Browsing by Subject "Arab"
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Item American Belly Dance: Authentic or Appropriated?(2020-11) Moharram, EamanneItem The Arab street : a photographic exploration(2009-12) Cheney, Clifford Sidney; Darling, Dennis Carlyle; Reed, EllisJournalists use the term Arab Street to describe what they often imply is a volatile Arabic public opinion. This photo story travels through four Arab areas or Jordan, Qatar, Israel/Palestine and Egypt in order to show the diversity and complexity of each. The media’s tendency to lump all Arabs into one political block is detrimental to a true sense of cultural understanding that is required for peace.Item Identity, discrimination, and belonging : the Arab American Muslim experience(2022-08-15) Hashem, Hanan Mustafa; Awad, Germine H.; Ahmed, Sameera; Cokley, Kevin; Whittaker, TiffanyThis dissertation fills a significant lacuna in the literature exploring the experiences of emerging adults with minoritized identities, specifically Arab American Muslims. Arab American Muslims hold an ethnic identity (i.e., being Arab) and a religious identity (i.e., being Muslim) that are commonly conflated. This conflation can have an impact on their understanding of themselves (i.e., identity) and negative experiences from others (i.e., discrimination). Social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979) ties the meaning-making process that individuals partake in to understand their identity to its influence on their mental health outcomes. According to the cumulative racial/ethnic trauma model (Awad et al., 2019), Arab Americans experience chronic micro-level and macro-level factors of trauma, such as discrimination and issues of identity. Those factors, in turn, impact individual-level and group-level outcomes, including experiences of belonging and mental health outcomes. This dissertation utilized path analyses to examine the role of micro-level factors (i.e., discrimination and identity) in predicting an individual-level outcome (i.e., psychological distress) through a group-level outcome (i.e., belonging) as a mediator. The overall findings provided three main ideas which provide significant additions to the literature exploring the experiences of young Arab American Muslims. First, the findings provide evidence of an intersectional ethnic-religious discrimination experience but a distinction between ethnic identity and religious identity. Second, the main finding that provides an opportunity for further exploration is the significant role that religious identity centrality played in predicting belonging and distress for this sample while ethnic identity centrality did not play a role in these relationships. Third, the role of belonging stood out as an important meditator when explaining the religious identity-distress and discrimination-distress relationships for young Arab American Muslims. While this study’s use of path analyses provides support for these relationships, future research can further explore causal relationships between these key variables through longitudinal studies. Additionally, future studies can explore the impact of cultural-geographical differences, such as the impact of living in an Arab or Muslim epicenter, which may provide more nuance to the experience of this diverse group.Item News media roles in bridging communities: consensus function of agenda-setting(2009-12) Higgins, Vanessa de Macedo; McCombs, Maxwell E.Technological, political and economical developments have fostered the spread of transnational media since the latter part of the 20th century. Despite that, most studies of media effects are still nationally bound. This dissertation discusses some of the effects that both national and transnational news media can have on people’s thoughts and feelings. It explores the particular effect of consensus building as a consequence of second level agenda-setting. The main focus of this dissertation is how national and transnational news media can bring different demographic groups closer in their perceptions of major topics in the news. This dissertation analyzes consensus building effects through the European Union’s reaction to the attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States. It analyzes how the use of national and transnational media brought EU demographic groups in closer agreement regarding the attributes of the terrorism issue and of the Muslim and Arab communities, as they related to the events of 9-11 and its aftermaths for the EU community. This study is based on a secondary data analysis of a survey conducted in the close aftermath of 9-11. It is an extensive replication of Shaw and Martin’s (1992) consensus model based on a cross-national analysis of 15 European Union nations and their patterns of national and transnational news media use among four demographic groups in relation to the substantive and affective dimensions of attribute agendas regarding the aftermath of 9-11. This study found evidence that national media bring the segments of society to closer agreement regarding the attributes of terrorism and the attributes of the Muslim and Arab communities. This was especially true for those indicating they used national television. Transnational media also have some potential for similar effects, though less than for national media. Borders still matter but it will be interesting in the future to see if the increasing availability of transnational media translates into increased influence as well.Item The role of multilingualism and environmental influences on identity perceptions among university students of part-Arab and part non-Arab ethnicities(2018-05-02) Diranieh, Courtney Michelle; Mohammad, Mohammad A.How is identity shaped in "part-Arab" young adults who grew up in a post 9/11 society which tends to find conflict with “the other?” Immigrants and refugees from the Middle East living in the United States may experience an internal conflict on how to raise their next generation. The occurrences of assimilation and appropriation in addition to the feeling of the Arabic word, Al-ghorba, or longing for the homeland, greatly influence parents’ choice of language in communicating to his or her child. The use of Arabic language in the household has been shown to deepen ones connection to his or her Arab heritage, yet does a lack of Arabic create a distance in this connection? When immigrants select life partners of differing ethnicities, children from multiethnic marriages may find themselves challenged by their own discovery of self-identification, thus reaching identity affirmation later than mono-ethnic children. Rhetoric involving migration of ethnic Arabs in the U.S. has increased exponentially over the past decade, thus marking an increased importance to focus on shaping identity in ethnically part-Arab young adults and because language so closely links us to identity, the aim of this paper seeks to explore how languages and environmental influences affect ethnic identity formation among part-Arab university students. A total of ten students who identified as part-Arab participated in focus groups and follow-up interviews, answering questions related to ethnic identity, environmental influences on identity, and languages spoken. Students were recruited through Arabic language classes at the University of Texas at Austin as well through the snowball effect through word of mouth. Languages spoken inside and outside of the home, travel to the Middle East/North Africa region, food and traditions shared within the family, religious practices and color of skin arose as factors influencing identity affirmation in university students who identified part-Arab. Findings primarily supported, yet somewhat challenged existing literature which reviewed language acquisition and identity among students who identified as multiethnic. In addition, Arab American immigration patterns resulting in mixed marriages, post-9/11 literature, and heritage language learning literature also support the current research findings.Item Trials of identity : investigating al- Jāḥiẓ and the Zanj in modern pro-Black discourse(2015-08) Ingram, Paige Mandisa; Spellberg, Denise A.; Berry, DainaScholarship about the Muslim philosopher al-Jāḥiẓ and the Zanj revolt of the same era has focused primarily on a specific set of historiographical questions. What was the relationship between al-Jāḥiẓ's explorations of skin color and the revolt of the largely dark-skinned Zanj slaves in Basra, if any? Was the Zanj revolt essentially a class or race rebellion? Such questions, while significant, speak to the specific historical concerns--about the social relations and political-economic systems--of Abbasid-era Baghdad and Basra. Somewhat neglected are the modern uses of this figure and moment in discourses outside the purview of academic study, particularly among politicized Black Americans and Black Muslims, for whom (in some quarters at least) al-Jāḥiẓ and the Zanj revolt hold special import. The rise of Sunni Islam among Black Americans since the 1960s has presented an array of challenges to the unique sociopolitical and religious circumstances in which practitioners are mired. How to develop a religious tradition able to answer to the unique sociopolitical challenges faced by Black Americans, and how to develop simultaneously a religious practice centered on God rather than sociopolitical systems? At the cross-section between politics and religion, Blackness and orthodox Sunni Islam, the answers to these questions have already begun to be attempted, with al-Jāḥiẓ and the Zanj revolt sometimes playing a pivotal role.