DEARBORN — Beginning in the fall semester, Fatina Abdrabboh, the director of the ADC-Michigan, will be teaching a new class focused on civil rights at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.  

The course, entitled “Arab American Civil Rights”, is the first of its kind in the country. It was designed to advance knowledge about the essentials of civil rights and to give participants useful resources for understanding how racial inequality, discrimination and bigotry adversely impact Arab-Americans.   

Abdrabboh plans on extracting lessons from her work as a civil rights leader to inform understanding about local, regional, and national civil rights and the evolution of the role of Arab Americans in U.S. in the last century.   

According to Abdrabboh, the course provides students in any major the opportunity to expand their understanding of civil rights in general and the ways economics, politics, social norms, and cultural mores impact those rights in an increasingly globalized world. 

“With the rich culture of Dearborn, which is home to a large population of Arabs outside of the Arab world, this course will not only offer insight into the state of civil rights but also empower students by providing them with exposure to the forces that drive anti-Arab and anti-Muslim racism in this country,” Abdrabboh said.  

Abdrabboh created a syllabus that “introduces students to the fundamental concepts of civil rights and also speaks to the great efforts at the University of Michigan-Dearborn to cultivate an ongoing relationship with the Arab-American and Muslim-American communities.” The syllabus centers around principles of law, culture, history and politics to create an interdisciplinary course that will explore various aspects of how Arab and Muslim Americans have witnessed an erosion of their civil liberties and basic freedoms under the influence of national security and other policies.  

“I  chose this interdisciplinary approach in my syllabus in order to enhance awareness to the multiple possibilities, perspectives, and interpretations of contemporary civil rights and to force students to think critically and consider how these distinct fields contribute to modern discourses on Arabs, Muslims and their ongoing quest to protect their basic freedoms,” she added.

 A Harvard University graduate,  Abdrabboh has a strong academic background with dozens of publications in leading peer-reviewed academic journals.  She has been published in the New York Times, the Washington Times, and numerous other premier periodicals.  She has also lectured throughout the United States, Africa and the Middle East on a broad range of topics.

Michigan State University Trustee Brian Mosallam said Abdrabboh’s expertise makes her a more than qualified instructor for the course.

“There is nobody better to teach a course on Arab-American civil rights than Fatina,” Mosallam said.  “She is a brilliant woman who has been a tremendous advocate for our youth and a tireless defender of this community.  Thus, she gives a perspective that would certainly enrich the students taking this course”.   

Arab-American Civil Rights will be cross-listed with criminal justice and other departments.