Digital Commons Network^™

Identity Formation In The Lebanese-American Christian Diaspora, Matthew Cesar Audi

Honors Projects

Since the late 1800s, people have immigrated to the United states from Lebanon and Syria, and the community’s racial and ethnic position within the United States has been contested ever since. Previous research emphasizes that while people from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are legally classified as “white” on the U.S. Census. However, many people from the region do not identify as white, and they often face discrimination or threats of violence. For people of Arab and Christian backgrounds this is further complicated because they are a part of the majority through their religion, but part of a …

Countering Dispossession: For Palestinians In The Diaspora, Maintaining Cultural Identity Is A Means Of Resistance, Reem Farhat

Capstones

For decades, Palestinians have pushed back against Israeli appropriation of Palestinian culture, by calling it out online and making efforts to protect it through international organizations. On social media, Palestinians in the diaspora have resisted against erasure and appropriation of their heritage by learning, sharing, and teaching others about their culture online. Chef Nadia Gilbert, embroidery artist Asma Barakat, and TikToker Serena Rasoul have all maintained online presences dedicated to educating their followers on Palestinian culture. To them, practicing these aspects of their heritage in the diaspora is a means of resistance.

https://medium.com/@rfarhat1/countering-dispossession-for-palestinians-in-the-diaspora-maintaining-cultural-identity-is-a-e860d54bb8a9

Longing For The Homeland: The Palestinian American Diaspora And Palestinian Advocacy In The United States, Mohamed Khaled Ghumrawi

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores how Palestinian Americans in the diaspora connect with Palestine, Palestinian advocacy, and the Palestinian question. It analyzes and synthesizes the interaction of the Palestinian American diaspora and Palestinian advocacy, exploring its domestic and transnational linkages. It also explores the nexus of domestic and transnational aspects relating to Palestinian identity, political life, advocacy, culture, and politics. This project utilizes two main frameworks, the first is the tripartite composite state theory, focusing specifically on the normative-social structure. The second applies a framework of intersectionality, highlighting the interconnectedness of the Palestinian diaspora and the Palestinian question with other social …

Becoming Diaspora: A Comparative Analysis Of Palestinian Diaspora Groups In New Jersey And Lebanon, Reem Zidan Farhat

Senior Theses

This study analyses the relationship of members of the Palestinian diaspora with their host countries and how these conditions affect their relationship to their Palestinian identity. The two case studies chosen are Palestinian communities in New Jersey suburbs and the Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon. In the case of Palestinians in Lebanon, their longing for return is shaped by the fact that they are essentially foreigners in Lebanon. Despite being the third or fourth generation of Palestinians born in Lebanon, these refugees are excluded socially, economically, and politically. Thus, their connection to Palestine is tied directly to their status as …

Queer Political Organization In Israel, And Palestine: Shifting Away From Homonationalism, Tristan Blaisdell

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In this project, I present research I have done on the issue of pink washing queer Israeli and Palestinian citizens and homonationalism within Israel and Palestine. I also create an exhibit brief outlining a hypothetical museum exhibit on this topic to be put up at the museum of culture and environment. The first section outlines the history and theory of my exhibit, and a brief personal statement where I talk about my interest in the subject and where I’m coming from before I design this exhibit. My theory is built off concepts of diaspora, home, belonging, queer identity, and intersectionality …

Volume 8: Gender, Governance And Islam, Deniz Kandiyoti, Nadje Al-Ali, Kathryn Spellman Poots

Exploring Muslim Contexts

Analyses the links between gender and governance in contemporary Muslim majority countries and diaspora contexts.

Following a period of rapid political change, both globally and in relation to the Middle East and South Asia, this collection sets new terms of reference for an analysis of the intersections between global, state, non-state and popular actors and their contradictory effects on the politics of gender.

The volume charts the shifts in academic discourse and global development practice that shape our understanding of gender both as an object of policy and as a terrain for activism. Nine individual case studies systematically explore how …

No Such State As Palestine: Notions Of Home And The State In Palestinian Relationships With Palestine, Osama A. Abdl-Haleem

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

There is no such state as Palestine. But nearly 70 years after the termination of the British mandate for Palestine and the creation of the state of Israel, Palestine remains a home for the Palestinian. It is an identity not dependent on the existence of a Palestinian state, nor arrested by the presence of an Israeli one. Palestinians have a home relationship with Palestine, where home is a sense of belonging that comes from within, that isn’t earned and given, but personal and chosen, even while it is communal. Home is a self-determined relationship of person to place. The relationships …

Historical Trauma And Refugee Reception: Armenians And Syrian-Armenian Co-Ethnics, Nicole M. Campos

Master's Theses

This thesis considers the ways in which Armenian history has influenced integration of Syrian-Armenian refugees into Armenia due to the ongoing Syrian War. Ethnic Armenian outlooks were analyzed relative to the influx of Syrian refugees, particularly co-ethnic Syrian-Armenians. Field work in Armenia found a sustained cultural impression of Armenians’ Soviet membership and genocide. Findings suggest that recognizing the importance of history as it may or may not affect migration reception policies and attitudes is important to developing sustainable resettlement environments, at least until repatriation or third-country resettlement becomes an option to migrants. Ultimately, this thesis argues that more attention must …

Authority, Leadership, And Peacemaking: The Role Of The Diasporas: A Pilot Study Of A Group Relations Conference: A Dissertation, Tracy Wallach

Educational Studies Dissertations

Research suggests that conflicts are much more likely to re-ignite in societies which have large Diaspora communities in the United States. This study examines the role of American Jewish, Arab, and other Middle Eastern Diaspora communities in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and addresses the generally neglected role of trauma and emotions in perpetuating conflict.

The project employed group relations conference methodology to conduct the inquiry. A group relations lens allows one to look at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at multiple levels: on the psychological level (looking at issues of trauma, identity, collective narrative, emotions and unconscious processes); on the social level (looking …