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As a reminder, AAR publishes member accomplishments including new publications, award announcements, and media mentions. Share your wins with us!
Awards and Accomplishments
Candace Lukasik Wins 2025 Alixa Naff Prize in Migration Studies in the “Best Book” Category for Martyrs and Migrants: Coptic Christians and the Persecution Politics of US Empire
The Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies announced the winners of the 2025 Alixa Naff Prize in Migration Studies in March 2026, honoring outstanding research on Middle East/North African migration. Dr. Candace Lukasik won best book for Martyrs and Migrants: Coptic Christians and the Persecution Politics of US Empire.
Books and Publications
Lauree Brown
Beyond the Well: A Novel Inspired by the Women at the Well
Beyond the Well is a historical fiction novel that reimagines the life of the Samaritan woman, known as Photine, before and after her encounter at Jacob’s well. Living in a society shaped by rigid traditions and judgment, Photine navigates loss and love, multiple marriages, and deep personal shame while quietly holding on to her dignity and inner strength. Through hardship and experience, her journey becomes one of survival, faith, and self-discovery.
P. C. Saidalavi
Seeking Allah’s Hierarchy: Caste, Labor, and Islam in India
In Seeking Allah’s Hierarchy, P. C. Saidalavi provides an ethnographic study of a Muslim barber community in South India, unraveling how these barbers negotiated concepts of hierarchy through Islamic values of piety, genealogy, morality, and wealth. Through this close-drawn study, Saidalavi argues that Muslim hierarchy exists and it works on its own terms. It both draws upon Islamic jurisprudential and moral discourses and is shaped by the larger economic, cultural, and political environment, including that of Hinduism. Yet ultimately, Muslim hierarchy is neither a replica nor a watered-down version of caste in Hinduism.