AMES, Iowa – Moustafa Bayoumi, author of "How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being Young and Arab in America" will speak at Iowa State University.
“Islamophobia: The Challenges of Being Muslim in America” will be at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 18, in the Memorial Union Sun Room. It is free and open to the public.
Bayoumi's 2009 book introduces men and women in their 20s living in Brooklyn, home to the largest number of Arab Americans in the United States. The book uses their stories to break down stereotypes and clichés about Arabs and Muslims. It won an American Book Award and the Arab American Book Award for Nonfiction.
Bayoumi is a professor of English at Brooklyn College, City University of New York. He was born in Zürich, Switzerland, grew up in Kingston, Canada, and moved to the United States in 1990 to attend Columbia University, where he received his Ph.D. in English literature.
A frequent contributor to The Nation and The Progressive, Bayoumi's articles have also appeared in The New York Times Magazine, New York Magazine, The Guardian, The London Review of Books and The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Bayoumi's presentation is co-sponsored by the Niagara Foundation, the Society of Peace and Dialog and the Committee on Lectures, which is funded by the Government of the Student Body.
More information about ISU lectures is available online, or by calling 515-294-9935.
