Luma Simms

Fellow

Luma Simms, a Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, studies the life and thought of immigrants. As a humanist writer, she publishes on a broad range of topics, with a focus on the human (individual and communal), ethical, religious, and philosophical dimensions of immigration. She is particularly concerned with the crisis of rootlessness, identity, and dehumanization.

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Luma Simms, a Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, studies the life and thought of immigrants. As a humanist writer, she publishes on a broad range of topics, with a focus on the human (individual and communal), ethical, religious, and philosophical dimensions of immigration. She is particularly concerned with the crisis of rootlessness, identity, and dehumanization.

Mrs. Simms’s essays, articles, and book reviews have appeared in a variety of publications including National AffairsThe Wall Street JournalThe Point magazine, Public DiscourseLaw and Liberty, the Institute for Family Studies, and others. She has been interviewed on Arabic television and American and Canadian radio on topics such as religious freedom in the Middle East, Congress and DACA, immigration and the Middle East, divorce, parenting, and elder care in Eastern cultures. Before joining EPPC, Mrs. Simms was an Associate Fellow at The Philos Project where her research and writing focused on a Christian presence in the Middle East, anti-Semitism, and immigrant life and thought.

Some of Mrs. Simms’s notable essays include Identity and Assimilation at National AffairsImmigration and the Desire for Rootedness at Public DiscourseI Am My Enemy: A Naturalized American Finds Herself at War with Her Homeland at Plough Magazine; and Thinking Is Self-Emptying at The Point magazine.

Her background includes a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. She studied law at Chapman University School of Law before leaving to become an at-home mom. Mrs. Simms was born in Baghdad, Iraq; her parents and ancestors are from Mosul, and she speaks Arabic with a Moslawi dialect.

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Loneliness Is Fueling The Opioid Epidemic. Here’s How You Can Help.

Luma Simms

Social despair more so than economic despair is the main driver behind our current opioid crisis; the task before us looms large, but there is a way to repair and rebuild social capital.

Articles

The Federalist / March 20, 2018

Is Immigration Good for Immigrants?

Luma Simms

When immigration is not a free choice, when it is undertaken because of violence and fear, it is not an unqualified good for either the immigrant or the adoptive country.

Articles

National Review Online / March 17, 2018

Correcting for the Historian’s Middle Eastern Biases

Luma Simms

Eugene Rogan’s The Arabs: A History will be of value to readers who wish to understand the Arab world the way Arabs want to be understood. As history it is fabulous, but as analysis, it has a certain bias that I found frustrating as an Arab Christian.

Articles

Law and Liberty / March 5, 2018

I Know How to Be Abased and I Know How to Abound

Luma Simms

Though I used to hold Catholic social teaching in contempt, my journey to the Church forced me to rethink those presuppositions.

Articles

First Things / January 30, 2018

Convalidating an Existing Marriage: What Is It and Why?

Luma Simms

God’s healing power through the means of the Church: annulment, reconciliation, and convalidation.

Articles

Aleteia / January 30, 2018

Being Realistic—but Hopeful—about Iran

Luma Simms

The road to a modest modernization initiative that could open up Middle Eastern countries in a way that would not compromise their religious beliefs and Muslim identity is only through the path of the dignity of the human person.

Articles

Law and Liberty / January 24, 2018

Trump’s Rhetoric on Haiti is the Kind of Thing that Will Turn This Country Into…

Luma Simms

The media is ablaze over a question President Trump reportedly asked lawmakers in a recent Oval Office meeting on immigration.

Articles

The Federalist / January 12, 2018

Why We Shouldn’t Expect Iranian Protests to Usher in a Democracy

Luma Simms

Muslim peoples across the Middle East have struggled with separating modernization from Westernization without compromising themselves. We must be cautious in our response to the demonstration in Iran, and remember that the people of the Middle East value their identity.

Articles

The Federalist / January 11, 2018