When I applied to be an Olson Scholar, I hoped to explore feminisms before the Arab Spring to see if they influenced at all understandings of democracy within the Middle East and North Africa. I wanted to pay specific attention to internet feminist activism. Several facets of this research puzzle struck me as interesting. I hoped to explore these questions below:
- What do marginalized people under autocratic regimes understand democracy to mean? How does living in oppressive states that mimic democracy influence perceptions of freedom and civil rights?
- Do grassroots movements abroad or locally impact understandings of democracy?
- What did feminism in MENA look like during what is considered the third wave of feminism (1990s to early 2010s) in the West?
- How does feminism inform understandings of postcolonial struggles and democratization?
- How does the internet influence the translation of understandings of freedom from one movement to another movement? Is solidarity easier to establish?
This research topic intrigued me because I wanted to understand how oppressed people understand human rights and democracy. I know in the West, particularly the United States, it is marginalized people that have largely been responsible for movements that have led to the democratization of society.
Prior coursework in feminist theory drove me to embark on this research topic. The feminist theory that inspired me derived from Lila Abu-Lughod’s ethnographic research. Specifically, two of Abu-Lughod’s conclusions sparked the questions above. The idea that women’s issues in the Middle East are not ahistorical but deeply connected to a history of imperialism and that transnational solidarity among feminists is necessary for democratization were striking to me (Abu Lughod 783-790). So naturally I wanted to answer the questions what were the feminist movements in the Middle East, how do they define human rights, and what can be learned from them. Also, the intersection of feminist theory and post-colonization intrigued because of my background as a first-generation Haitian-American.
Before I began my studies at SIS, I was interested in studying diasporas and transnational activism. Also, I was interested in legal issues concerning boundaries (carceral spaces, contested borders, occupied territory, etc) and what those boundaries mean for diasporas confined to them. After some reflection, I have have been wanting to change my research question. I think it would be interesting to study forced deportation and incarceration and how that impacts democratization and gender equity. I would hope to explore these issues using examples from diasporas in the Middle East and Caribbean.
While I am passionate about the research question I originally proposed, I have some reservations. I know I already have some ideas of what I want my answers for my research questions to be. I fear this research project could become more about filling in the blanks. There have been fewer opportunities for me to explore the research interests I had before SIS. So, I know it could be potentially more rewarding and challenging studying something different. I realize I have the opportunity to delve deeper into a complex topic through the Olson Scholar Program. The regional requirement for this major makes it difficult to explicitly explore issues concerning diasporas, boundaries, and legal theory. I also think having a better understanding of what people within diasporas understand transnational solidarity to mean could make me think about my original research question differently.
Works Cited
Abu-Lughod, Lila. “Do Muslim Women really Need Saving? Anthropoligical Reflections on Cultural Relativism and its Others.” American Anthropologist, vol. 104, no. 3, 2002, pp. 783-790. ProQuest, http://proxyau.wrlc.org/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxyau.wrlc.org/docview/198217752?accountid=8285.
Hi Thamara,
You touch on many important topics, specifically the relationship between boundaries and diasporas. I first learned about diasporas in my world cinema class where we looked at the spread of cultural identities and transnationalism in diasporic communities through film, so I like that you are looking at them through a feminist/legal lens. On the issues of forced deportation and incarceration, I think it would be interesting to look at the role statelessness plays in them. I recently read about how the Indian government is using a controversial citizenship registry exercise to declare people (mostly Muslims) in the state of Assam as “foreigners,” thus taking away their access to voting and other services.[1] Exploring how governments can use the denial of entry/citizenship to target or marginalize specific groups of people could be an interesting path to take in your research. If you do focus on the Caribbean, a possible example could be the treatment of Dominicans of Haitian descent in the Dominican Republic.[2] Best of luck in your research and I look forward to seeing more of your work!
[1] Joanna Slater and Niha Masih. “In a corner of
India, 2 million risk becoming stateless after release of final citizenship
list,” Washington Post, August 31, 2019,
(Accessed 2 September 2019).
[2] Jonathan M. Katz. “What Happened When a Nation
Erased Birthright Citizenship,” The Atlantic, November 12, 2018,
(Accessed 2 September 2019).
I love your research topic; it’s extremely interesting and not researched enough. I was particularly struck by the comment, “I know in the West, particularly the United States, it is marginalized people that have largely been responsible for movements that have led to the democratization of society.” I think this is an incredible point, and should be taught more often.
In thinking of your research topic, I find myself in the same pickle I always find myself in when discussing democracy in other parts of the world. I think we would both agree that imperialism is not only horrible for what it does in the moments it is implemented, but also for the effects it leaves – much of which can be seen today in the African continent and the Middle East. What we might also agree upon (I am inferring by the words of your post) is that democracy is a good thing for it allows, or should allow, power to be bottom-up rather than top-down. Yet the pickle is, if democracy is a western construct, is it good for other parts of the world?
Don’t get me wrong; I don’t mean to claim that there shouldn’t be democracy in other parts of the world. I simply raise the question if we continue to critique western imposition of culture, is democracy not part of that? Or must we concede that democracy is necessary for universal social progress? Personally, I believe that if it comes from the people of the country, not any imposition of another culture, democracy is able to thrive. I just think we as Westerners have such a hard time with letting people find democracy rather than trying to show it to them thinking that our imposition will make it better. We forget that it was a hard road to democracy for ourselves, and it might be the same for other cultures.
Overall you have some good thoughts here, Thamara, to get you started on the research process. As you work on honing in on the particular topic area and puzzle you would like to research you can start to answer some of the more factual “background research” questions (“what” questions and “do” questions) with some reading and research now. In particular, it would be good to work on reading what scholars are debating (through examining scholarly peer-reviewed journal articles) in this broad research topic area to deepen your background knowledge and begin to identify puzzles. Overall, as we’ve discussed in class, we are aiming for an *explanatory* puzzle (as Booth et al. and Abbott both discuss). Keep thinking about some of these questions as you continue your reading and research: what is the concrete, yet puzzling, state of affairs or outcome or trend that you want to explain? What specifically makes it puzzling? What scholars have highlighted that puzzle as important?