Arab American Cultural Center director received national and UIC awards
Zeina Zaatari, PhD, director of the UIC Arab American Cultural Center (ArabAmCC) has recently been named as the recipient of the prestigious 2024 Middle East Section (MES) Distinguished Service Award from the American Anthropological Association (AAA) as well as a recipient of the 2024 UIC Chancellor’s Academic Professional Excellence (CAPE) award.
The MES Distinguished Service Award recognizes Zaatari’s “extraordinarily generous and visionary service to the field of Middle East Anthropology: her institution-building at a time of emergency, her teaching and training of scholars over many years including through workshop organizing and public events programming, her caring mentoring of students at UIC and beyond and her brave and path-breaking scholarship on multifaceted women’s activism in Southern Lebanon.”
It also highlights her work as a founding and leading member of the Arab Families Working Group, president-elect of the Association for Middle East Women’s Studies (AMEWS) and in building the UIC Arab American Cultural Center into an exemplary campus cultural center in the United States. The center “serves as a model for this urgent work for universities across the country [and] at a critical time for Arab American and Muslim students, Dr. Zaatari has been a life-changing mentor whose work addresses and embraces the tremendous diversity within our Arab and Muslim American communities.”
“When I saw the call for nominations, I could think of no one more deserving than Dr. Zaatari. She has been tireless in her work supporting our students and opening the fields of anthropology and gender studies to students and scholars from overseas, and we are all extremely fortunate to have her here with us at UIC,” stated Kareem Rabie, PhD, associate professor of anthropology at UIC. Rabie nominated Zaatari for this award.
The UIC Chancellor’s Academic Professional Excellence (CAPE) award seeks to recognize the excellence of academic professional staff members and their contributions to the campus community.
“As the founding director of the first Arab American Cultural Center at a university in the United States, [Zaatari] exemplifies [her] commitment to UIC’s mission by fostering an inclusive and supportive campus community for all. In challenging times, where tolerance and respect are paramount, [her] steadfast leadership provides critical guidance to both students and the organization. [Her] innovation and collaborative spirit are truly appreciated,” shared UIC Chancellor Marie Lynn Miranda in the award announcement.
The UIC Employee Recognition Award Ceremony was held on November 7 at the Isadore and Sadie Dorin Forum, and the MES Distinguished Service Award Ceremony was held virtually on November 25.