Memories of Home: Reading the Bedouin In Arab American Literature

In an urban neighborhood with a large Jewish population near my home, there is an Arabic restaurant. Name, menu and ownership mark its ethnic identification, yet its politics are otherwise obscured. An American flag, permanently placed in the restaurant\u27s window since 9/11, greets American customers with a message of reconciliation. I am one of you, it says: come; eat; you are welcome here. In a climate where Arabs, Arab-Americans and people with Middle Eastern features, everywhere are struggling to merely survive the United States\u27 aggressive drive to \u27bring democracy to the Middle East\u27 (Elia 160) and where the hostility toward Arab Americans is manifest in covert othering and aggressive acts of surveillance, detainment and bodily harm, the steady bustle of my neighborhood eatery is of consequence

In Passing: Arab American Poetry and the Politics of Race

Racial passing has a long history in America. In fact, there are manifold reasons for passing, not the least of which is to reap benefits-social, economic and legal-routinely denied to people of color. Passing is conventionally understood to be a volitional act that either situationally or permanently allows members of marginalized groups to assimilate into a privileged culture. While it could be argued that those who choose to pass are, in a sense, race traitors, betraying familial, historical and cultural ties to personhood,1 Wald provides another way of reading passing, or crossing the line, as a practice that emerges from subjects\u27 desires to control the terms of their racial definition, rather than be subject to the definitions of white supremacy (6). She further contends that racial distinction, itself, is a basis of racial oppression and exploitation (6)

Maternal Mental Health and Mindfulness

Mental health problems result in disease and disability (Afifi 385). When looking at the data across cultures, women are more likely to report mental health symptoms, access available supports, and receive treatment for mental health disorders (Lesesne and Kennedy 755). Research on maternal health has suggested that “the burden of mental health disorders peak in the child bearing and midlife periods” (Lesesne and Kennedy 756). Biology is often implicated in this presumed psychological vulnerability, given that throughout a woman’s life, she experiences pronounced hormone-driven cycles, including menstruation, pregnancy, a postpartum period, and menopause. However, even after exhaustive studies exploring a number of sex-related variables, there is a lack of consensus regarding the significance hormones have in influencing women’s mental health challenges (Hendrick et al. 93; Schiller et al. 49). Some scholars contend that the focus on biology and hormones are an easy way to discount the negative experiences that disproportionately affect girls and women. Discrimination, poverty, sexism, abuse, exploitation, and caregiving burdens work to undermine women’s mental health. Women’s mental health should, therefore, be understood by evaluating all aspects of women’s lived experiences—physical, sociocultural, economic, and interpersonal. Informed by the diathesis-stress model, this article reconsiders the social, political, and economic stress that adversely affects women’s wellbeing. Specifically, this article posits that Buddhist-derived interventions, such as mindfulness, can fortify and empower women. Evidence from neurobiology provides a meaningful framework supporting this approach to health and wellness

Pregnancy Reclaimed: Art Therapy as Intervention for Depression and Anxiety

Depression and related mental health disorders are common during pregnancy and the postpartum. Despite cautions against the use of psychotropic medication during pregnancy, many physicians continue to use medication as a frontline treatment. A number of theories have been put forth in an attempt to explain mental health struggles during pregnancy, yet there is inconclusive evidence that hormones or other physiological changes during pregnancy precipitate this occurrence. Instead, it is theorized that sociocultural factors are at the root of female struggle during pregnancy and into the postpartum. Women find themselves in a culture that sexualizes, commodifies, and medicalizes pregnancy then capriciously and callously evaluates and criticizes the postpregnancy recovery. For these reasons, art therapy is perfectly positioned to support the depression and anxiety symptoms experienced by women during pregnancy. If women during pregnancy are allowed opportunities to use the expressive arts for wellness, it is anticipated that this means of coping will carry over to the period of the postpartum and beyond