Narrow Pathways: Gender, Sexuality and Arab American Asylum Seekers in the United States” Sabol Lecture Promotes Peacebuilding and Justice for Asylum Seekers

The Peace and Justice Center, the King’s College International Relations and Strategy Program, the department of English, and the Women’s Studies Program have joined to co-sponsor the 2025 Barbara Sabol Lecture to foster conversation among college students and the larger Northeast Pennsylvania community on the importance of human rights for asylum seekers in the United States

The Sabol lecture will feature anthropology and sexuality studies scholar Rhoda Kanaaneh, Ph.D. Her talk, “Narrow Pathways: Gender, Sexuality and Arab American Asylum Seekers in the United States,” will be given at the Burke Auditorium on the King’s College campus on Wednesday, November 5, 2025, at 7:00 p.m. The talk will be followed by a discussion period in which community members as well as students and faculty from King’s College, Wilkes University, and Misericordia University are encouraged to participate. The event is free and open to the public.

Dr. Margarita Rose, King’s College professor of economics and co-director of the International Relations and Strategy Program as well as a member of the steering committee of the Peace and Justice Center, emphasized the importance of Dr. Omer’s talk and the need for meaningful discussion at this time. 

“For the benefit of all my students, but especially those in Introduction to Geography, I’m looking forward to the visit of Rhoda Kanaaneh to the King’s College campus next week. Her research on Arab asylum seekers adds to the material we’ve discussed on international migration. I suspect her talk will be a real eye-opener to most domestic students, who are likely unaware of how challenging the American immigration system is, especially for asylum seekers,” said Dr. Rose. 

Dr. Rose further emphasized that members of the larger community would benefit from Dr. Kanaaneh’s talk to help foster understanding as a vital part of peacebuilding in our society. 

“A firm belief among most members of the Peace & Justice Center is that true peace cannot be achieved without justice. Rhoda Kanaaneh’s work challenges us to consider questions of justice at a foundational level—birthing a child, hiding/claiming one’s identity, and seeking a new life in a new land to avoid discrimination and physical violence. Her ideas may unsettle some people within our community, but we are an organization committed to dialogue, and therefore to the respectful exchange of ideas” said Dr. Rose. 

Dr. Noreen O’Connor, steering committee coordinator of the Peace and Justice Center and professor of English at King’s College, emphasized the need to bring community members together. 

“I am grateful that Dr. Kanaaneh will be giving the Sabol Lecture this year. My own students, who are  working to understand human rights for displaced populations, will benefit greatly from her visit. Her anthropological study of the difficult process for seeking asylum for Arab people suffering persecution because of their gender and sexuality will help our community understand how we can work toward peacebuilding through justice. That is also exactly the mission of the Peace and Justice Center and the intent of this lecture series. I am also truly inspired by the commitment and civic-mindedness of students and members of the community who have called for conversations about peacebuilding,” said O’Connor. 

• Rhoda Kanaaneh has taught anthropology and gender and sexuality studies at NYU, American University in Washington, DC, Columbia and Fordham. She has held fellowships at Harvard and the European University Institute and is the author of a number of books and articles on reproductive politics, militarization and gendered racialization in Israel and Palestine. Her most recent book The Right Kind of Suffering: Gender, Sexuality and Arab Asylum Seekers in America won the Evelyn Shakir Book Award in 2024.
  
  
• The International Relations and Strategy Program at King’s College integrates political science, history, economics, geography, and language courses into the study of contemporary global questions.
  
  
• The Women’s Studies program at King’s College promotes the study of gender and sexuality through an interdisciplinary and intersectional minor degree.
  
  
• The Peace and Justice Center is an interfaith organization created to educate groups and individuals in peaceful ways of resolving conflict, to nurture dialogue among diverse groups, and to be a partner in the ongoing struggle for human rights and a just world.
  
  
• The Barbara Sabol Memorial Lecture Series is designed to promote awareness of peace and social issues by bringing recognized personalities to speak to the local community. The lecture is named for a founding Peace and Justice Center member who died in 1997.