RACE IN TRANSIT | A Busboys and Poets Books Presentation
Date and Time
Aug 11, 2026 6:00 pm
Location
14th & V
2021 14th St NW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20009
Aug 11, 2026 6:00 pm
14th & V
Join us to trace the politics of migration from Ottoman Syria through US Empire
At the turn of the twentieth century, life in Ottoman Syria was upended by European and US colonial and capital expansion. Many people responded by migrating to the United States. In doing so, they stepped into the world of international migration, where they had to navigate overlapping states and migration infrastructures--shipping companies and ticketing agents, health inspectors and border police, universities and kinship networks--that each facilitated, restricted, and policed movement.
With this book, Randa Tawil follows the itineraries of the early Syrian diaspora, stitching together migrants' travels across archives from Beirut, Marseille, Liverpool, Manila, Washington, D.C., Michigan, and Texas. She reveals the overlapping and contradicting ways in which race was forged globally in the early twentieth century and its effects on Syrians in the United States. Syrian migrants encountered multiple imperial and national legal regimes during transit, and their varying relationships with different empires set the conditions under which migrants were considered ""desirable"" or ""undesirable"" once they reached US borders. Focusing on the experiences of those on the move, Race in Transit makes migrants the agents of a world history that has too often relegated them to the sidelines.
Randa Tawil is joining us on the Busboys stage to share more about the “‘migration infrastructures' that displaced, enabled, and restricted movement” (Lisa Lowe, author of The Intimacies of Four Continents). Copies of the book will be available for purchase during and after the event, and Tawil will be signing following the program. This event is free and open to all. Doors open to guests at 5:30pm. Our program begins at 6:00 pm, and will be followed by an audience Q&A. Copies of RACE IN TRANSIT will be available for purchase before and after the event. Please note that this event is in person.
We ask that guests RSVP in order to receive direct updates about the event from Busboys and Poets Books
Randa Tawil is researcher, writer, and lecturer at the University of Washington. She holds a doctorate in American Studies from Yale University, and writes about migration, US empire, and the Middle East. Her work has been featured in The Washington Post, Margins, and Open Democracy, as well as academic journals.
BOOK DETAILS
Race in Transit
Tracing the Politics of Migration from Ottoman Syria through US Empire
By Randa Tawil
June 9, 2026 | Paperback, 230 pages, $28
