The Performance and Patronage of Baloch Culture through Music (and Related Arts) in the Eastern Arabian Peninsula

This dissertation is a study of Baloch musical—and ritual—idioms as cultivated (and variously innovated, embellished, patronized, and reconstructed) in the relatively prosperous and cosmopolitan urban environments of the coastal Eastern Arabian Peninsula—the third major concentration of Baloch population after Balochistan and Karachi. Due to historical and geographic particulars, the origins of Peninsular Baloch communities lie primarily in the Makran region that extends along the Arabian Sea coast and across the political boundary separating Iran and Pakistan. If musical activities play a significant role in orienting Baloch communities socially and politically, what are the presentational strategies implied in the foregrounding of specific performance genres and how do social dynamics structure the relationships between performers, patrons, connoisseurs, poets, and publics? Relying on data from a series of fieldwork residencies from 2014-2017 in Oman, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar, I give close attention to the internal diversity in values, outlooks, and expressive domains found within Baloch communities as well as to relationships between Baloch and the other cultural groups that contribute to the demographic make-up of the region. In addition to its focus on musical genres and aesthetics, this is a multidimensional study of intellectual and literary activity. As cultural activism, the patronage and promotion of musical idioms is central to preserving and amplifying a traditionalist cultural consciousness as well as to framing impassioned contemporary political expression. This dissertation contributes to extant studies of Makrani Baloch music and culture and speaks to a growing interest in the political and ethnographic character of Baloch society in the Gulf states, adding an in-depth study of cultural performance to the handful of survey articles by distinguished scholars (Jahani 2014, Peterson 2013, al-Ameeri 2003). This work also contributes substantially to ethnomusicological scholarship on the Persian Gulf region as a complex and highly interactive sphere of culture and can be counted as one of many projects that address flows of culture that intersect in different ways across the Indian Ocean

Gender Performance and Social Media Platforms: Identity Presentation among Facebook Users in Iraq

This thesis investigates individual Iraqis’ performance and use of social network sites, and particularly the Facebook platform to determine the potential challenges and opportunities that this offers when they construct their online identities and use social media in their daily interactions. The study mainly investigates the issues of negotiating and presenting identity in online environments and the variations that occur in the participants’ enactment of the self-online compared to the offline self. The study aims to contribute to the current knowledge of identity presentation by focusing on Iraqi users of both genders and explores how they negotiate the multiple pressures placed on them when they use Facebook as a platform to engage in various activities, and for communicating and interacting with other users on the site. This study utilised an explanatory sequential mixed qualitative methods of research model, which was divided into two phases of data collection. The first phase consisted of interviews; two types of interviews were conducted, offline and online. The second phase was based on ethnography that was in the form of virtual ethnographies of the self-performance and the activities presented by the research participants on Facebook. The thesis is conceptually informed and the analysis is positioned within a critical engagement framework based on studies of Goffman’s dramaturgical approach, Goffman’s Modal of Face, the social role theory of gender differences, and social capital and social media milieus. The results constitute a significant contribution to the body of knowledge in relation to our understanding of the ‘space’ that internet social networks provide for Iraqi users to negotiate the boundaries imposed on them by cultural and societal rules. Firstly, the findings reveal how Facebook is used by participants as an ‘affinity space’ to construct an alternative persona that enables them to perform different roles and to serve certain purposes. The study proposes an extension to the scope of relationship construction through initiating a new type of relationship based on the weak ties formed by bounding relationships. Secondly, this thesis also contributes to our understanding of the connection between ‘impression management’ and the concept of ‘face’ via the participants’ attempts to construct and present the virtual self in a way that protects their face (persona) in both the online and offline worlds from any negative consequences. Thirdly, the findings reveal the extensive effort invested by the research participants in constructing and managing their online identities, with attention paid to the contents presented, the management of their private and public regions, and the prevention of context ‘collapse’. Finally, the study reports on the relationship between identity formation and presentation and Facebook audiences, by revealing the strategies utilized by the research participants in managing their online viewers. Evaluation of the participants’ online and offline identities and their self-presentations, performances and activities enabled a correlation to be made between the users’ online and offline lives and how their offline interactions impacted on their use of Facebook

Sacred texts and identity construction in the Cardiff Muslim community: sojourners’ narratives about 'majales'

My PhD research investigates how Shi‘i Muslim women in Cardiff participate in religious rituals and draw on religious texts in ways that help to construct their identities as diasporic Muslims. The religious rituals involved are the majales of Muharram and Safar, the first two months of the Islamic calendar, which are dedicated to commemorate the memory of Hussein, Prophet Muhammad‘s grandson and the third Shi‘i Imam according to Twelver Shi‘a. Majales (sing. majlis) are gatherings of people for the commemoration of the memory of Hussein and the battle of Karbala. Understanding the dynamics of a particular community is essential in investigating how identities are constructed within this community and by adopting an ethnographic approach this understanding and investigation are expected to be achieved. Considering the intricate relationship between the participants‘ religious practices and the ways in which sacred texts are taken up and used, an ethnographic approach would also allow me to address these two aspects equally. This is why I carried out fieldwork for four months during two successive years, 2014 and 2015. During this period I undertook participant-observation in an Islamic Centre in Cardiff and conducted interviews with Shi‘i Muslim women who participated in the rituals. The women involved in this study are female students, mostly PhD students, or spouses of male students whose stay in the United Kingdom is bound to their study, i.e. they are (academic) sojourners. The use of interviews as a method, particularly semi-structured interviews, offered the participants the opportunity to talk about their practices through a narrative mode. Deppermann (2013a: 67) indicates that ―narratives provide particularly powerful resources for positioning‖. Through narratives people take positions towards their past selves or towards others. In his seminal article ―Positioning between Structure and Performance‖, Michael Bamberg (1997a) comes up with the idea of ‗Narrative Positioning‘, in which he argues that the process of positioning happens at three different levels. De Fina and Georgakopoulou (2012: 164) argue that Bamberg‘s model of narrative positioning has been adopted in many studies that involve interviews and conversational stories because ―it affords an analytical apparatus for linking local telling choices to larger identities‖. Bamberg‘s (1997a) model is applied to the analysis of the narratives derived from interviews with these Shi‘i Muslim women. This model consists of three different yet interrelated levels, where the first level is concerned with the story world and the relations that exist among characters. The second level is concerned with the story-telling world and the interaction that takes place between the interlocutors. The moral/ social world is what the third level focuses on and how narrators define themselves in relation to the wider context, i.e. beyond the local level of interaction. The analysis has been supplemented with observations from my ethnographic work and suggests how the women use the narratives to perform complex identity work through which they orient to the symbols and core values of their ―imagined homeland‖ and draw on these to validate the diverse roles they fulfil and the practices they have adopted in the diaspora context. In talking about majales and their practices in both homeland and diaspora, participants display and reflect on the different roles they take, including being teachers, advice-givers and critics of others‘ behaviour

