Feb 26
The Evil Eye in Arab America
When the speaker's great grandparents immigrated to the United States in the late 1800s from the Eastern Mediterranean, they transplanted many of their Levantine cultural traditions in the New World. Whether they were Muslim, Christian, or Druze, many, if not most Arabic-speaking people knew how to prevent or treat an affliction of the evil eye, a malevolent force that caused bad luck, illness, and even death. But there is little scholarly knowledge of the evil eye's existence in early Arab America. This talk relies on once forgotten historical sources to conjure an irreplaceable chapter in America's religious history.
Edward E. Curtis IV is William M. and Gail M. Plater Chair of the Liberal Arts and professor at Indiana University Indianapolis. He is the author or editor of 15 books, including Muslims of the Heartland: How Syrian Immigrants Made a Home in the American Midwest. Curtis, who has won two regional Emmys for his documentary, Arab Indianapolis: A Hidden History, is also the recipient of grants and fellowships from Carnegie, Fulbright, Mellon, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
This event is sponsored by American Studies, Religion and Middle Eastern Studies