Louise Cainkar is Professor of Sociology and Social Welfare and Justice at Marquette University, a Jesuit university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She is Director of Marquette's Peace Studies Program and is on the Executive Committee of Marquette's Center for Peacemaking. Her research focuses on Arabs and Muslims in diaspora, Palestinians in the US, and Arab and Muslim women in the US, as examined through the lenses of racialization and policing. Dr. Cainkar is the author of 4 books and more than forty peer-reviewed scholarly articles and book chapters. Used in teaching and research globally, her scholarly work has generated more than 35,000 downloads across more than 140 countries. Recent books, published by Syracuse University Press, include the co-edited Sajjilu Arab American: A Reader in SWANA Studies (2022, with Pauline Homsi Vinson and Amira Jarmakani), a 2023 book award winner from the Arab American National Museum, and Arab American Women: Representation and Refusal (2021, with Michael Suleiman and Suad Joseph), which received two national book awards, including CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title for 2022. Her 2009 book,Homeland Insecurity: The Arab American and Muslim American Experience after 9/11 (Russell Sage Foundation) also received multiple national awards.
Cainkar serves on the Board of Directors of the Association for Middle East Women's Studies, is an associate editor for the Review of Middle East Studies, served on the Special Committee of the American Sociological Association on the Status of Racial and Ethnic Minorities in Sociology, and is former President of the Arab American Studies Association. Cainkar is a scholar and social justice activist who embraces a commitment to community engagement. Her most recent engaged scholarship was in partnership with the Milwaukee Muslim Women's Coalition on a project to provide trauma-informed restorative support to Afghan women refugees, recognizing that women are often left out of US resettlement practices. Cainkar also serves on the Board of the community-based Arab American Action Network in Chicago and the Cook County State's Attorney's Hate Crimes Advisory Council.
