Institutional Scholarship :: Browsing by Author "Saleh, Zainab"

Browsing by Author "Saleh, Zainab"

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A Testament to Resistance and Radical Care: Nonprofit Sanctuaries for Migrants and Refugees
(2018) Kennedy, Callie; Saleh, Zainab
Historically and especially in the past year under the Trump administration, the United States government has advanced anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies that marginalize, fracture, and harm migrant communities. This project explores the responses of two multi-service provider organizations to state-initiated structural violence against immigrants, which primarily take the form of offering services and care designed to uplift and meet the needs of immigrants whose access to such services is unjustly restricted. I conducted fieldwork at Caminar Juntos’ after-school program as a weekly tutor over the course of two semesters, as well as at Santuario during a week that I spent volunteering with the organization. Through participant observation, interviews, and ethnographic readings of the media these organizations put forth, I explore how these NGOs disrupt the inferior citizenship that brown and black migrants in this country are relegated to, which is based on a hegemonic framing of citizenship that is heavily racialized and classed. I argue that Caminar Juntos and Santuario resist the United States’ anti-immigrant stance by practicing holistic health care, upholding a global citizenship rooted in migrant justice, and cultivating sanctuary from the climate of violence that migrants in this country are subjected to.
A Transformative Escape: Stories of Black Womanhood Negotiated in the Dance Studio
(2017) Spencer, Angelique M.; Saleh, Zainab
For my thesis, I aimed at using stories collected in interviews with four Black American women who have had experience in ballet and maintain their commitment to ballet at varying degrees in nonprofessional and professional aspects. I juxtaposed these stories against a backdrop of ballet as being an historically white, Eurocentric, traditional dance that has emulated certain ideals that are rarely attainable and tends to reproduce methods of exclusion that larger institutions have practiced in dividing people and resources based on race and gender. The goal here was to see how the four women experienced ballet, how it is a part of their identities, and why they continue their commitment to it at varying extents despite the exclusionary practices that are commonly found in elite ballet dance schools.
Aiding the Epidemic: The effects of PrEP, PEP, and TasP on the Historical Stigmatization of HIV and AIDS
(2017) Orta Portillo, Gilbert; Saleh, Zainab; Roebuck, Christopher
Since their formal recognition in the 1980’s, both HIV and AIDS have had a global impact on many aspects of life. The unknown nature of HIV led to a social and cultural marginalization of individuals with either condition that was built upon fear and anxiety. Biologically, two fronts were presented: first, both challenged our confidence and reliance on antibiotics as HIV and AIDS, cannot be currently cured with them, creating a technological race to be able to eliminate both; the other front is the opposite, both set a standard in comparing other diseases or infections to the grand scale of the HIV and AIDS epidemic. Fortunately, now in 2017, medical advancements have been made in treating and prolonging the lives of people living with either HIV or AIDS and people who may be potentially exposed to HIV. New antiretroviral medications have been developed to help prevent exposure and may even eliminate the virus after exposure to HIV. While the HIV and AIDS epidemic may not be as biologically lethal as it once was, its social ramifications remain in society, and now the question that remains is will new antiretroviral medication help change and replace society’s past and present stigmatization of affected individuals with one of empathy and understanding? Through a historical analysis of social and cultural stigma around HIV and AIDS within the LGBT community, this thesis will observe whether there has been a shift in how stigma is perceived with the introduction of new antiretroviral medications, such as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), and Treatment as Prevention (TasP). While it will acknowledge both homosexual and heterosexual means of transmission, this thesis will specifically focus on how stigma has affected the LGBT community. The foundation of this thesis will focus on literature and media, within the United States of America, during the 1980’s, which is the time that HIV and AIDS came to be recognized and feared. To trace this timeline, modern representations from the 2000’s and 2010’s will be used to present a shift in the understanding of the nature of both HIV and AIDS. The modern forms of representation will include media, personal interviews and films. Through this thesis, by no means, shape or form, is it a critique on individuals living with HIV or AIDS. This thesis does also not attempt to present a definite answer as to how to end the stigma towards individuals living with either HIV or AIDS, but it aims to allow the reader to know how society and culture gave influenced one’s opinion. This is key as it highlights how not much is done for the resilience towards stigma, even though medicine attempts to highlight achievements primarily through a biological perspective. I chose to undergo this because I believe that there has been a primary focus on the biological effect of both HIV and AIDS, which is by no means a negative factor; however, I wish to bring awareness that I believe have changed from when HIV and AIDS first appeared. I have also chosen to focus on this topic, as I believe, it is still a taboo subject even with the advancements that have been made. In bringing awareness to this topic, it is my goal that any reader may learn to recognize the impact that HIV and AIDS have had on interpreting how medicine is perceived and how people may be reduced to a body that is simply characterized by its biological attributes. In reminding others about the history of HIV and AIDS and tracing how each have been perceived, which is by no means an easy task, and I do hope this work is built upon in future generations, each respective, yet intertwined history emphasizes how medicine and society are interdisciplinary factors that can help change the biomedical model.
