Please join the Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies for a conversation with scholar and author Linda K. Jacobs. Jacobs will discuss early Arab diaspora in the United States and her forthcoming book Captivating Strangers: Early Arab Immigrants in the United States.

Jacobs has a Ph.D. in Near Eastern archaeology/anthropology and has spent many years working on excavations and economic development projects in the Middle East. She serves on the board of several Middle Eastern non-governmental organizations. A recognized authority on the early Arab diaspora in the United States, Jacobs is the author of Strangers in the West: The Syrian Colony of New York City, 1880-1900 and Strangers No More: Syrians in the United States, 1880-1900. All four of Jacobs' grandparents were members of the 19th-century New York Syrian/Lebanese Colony.