Arab American Migration and Communities: A Historical Lens for Family Research

Arab American Migration and Communities: A Historical Lens for Family Research by Dr. Nina Shoman-Dajani will be held on Saturday, August 23 at 10:00 am PST/1:00 pm EST via Zoom. Register here.

Understanding historical context is an essential part of family history research, including immigrants to the United States from Arabic speaking countries. Dr. Shoman-Dajani will walk attendees through the history of Arabs in the United States, while sharing stories of local Arab American communities.  

Dr. Nina Shoman-Dajani is the Assistant Dean of Learning Enrichment and College Readiness at Moraine Valley Community College where most of her work is focused on managing Adult Education programs and grants that serve marginalized and immigrant communities. In addition, Dr. Shoman-Dajani works as an adjunct professor in Middle Eastern Studies at Saint Xavier University and has served as a visiting lecturer at the University of Illinois in Chicago (UIC), where she taught Arab American studies.

She is a member of the National Advisory Council for the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education (NCORE), and co-chairs the Transnational-International committee and also serves as the co-chair for the MENA/SWANA Caucus. She is a former board member for the Syrian Community Network, a refugee resettlement agency in Chicago and also previously served as a board member for the Arab American Studies Association. She is currently the Executive Director of the Chicago Palestine Film Festival. Dr. Shoman-Dajani is a student and community advocate who has also volunteered as the advisor to the Arab Student Union at Moraine Valley Community College for the last 15 years.

Dr. Shoman-Dajani is currently partaking in the Cultivate: Women of Color Leadership Fellowship program which brings together women and nonbinary leaders of color engaged in social, economic, and racial justice movements in the Chicago region and is the recent recipient of two leadership awards, the Vernon O. Crawley Leadership Award (Moraine Valley Community College, April 2025) and the Change Agent Social Justice and Equity Award (NCORE, May 2025).

She received her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology with a minor in Middle Eastern Studies and her Master of Arts in International Affairs with a focus on U.S. Foreign and Domestic Policy from California State University, Sacramento. She earned her Doctor of Education degree at Benedictine University in Higher Education and Organizational Change. Her doctoral research focused on the racial identity construction of Arab American college students. She is one of the authors of the Arab Community Report titled Beyond Erasure and Profiling: Cultivating Strong and Vibrant Arab American Communities in Chicagoland published by the Institute for Research on Race & Public Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago. This publication includes an extensive study on the racial discrimination experienced by the Arab community of Chicago.