, but are not limited, to the following :

- Reassessing the scholarship of Arab presence in Latin America : How do we interpret the absence of women’s scholarship in the field ?
- Intergenerational dynamics and cultural identity shifts during acculturation : Women as the missing link in Arab cultural preservation.
- Lebanese and Arab women’s contribution to Latin American literature, arts, and politics.
- Double patriarchies : contending with male dominance from the Arab world to Latin America

This issue of Al-Raida will also welcome book reviews, testimonies, commentary/opinion pieces, and especially images (photography, painting) of relevance to the topic of Arab Women in Latin America. If you are interested in contributing to this issue of Al-Raida, kindly send your abstract (250-300 words) by January 15, 2010. All abstracts submitted are reviewed by Al-Raida’s editorial staff and are subject to its approval. Once the abstract is approved contributors will have to submit their paper no later than May 15, 2011. Submissions are accepted in English, Arabic or French. All non-English submissions will be translated by IWSAW and published in English following the approval of the author. This journal edition will be edited by Dr. Dr. George Abdelnour, Director of the Center for Applied Research in Education (CARE) and Assistant Professor, Faculty of Humanities, at Notre Dame University - Louaize, Lebanon. Kindly send your emails simultaneously to the managing editor, Ms. Myriam Sfeir, at [email protected] and to the guest editor, Dr. George Abdelnour, at [email protected]