About Edward E. Curtis
Edward E. Curtis IV is William M. and Gail M. Plater Chair of the Liberal Arts and Professor of World Languages & Cultures at the Indiana University School of Liberal Arts in Indianapolis, where he also directs the Arabic and Islamic studies minor. Raised in Southern Illinois, where his Syrian-Lebanese family settled in the late 1800s, Curtis also lived in Evansville during his teenage years and has made Indianapolis his home since 2005. His Indiana connections run deep—Curtis’ first paid job was as a gardener in historic New Harmony. That sense of connection has inspired Curtis to explore the Arab and Muslim history of Indiana in a variety of publications and in other ways, too. From researching the late nineteenth-century Syrian peddlers of Fort Wayne and Indianapolis’ first Arabic-speaking neighborhood to Indiana’s first permanent mosque in Michigan City, Curtis has sought to show how Arabs and Muslims are part and parcel of the Hoosier state’s history.
As director of the Arab Indianapolis community history project, Curtis oversaw a group of IU Indianapolis students whose research contributed to the writing of a book, creation of a heritage trail, dedication of a historical marker at Lucas Oil Stadium, and the training of central Indiana educators. He also wrote, produced, and hosted a PBS documentary, Arab Indianapolis: A Hidden History, which took home three Emmy awards. In addition, he is a community archivist, facilitating the creation of the Indianapolis Imam Warith Deen Muhammad digital archive and the forthcoming archives of the Midwest Federation of Syrian-Lebanese American Clubs and the Syrian Ladies Aid Society of Michigan City, Indiana.
Curtis has written or edited a total of fourteen books about Africana religions, Islam, Arab American history, and Muslim American studies. Critics have dubbed his work “essential,” “exemplary,” “approachable,” “groundbreaking,” “must-read,” “wonderful,” and “a model of clarity.” Muslims in America: A Short History (Oxford University Press) was named one of the best 100 books of 2009 by Publishers Weekly, and Muslims of the Heartland: How Syrian Immigrants Made a Home in the American Midwest (New York University Press) won the 2023 Evelyn Shakir Book Award from the Arab American National Museum.
