ISIM Review 22, Autumn 2008

Vakpublicati

ISIM Review 21, Spring 2008

Dissertati

Modern Assyrian/Syriac Diaspora in Sweden

The original version of this book entitiled Współczesna diaspora asyryjsko-aramejska w Szwecji (ISBN 978-83-8142-360-1, e-ISBN 978-83-8142-361-8) was published by the Lodz University Press (WUŁ) in 2018, http://hdl.handle.net/11089/26643The monograph discusses up-to-date issues concerning the acculturation of a Middle Eastern group in a European country. The book is based on research conducted by the Author in 2014 in the Assyrian/Syriac diaspora in Sweden, within the framework of the “Defining and Identifying Middle Eastern Christian Communities in Europe” project. Assyrians/Syriacs (Assyrier/Syrianer) began to arrive in Scandinavia in the late 1960s, fleeing the wars and meagre economic prospects in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. Today, they constitute an active diaspora which contributes in various ways to the development of its new homeland and numbers around 150 000 people. The Author describes Swedish migration and integration policies, the history of the Assyrian/Syriac community in the Middle East, the phases and forms of institutionalisation in Sweden, internal dynamics as well as the group’s relations with external actors and its transnational links. One of the main findings of the book is that the ethno-national identity of this community was largely constructed in the Swedish diaspora and is considerably more complex than it had previously been described in research. The identity in question is not a single construct, but rather a few – if not a few dozen – variants, although polarisation resulting from the divide between Assyrians and Arameans/Suryoye/Syriacs is visible.This project received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no. 291827. The project Defining and Identifying Middle Eastern Christian Communities in Europe was financially supported by the HERA Joint Research Programme (www.heranet.info). The translation of this book into English was co-financed by the Dean of the Faculty of the International and Political Studies, University of Lodz, and the Head of the Department of the Middle East and North Africa, University of Lodz

Cultural Dynamics in a Globalized World

The book contains essays on current issues in arts and humanities in which peoples and cultures compete as well as collaborate in globalizing the world while maintaining their uniqueness as viewed from cross- and inter-disciplinary perspectives. The book covers areas such as literature, cultural studies, archaeology, philosophy, history, language studies, information and literacy studies, and area studies. Asia and the Pacific are the particular regions that the conference focuses on as they have become new centers of knowledge production in arts and humanities and, in the future, seem to be able to grow significantly as a major contributor of culture, science and arts to the globalized world. The book will help shed light on what arts and humanities scholars in Asia and the Pacific have done in terms of research and knowledge development, as well as the new frontiers of research that have been explored and opening up, which can connect the two regions with the rest of the globe

Representations of Iran(ians) in Mainstream European News Sites

What role do media play in promoting or impeding intercultural understanding and international relations in times of conflict? With this question in mind, Leyla's research focuses on Iran's coverage in three mainstream European media during a period marked by tensions at home and abroad. Adopting Critical Discourse Analysis as theory and method, the study examines articles published on selected British, French, and German news sites juxtaposed with their attached comments, with the aim of contributing to scholarly work on cross-national comparative examination of foreign news coverage and 'top-down' Othering in journalistic texts in addition to incorporating an investigation into non-institutional discourse and 'bottom-up' Self/Other representations in comment sections.Welche Rolle spielen die Medien bei der Förderung oder Behinderung der interkulturellen Verständigung und internationalen Beziehungen in Konfliktzeiten? Vor diesem Hintergrund konzentriert sich Leylas Forschung auf die Berichterstattung über den Iran in drei europäischen Mainstream-Medien in einer Zeit, die von Spannungen im In- und Ausland geprägt war. Die Studie übernimmt Kritische Diskursanalyse als Theorie und Praxis und untersucht Artikel, die auf ausgewählten britischen, französischen und deutschen Nachrichtenseiten veröffentlicht wurden, und stellt sie den beigefügten Kommentaren gegenüber, mit dem Ziel, einen Beitrag zu wissenschaftlichen Arbeiten zur grenzüberschreitenden vergleichenden Untersuchung ausländischer Berichterstattung zu leisten und ‚top-down‘ Othering in journalistischen Texten, zusätzlich zur Aufnahme einer Untersuchung des nicht-institutionellen Diskurses und ‚bottom-up‘-Selbst-/Andere-Darstellungen in Kommentarsektionen

Negotiating intersecting forms of oppression : female genital cutting (FGC) and cultural change after migration

