Conclusion: Alixa Naff and the Parenthetical Syrian American Lesbian

The research and legacy of Alixa Naff is threaded throughout this book, providing invaluable source material, as well as bearing the brunt of some of my critique of Arab American scholars who recuperated the peddler as a respectable figure. Eulogized as the “mother” and “grande dame” of Arab American studies, Naff had an incalculable impact on the field.¹ Her archival collection remains a centerpiece of early Arab American primary source materials. This collection, which Naff donated to the Smithsonian in 1984, contains 500 artifacts, 450 oral history interviews, and more than 2,000 photographs, as well as the personal papers of