“Aquí está mi corazón” Learning Race and Performing Citizenship: Narratives of Undocumented Mothers and a Non-Profit Organization
(2017) Coren, Freda; Saleh, Zainab
This last year has been filled with nativist and anti-immigrant sentiments that place immigrants, especially undocumented, non-white immigrants, in diametric opposition to the white, male, wealthy American citizen. This project explores the ways in which an East Coast city’s undocumented Mexican community performs citizenship and seeks belonging as racialized, “illegal” subjects. Furthermore, I investigate the ways in which a health and education non-profit fits into a larger discourse about biopower, control, citizenship, and belonging. Over the course of ten months, I conducted fieldwork at the summer camp and after-school program run by the non-profit Caminos de Fortaleza, which supports this largely undocumented Mexican and Latino population. Using Michel Foucault’s theory of biopower and state control, I demonstrate how Caminos de Fortaleza works within and outside of these power structures in order to shape the lives of those people it serves. In addition to months of observational fieldwork as a tutor with Caminos de Fortaleza, I also interviewed four undocumented mothers who utilize its services in order to explore the emotional and personal facet of biopolitical projects. Through these interviews, this project demonstrates the ways in which immigrants learn how to be American and how to be citizens. I pay particular attention to the ways in which racial logics and structures have shaped these women’s experiences in both Mexico and the United States, and the pervasive ways in which race is linked to citizenship and belonging in the United States. Ultimately, their experiences show how various actors and stakeholders deftly maneuver the malleable and permeable category of citizenship.
Busy Work, Bad Blood, Test Scores & Tenure How and Why New York State’s APPR Policy Reform is Found Ineffective by Educators
(2018) Anderson, Emily; Saleh, Zainab
In a rural area of Upstate New York, public educators are infuriated with the state of their profession. Many aspects of creative and thoughtful instruction have been abolished through public education reform. Beginning with President Ronald Reagan’s “A Nation at Risk,” political attempts to increase the quality of public education have resulting in a commodification of learning. This thesis analyses New York State’s Annual Professional Performance Review policy reform, adopted in 2012, as a result of historical trends towards incorporating neoliberal ideologies into public education. Specifically, I engage with the teachers and administrators being pushed into a system in which they become uniform producers and collectors of data. Although the goal of APPR is to increase the quality of learning and student achievement in New York State, educators are the target of the policy reform, and that has led to significant impacts on their occupation. Through a historical lens of state and national level education policy, this thesis documents the 4 main ways APPR has affected 8 educators in Upstate New York: as an excess consumption of time; as a subjective process of evaluation; as an inaccurate use of student achievement scores; and lastly, as an excuse for unjust teacher termination.
Deconstructing the Health and Cancer Narratives from Mexican-American Women in the Gonzalez Family
(2014) Gomez, Pita; Saleh, Zainab
Mexican-American women navigate themselves as individuals with bi-cultural identities in the United States. As they become more acculturated, they search for a balance between the lessons learned in their upbringing and their surroundings in America. Even now that a generation has settled, Mexican-American families collectively experience a chronic illness that a single family member pathologically suffers from. Arthur Kleinman's three components of illness, including the narrative, experience, and meanings, strongly inform this paper. In a similar way, I examine how the women I interviewed reflect on both their health and illness experiences. The interview asks about how they perceive their own health, their experience with cancer, the use of diagnostic tools, and common cancer screening processes, including genetic screening assessments, which is specifically important to the Gonzalez family. I argue that both health and illness experiences empower family members to take more preventive health measures for themselves, even if they are not pathologically suffering from a disease. However, I also argue that health and illness narratives can inform the clinical experience and should be respected as so. The narratives from the more acculturated Mexican-American women I interviewed revealed their perceptions on: barriers to being healthy, sentiments towards cancer, gender roles, their approaches to the clinical space, and the relationship they have with medical providers. It is important for health officials to pay closer attention to these determinants that specifically affect these more acculturated Mexican-American women, rather than other determinants such as costs, health insurance, and language barriers, which were not indicative barriers for these women. It would allow health officials to gain insight on how more acculturated women perceive their own health and best practices for preventive measures.