Global instabilities, the resulting international displacement and rising inter-cultural tensions within Western societies have relocated gendered cultural practices at the heart of contemporary debates on multiculturalism, social cohesion and migration. In this context, female genital cutting (FGC) has re-emerged as a symbol of savagery, Otherness and global violations of women’s rights. While the increasing attention given to these practices is a testament to reinvigorated feminist activism, FGC has also been harnessed for the purposes of reproducing colonial discourses about the “Third World”, which have been integral to the revival of assimilationist policies and the creation of the “Fortress Europe”. This thesis contributes to new knowledge by illuminating how cultural change and FGC-affected women’s experiences of trauma are shaped by state policies on asylum, migrant incorporation and cultural diversity. In locating inclusion, co-production and power as core issues in both anti-FGC activism and research in this area, I utilised a participatory approach through recruiting a Community Advisory Board made up of FGC-affected women who informed the different stages of the research process. The findings presented in this thesis are based on thematic and narrative analysis of qualitative data from in-depth interviews, focus groups and feminist zine-making with 12 FGC-affected women and 34 participants from communities and organisations working with African and Middle Eastern migrants in Scotland. By tracing migrant women’s experiences of departure, displacement and resettlement, this thesis demonstrates the intersecting social, cultural, political and economic conditions which sustain women’s continuums of violence before and after migration. The findings illustrate how the collision of anti-FGC and anti-immigration discourses creates barriers for women to remake their lives after violence and displacement. I illuminate how these discourses materialise to perpetuate further trauma and to constrain women’s spaces for action to challenge FGC and other forms of gender-based violence within their communities.Global instabilities, the resulting international displacement and rising inter-cultural tensions within Western societies have relocated gendered cultural practices at the heart of contemporary debates on multiculturalism, social cohesion and migration. In this context, female genital cutting (FGC) has re-emerged as a symbol of savagery, Otherness and global violations of women’s rights. While the increasing attention given to these practices is a testament to reinvigorated feminist activism, FGC has also been harnessed for the purposes of reproducing colonial discourses about the “Third World”, which have been integral to the revival of assimilationist policies and the creation of the “Fortress Europe”. This thesis contributes to new knowledge by illuminating how cultural change and FGC-affected women’s experiences of trauma are shaped by state policies on asylum, migrant incorporation and cultural diversity. In locating inclusion, co-production and power as core issues in both anti-FGC activism and research in this area, I utilised a participatory approach through recruiting a Community Advisory Board made up of FGC-affected women who informed the different stages of the research process. The findings presented in this thesis are based on thematic and narrative analysis of qualitative data from in-depth interviews, focus groups and feminist zine-making with 12 FGC-affected women and 34 participants from communities and organisations working with African and Middle Eastern migrants in Scotland. By tracing migrant women’s experiences of departure, displacement and resettlement, this thesis demonstrates the intersecting social, cultural, political and economic conditions which sustain women’s continuums of violence before and after migration. The findings illustrate how the collision of anti-FGC and anti-immigration discourses creates barriers for women to remake their lives after violence and displacement. I illuminate how these discourses materialise to perpetuate further trauma and to constrain women’s spaces for action to challenge FGC and other forms of gender-based violence within their communities

CIMODE 2016: 3º Congresso Internacional de Moda e Design: proceedings

O CIMODE 2016 é o terceiro Congresso Internacional de Moda e Design, a decorrer de 9 a 12 de maio de 2016 na cidade de Buenos Aires, subordinado ao tema : EM--‐TRAMAS. A presente edição é organizada pela Faculdade de Arquitetura, Desenho e Urbanismo da Universidade de Buenos Aires, em conjunto com o Departamento de Engenharia Têxtil da Universidade do Minho e com a ABEPEM – Associação Brasileira de Estudos e Pesquisa em Moda.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Social work in a multilingual world : interpreter-mediated encounters

In the diverse linguistic landscape of England, it is not uncommon for social workers to work with families who possess varying degrees of English language proficiency. Within such families children may speak multiple languages, and have greater English language proficiency than their parents. The study involved two areas of inquiry. The first part of the inquiry included semi-structured interviews with child and family social workers (n=9), to explore their experiences of interpreter–mediated encounters, including the use of children as interpreters. The second part focused on child language brokering (CLB), this refers to young people who translate and interpret for adults who do not share a mutual language. This part of the research took place at a youth centre and involved semi-structured interviews with young people (n=9) to explore their experiences of language brokering for various adults in multiple settings. The research draws on social constructionist theorising to describe and analyse the participants’ experiences of interpreting. Child interpreters were found to be used by social workers as an informal interpreting resource, to compensate for inadequate linguistic provision. The research presents four challenges in social work practice: i) providing adequate interpreting provision for service users with limited English language proficiency; ii) working effectively with interpreters; iii) working with families in which children speak more English than their parents; and iv) protecting children from the perceived harm of interpreting. The findings from the young people illuminate CLB as one activity that enables persons with limited English language proficiency to access services in the community. CLB therefore presents a diverse conceptualisation of interpreting, childhood and intergenerational relations between children and adults. The findings from both datasets illuminate different aspects of interpreting encounters; social workers as recipients of interpreting provision and young people as providers of interpreting. These dual perspectives illuminate a taken-for-granted area of social work practice and social life