Conceptualizations of the SELF in the MENA Region Webinar Series
Organized by the MENA working group and EDUCATE Committee
Webinar 1: Patterns of Independence and Interdependence in Mediterranean Societies: Comparative and Within-Region Perspectives
Presenter: Professor Ayşe K. Üskül, University of Sussex, UK
Date: January 24th
In this webinar, Professor Ayşe will present recent findings pointing to a distinct emphasis on several forms of independence (relative intensity of disengaging [vs. engaging] emotions, happiness based on disengaging [vs. engaging] emotions, dispositional [vs. situational] attribution style, self-construal as different from others, self-directed, self-reliant, self-expressive, and consistent) and interdependence (closeness to in-group [vs. out-group] members, self-construal as connected and committed to close others) in the MENA region compared to more commonly studied East Asian and Anglo-Western cultural groups as well as other subregions of the Mediterranean. She will discuss this unique pattern in light of the importance of “honor” values in these societies, which require individuals to develop and protect a sense of their personal self-worth and their social reputation through assertiveness, competitiveness, and retaliation in the face of threats. These findings extend previous insights into patterns of cultural orientation beyond commonly examined East–West comparisons to an understudied world region. In addition, she will share a within-region analysis of self-construal social orientation, and cognitive style to examine the role of ethnic, linguistic, national, religious and socio-ecological factors in similarities and differences between subregional groups.
Presenter Biography
Uskul is a social and cultural psychologist interested in the role of cultural and socio-ecological context in self-related, interpersonal and social cognitive processes. She completed her degrees at Bogazici University in Istanbul, Turkey (B.A.), Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, the Netherlands (M.A.), and York University, Toronto, Canada (Ph.D.) and held a SSHRC-funded Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor between 2004 and 2006. She held academic positions at the University of Essex, Queen's University Belfast, and University of Kent before joining the University of Sussex in 2022. Her past research on socio-economic basis of interdependence, cultural conceptions of honour, and culture and health behaviour change received funding from the British Academy, the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Economic and Social Research Council, the Leverhulme Trust, and Japanese Society of the Promotion of Science, among others. Her current comparative research on the role of honour in social interactional processes is funded by a European Research Council Consolidator Grant (www.honorlogic.org). She is Co-Chief Editor of the European Review of Social Psychology and the President of the Psychology Section of the British Science Association.
Webinar 2: Who is the Subject; What is the Nature of the Subject: Reflections on Conceptual Troubles
Presenter: Distinguished Research Professor Emerita, Suad Joseph, University of California, Davis, USA
Date: February 21st
In this webinar, Dr. Joseph will discuss how who is the “subject” and what is the nature of the “subject,” are not a focus of much scholarship on the Middle East. Most research on the region presumes that the nature of the who/what of the subject is known, understood, given, and accepted. This talk chronicles decades of troubling the concept of the “subject.” She will outline a bundle of concepts she has developed to make sense of what she has observed and experienced as subjects and subjectivity in Lebanon and other Arab countries. The basket of concepts includes the “kin contract,” the “care/control paradigm,” “relational rights,” “relational desire,” “relational intentionality,” “idiomatic kinship,” “political familism.” Woven together, these concepts work to make sense of, as well as support, what she has called the “relational/connective self,” and what she has called “patriarchal connectivity.” Underlying the rationale for how these concepts intersect is a reckoning with the operations of categorical thinking and its hazards.
Presenter Biography
Suad Joseph is Distinguished Research Professor Emerita at the University of California, Davis. She is the founder and founding president of the Middle East Section of the American Anthropological Association, founder and founding president of the Association for Middle East Women's Studies (AMEWS) and founder/director of the Arab Families Working Group. She founded and directed the University of California Davis Arab Region Consortium. She was president of the Middle East Studies Association of North America in 2010-2011. She is co-founder and founding president of the Arab American Studies Association and co-founder of the Association for Middle East Anthropology and the Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies. She is General Editor of the prize-winning Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures. She has edited or co-edited 12 books, and published over 100 articles in journals and books, most recently Reporting Islam: Muslim Women in the New York Times, 1979-2011 (2023); Handbook of Middle East Women (2023); The Politics of Engaged Gender Research in the Arab Region: Feminist Fieldwork and the Production of Knowledge (2021); the award-winning Arab American Women: Representation and Refusal (2021). She is the founder and founding director of the Middle East/South Asia Studies Program at UC Davis; co-founder of the UCD Feminist Research Institute. She was awarded the UC Davis Prize – the largest undergraduate teaching and research prize in the United States; the Middle East Studies Association Jere L. Bacharach Lifetime Service Award in 2019; the Association for Middle East Women’s Studies and the Arab American Studies Association lifetime service awards. In 2024, she was awarded the University of California systemwide Constantine Panunzio Distinguished Emerita Award. Her research on her native Lebanon focuses on gender and citizenship, the state, family, children and youth, trauma, and the cultural politics of selfhood. She currently is the primary investigator for multi-university collaborative projects on gendering STEM education, refugee mental health, and mapping the production of knowledge on women and gender in the Arab region.