Performance, trance, possession and mysticism : an analysis of the Rātib al-Rifāīyah in South Africa

Bibliography: pages 255-275.Our study is an advance as it elucidates the neurobiological aspects of Islamic ritual that is panspecific to all ritual. It reveals that Islamic ritual is remarkably 'structured'to enter what Felicitas Goodman termed 'alternate reality '. The recitals from the Qur'an provide 'sound art' through harmonic triggers for inducing tranc

Smart Economy, Smart City, and Halal Tourism Industry: Global Islamic Economic Perspective in Indonesia

This article investigates smart city as a city that strives to make itself smarter, more efficient, sustainable, fair and livable.Thekeyelementsofsmartcity'sfoundation include urban planning and design, basic infrastructure and policies, as well as the integration of several smart technologies (ICT) that have emerged alongside core investments in developing various basic components of the city. The smart economy is related to economic competitivenessandinvolvesinnovation, entrepreneurship,economicimage,efficiencyand flexibility in the labor market, integration in local and international markets and the ability to change. The smarteconomyinasmartcityisimportantinthe development of halal tourism industry. This article mainly focuses on how the key factors of a smart economy and the basic elements of the smart city provide answers to the challenges and future development of halal tourism industry in Indonesia. By applying the approach to the main indicators of the global Islamic economy report 2018/2019toanalyzethelinkagesbetweensmart economy, smart city, and halal tourism industry, this paper confirms that smart economy concerns an open, transparent, diverse economy that adds value to smart cities.Thecharacteristicsincludeavarietyof employment opportunities with labor market flexibility, a diversificationthatpromotesentrepreneurshipand innovation and more productivity through local, regional andglobalinterconnectionsimplementedinthe development of the halal tourism industry in Indonesia

Arts handbook

1998 handbook for the faculty of Art

Arts handbook

1998 handbook for the faculty of Art

The Iranian-Saudi Rivalry: Prolonging the War in Yemen. External Actors, Securitisation, Sectarianisation, and Digital Media.

Despite the scale of the conflict in Yemen and the influence of external actors, few studies to date have analysed the nature, impact, and scope of their media campaigns surrounding the war. Across digital media, especially on online news platforms and social media, Iran and Saudi Arabia have exhibited a range of behaviours, in attempts to frame their involvement in the conflict. Thus, this thesis addresses the following research question: How have Saudi Arabia and Iran used digital propaganda to legitimise and frame their involvement in Yemen to international audiences? This is the first study to examine the impact of these two competing propaganda networks on the Yemen War. In doing so, it traces Iranian and Saudi securitisation narratives across the conflict, testing their success in gaining the support of elite and non-elite actors in the international arena. It also shows the ways in which these narratives have aided Iran and Saudi Arabia in their struggle for supremacy in the region. The thesis develops an innovative approach to securitisation theory. It also incorporates critical discourse analysis and visual analysis to explore how Tehran and Riyadh have used digital media as part of their regional competition. Using evidence from the most intense periods of fighting in Yemen and tension between the two actors between 2015 and 2021, the thesis show that Saudi Arabia successfully securitised their intervention in Yemen. Ironically, however, this worked to benefit Tehran far more than it did Riyadh. Several episodes of significance for the Saudi-Iranian relationship, and for the war in Yemen, are analysed, including: Operation Decisive Storm in 2015, The Riyadh Conference in 2017, instances of prominent Saudi airstrikes in 2017-18, the murder of Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 and the Houthi ‘Operation Victory from God’ in 2019. Through discursive and visual analysis, the thesis explores the ways in which the representation of these events had an impact on framing the conflict, to the detriment of the people of Yemen. Securitisation narratives, dispersed across the Internet, regularly had a sectarian tone. These narratives fanned the flames of war, preventing any room for a meaningful prospect for peace. They also exacerbated the humanitarian situation, a dynamic properly detailed in the thesis’ conclusion. Such narratives created a deeply polarising environment, in which extraordinary measures were justified. Through visual analysis, critical discourse tracing, and analysis of dynamics specific to the world of digital media, this thesis traces this process, providing a holistic analysis of the impact of the Iranian-Saudi rivalry on the war in Yemen. The thesis offers new methodological, theoretical, and empirical insights, emphasizing the importance of digital narrative warfare as a worthwhile and insightful field of study