Social Science Research Council

Louise Cainkar is a sociologist and senior research fellow at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), Great Cities Institute. She is the current recipient of a grant from the Russell Sage Foundation to study the impact of the September 11th attacks on the Arab/Muslim community in Chicago and on transnational migration and communication. She has published a number of articles based on the early stages of this work and will complete the project with a book. She is also a recipient of the 2003 Carnegie Corporation Scholar Award, with which she will study the Islamicization of the Arab Community in Metro Chicago. She recently completed a study of low-income Muslim immigrants and Islamic institutional capacity for the Annie E. Casey Foundation. She has been conducting research in US immigrant communities for more than 15 years and has worked as a grantmaker to immigrant community organizations. She is widely published and regarded as a national expert on Arab immigrants, Arab Americans, and immigrant Muslim communities. She has also taught in UIC's sociology department. Cainkar's recent publications include "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); "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; in press); "Migration as a Method of Coping with Turbulence among Palestinians," Journal of Comparative Family Studies, Special Issue on the Middle East (Winter 2004); "A Fervor for Muslims: Special Registration," Journal of Islamic Law and Culture 7, no. 2 (2003); "Targeting Muslims, at Ashcroft's Discretion," Middle East Report (Washington DC: MERIP, March 14, 2003; www.merip.org/mero/mero031403.html; and "No Longer Invisible: Arab and Muslim Exclusion After September 11," Middle East Report (Washington DC MERIP, Volume 224, Fall 2003; www.merip.org/mer/mer224/224_cainkar.html).