Civil rights & activism / City history
Anan Ameri
born 1944 · museum director, sociologist, author
Palestinian-born sociologist who earned her doctorate at Wayne State and, through ACCESS, led the creation of Dearborn's Arab American National Museum, serving as its founding director.
- Born
Damascus, Syria- Detroit years
- 1970s–1989, 1990s–
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Ameri was born in 1944 to a Palestinian father and a Syrian mother; her family left Jerusalem in 1951 and she grew up in Damascus and Amman. After studying sociology in Jordan and Cairo she came to Detroit, where she completed a doctorate in sociology at Wayne State University in 1974. She founded the Palestinian Aid Society of America and led it from 1980 to 1993, and lived for a time in Washington. She returned to Detroit to direct the cultural arts program at ACCESS in Dearborn, work that grew into the Arab American National Museum, which opened in 2005 with Ameri as director. The Detroit News named her Michiganian of the Year in 2005, and she was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame. She has written the memoirs The Scent of Jasmine and The Wandering Palestinian.
Highlights
- PhD in sociology from Wayne State University, 1974
- Founding director of the Arab American National Museum (2005)
- The Detroit News Michiganian of the Year, 2005
- Inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame
- Author of The Scent of Jasmine (2017)
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Founded · 1990s–2010s
Arab American National Museum
The Dearborn museum that grew out of the ACCESS cultural program Ameri directed; she was its first director.
Studied here · 1970s
Wayne State University
Where Ameri earned her doctorate in sociology in 1974.