Webinar 3: The Concept of the Individual, Islam and the “Cultural Schizophrenia”
Presenter: Professor Fereshteh Ahmadi, Sweden
Date: March 21st
In this webinar, Dr. Fereshteh will describe identity as a multifaceted concept that encompasses how individuals perceive themselves and how others perceive them. It includes personal characteristics and group affiliations, balancing internal self-view and external perceptions. Self-identity involves recognizing unique traits that distinguish oneself from others while identifying with group characteristics. This blend of individual distinctiveness and shared traits reflects one's unique values and history. Culture reinforces collective identity and individual self-awareness. Participating in cultural practices, helps individuals connect with their cultural heritage and strengthens their sense of self within the cultural context. Additionally, cultural narratives and stories, including myths, legends, and historical accounts, provide individuals with a sense of continuity and belonging. These stories often highlight the values and ideals of the culture, offering models for personal behavior and identity.
In this lecture, proceeding from the approach that culture plays a crucial role in constructing and reconstructing both the individual self and collective identity, she will discuss the tendency toward self-refutation in Muslim identity and the emphasis on collective identity. She will explore how Islam has developed a spiritual mechanism to eliminate the distance between humans and God, and thus between humans and the universe, aiming to transcend to the true self or the Universal Self. This principle does not align with the development of the idea of caring for the individual self. The concept of the individual self is a cornerstone of modern thought and democracy. When modernity and democracy were introduced to the Islamic world through colonization and imperialistic subjugation, countries where the idea of individuality had not evolved naturally experienced an identity crisis, or more accurately, a “cultural schizophrenia” – with “schizfrenis” being a term used in sociology for “identity crisis”. To deal with this problem, which has disrupted these countries and their cultural and moral compasses, various political movements, inspired by different ideologies—Muslim and others—have tried to save their people and culture, or rather to correct their moral compass. However, such movements are often exploited by both Western and internal political powers. As a result, now, we face a very difficult and disastrous situation in the Middle East.
Presenter Biography
Fereshteh Ahmadi earned her Ph.D. in Sociology from Uppsala University, where she later advanced to the position of Associate Professor. She currently holds the esteemed role of Full Professor of Sociology at the Faculty of Health and Occupational Studies at the University of Gävle, Sweden. Her academic journey has been driven by a profound interest in philosophy, leading to a dedicated exploration of existential questions. In addition to studying Islamic feminism and pursuing her Ph.D. from a philosophical perspective, she has conducted several studies on gerontology, examining them through the lens of existential inquiry. Since 2000, her research has focused on existential questions with a particular emphasis on meaning-making and coping strategies. She oversees an international project spanning eleven countries and has been managing a national study on migration since 2012. Her extensive research portfolio includes both quantitative and qualitative studies on meaning-making coping among diverse groups, such as cancer survivors and bereaved parents. She also led an international study on coping strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic. With a prolific record, she has authored more than 50 books and peer-reviewed articles. Her work emphasizes secular existential coping strategies, such as nature-based approaches. Her dedication to unraveling the complexities of coping mechanisms has made a substantial contribution to the academic discourse in this field.
Webinar 4: Round Table Discussion
Moderator: Associate Professor Eva Heim, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Date: March 28th
In this last webinar, which will be held in the format of a round table discussion, the three speakers of the previous three webinars will discuss key concepts of the self in the Middle East and Northern African (MENA) region. We will highlight common themes and differences across the three presentations and discuss these in light of recent literature from the field of cultural psychology. From this literature, we know that the socio-cultural context and the self mutually constitute each other. The three presentations will feature core aspects of the socio-cultural context in the MENA region, such as values, religion, geopolitics, gender roles, among others. We will discuss how these aspects may shape the understanding and experiencing of the self in the MENA region, and how people contribute to political and societal change. We will also address the issue of ongoing violence, armed conflict, and trauma, which are essential for understanding “the self” in this region. A core group of discussants will be present across the four webinars, to bring in their perspectives from the field, which will enrich our insights and discussions.
Moderator Biography
Eva Heim, PhD, is associate professor for cultural clinical psychology at University of Lausanne, Switzerland. She graduated in clinical psychology at the University of Bern and conducted the fieldwork for her PhD in Bolivia. From 2015-2021, she was the co-leader of the working group cultural clinical psychology at University of Zurich. Her research focuses on cultural concepts of distress, cultural adaptation of psychological interventions, and mental health related stigma. She coordinated a WHO trial to test a mobile-based intervention in Lebanon, in close collaboration with the Lebanese National Mental Health Programme. Her current research focuses on cultural and structural aspects in the diagnosis and treatment of complex post-traumatic stress disorder among refugee populations in Switzerland.