Nadine Naber, PhD
Director and Professor
Gender and Women's Studies; Global Asian Studies
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Contact
Address:
601 S Morgan St.
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About
Nadine Naber received her PhD in Cultural Anthropology at the University of California, Davis. Her research lies at the intersections of decolonial feminism, empire studies, reproductive justice, Arab and Arab American feminist studies, and social movement studies. She is an award-winning scholar, recently named a Marguerite Casey Foundation Freedom Scholar (2024) and a University of Illinois University Scholar (2025). She is also a recipient of the Carl Bode-Norman Holmes Pearson Lifetime Achievement Prize from the American Studies Association.
Dr. Naber is co-author of Radical Mothering: Caregiving and Resistance beyond Prison Walls (Haymarket, Forthcoming) as part of her work as co-founder and research director of Mamas Activating Movements for Abolition and Solidarity. She is co-author of the book Social Movement Led Research (NP Press, Forthcoming) and author of Arab America: Gender, Cultural Politics, and Activism (NYU Press, 2012). She is co-editor of the books Race and Arab Americans (Syracuse University Press, 2008); Arab and Arab American Feminisms, winner of the Arab American Book Award 2012 (Syracuse University Press, 2010); The Color of Violence (South End Press, 2006), and Towards the Sun (Tadween Press/George Mason University, 2020). She is lead author of the policy report, “The Status of Racial Justice for Arab Americans” (IRRPP/UIC, 2022) and co-author of the policy report, “The Paradox of Social Development in the Arab Region” (United Nations, 2015). She serves on editorial boards such as the Journal of Palestine Studies, and the International Journal of Middle East Studies and is the founder of Liberate Your Research Workshops.
Dr. Naber came to the University of Illinois from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor where she co-founded Arab and Muslim American Studies (an Ethnic Studies unit within the Program in American Culture). At UIC, she is the faculty founder and former director of the Arab American Cultural Center and holds an affiliation with Global Asian Studies and the Department of Anthropology. She is co-founder of Global Middle East Studies. At UIC, she is a steering committee member of the Social Justice Initiative and co-organizer of the Race and Empire Working Group (Institute for the Humanities).
As a community engaged scholar, Dr. Naber has served on the steering committees of INCITE! Women and Gender non-Conforming People against Violence; Arab Movement of Women Arising for Justice (AMWAJ), and the Arab American Action Network. She is a TEDX speaker and writes OpEds for outlets like the Chicago Reporter and Truthout. Her perspectives are featured regularly in outlets such as NPR, iHeart Radio, the New York Times, and in the Chicago Tribune.
Education
PhD, Cultural Anthropology - University of California, Davis