Does 'x' Mark The Spot?: Negotiating Filipino/a/x Identities Online in the Philippines and the Diaspora
(2022) Benitez, Nuria Inez; Saleh, Zainab; Lillehaugen, Brook Danielle, 1976-
This thesis studies the different contexts behind and understandings of the term "Filipinx", which is intended to be a gender-inclusive alternative to "Filipino" but is now a controversial topic that is largely divided along diasporic/homeland lines. In this paper I uncover underlying tensions between Filipino(/a/x)s from the Philippines and from the diaspora, which lie in the vastly different contexts and lived experiences that people from the diaspora and the homeland have, all attempting to fit under the same identity term/s. In particular, Filipino/a/x Americans (Fil-Ams), who grew up and live in the United States, tend to use and support the term "Filipinx", seeing it as empowering and a show of solidarity (or identification) with the LGBT+ community and other marginalized communities in the US. By contrast, people in the Philippines tend to consider "Filipino" to be already gender-neutral and see "Filipinx" as a way to further impose the Western binary—and thus see it as a form of colonization. Through an analysis of online Twitter conversations and two interviews, I tease out the various definitions and connotations of "Filipinx" and show that "Filipinx" indexes a specific (educated, activist) Fil-Am experience. I argue that the tensions that have risen around this word are due to the desire among Fil-Ams for a sense of belonging and identity that is being denied by those in the homeland, at odds with the resentment Filipinos from the Philippines feel towards those perceive to be more privileged than them and who are assumed to represent them, but end up doing so inaccurately (and, to some, in a colonizing way).
Does ‘x’ Mark The Spot?: Negotiating Filipino/a/x Identities Online in the Philippines and the Diaspora
(2022) Benitez, Nuria Inez; Saleh, Zainab; Lillehaugen, Brook
This thesis studies the different contexts behind and understandings of the term “Filipinx”, which is intended to be a gender-inclusive alternative to “Filipino” but is now a controversial topic that is largely divided along diasporic/homeland lines. In this paper I uncover underlying tensions between Filipino(/a/x)s from the Philippines and from the diaspora, which lie in the vastly different contexts and lived experiences that people from the diaspora and the homeland have, all attempting to fit under the same identity term/s. In particular, Filipino/a/x Americans (Fil-Ams), who grew up and live in the United States, tend to use and support the term “Filipinx”, seeing it as empowering and a show of solidarity (or identification) with the LGBT+ community and other marginalized communities in the US. By contrast, people in the Philippines tend to consider “Filipino” to be already gender-neutral and see “Filipinx” as a way to further impose the Western binary—and thus see it as a form of colonization. Through an analysis of online Twitter conversations and two interviews, I tease out the various definitions and connotations of “Filipinx” and show that “Filipinx” indexes a specific (educated, activist) Fil-Am experience. I argue that the tensions that have risen around this word are due to the desire among Fil-Ams for a sense of belonging and identity that is being denied by those in the homeland, at odds with the resentment Filipinos from the Philippines feel towards those perceive to be more privileged than them and who are assumed to represent them, but end up doing so inaccurately (and, to some, in a colonizing way).
Facets of Faith: Sadaqa as a motivator for self-advancement and community development in North Philadelphia
(2014) Dhanani, Hiba; Saleh, Zainab
Over the past few years, Philadelphia has sustained budget cuts, which threaten the social and economic welfare of many individuals in the region. Baabun Nasr is an Islamic charity which strives to alleviate burdens faced by impoverished individuals in North Philadelphia. Over a six week period, I conducted field work at the site of the charity through participant observation and interviews with the women who staff Baabun Nasr. In this thesis, I examine how the women at Baabun Nasr use the Islamic value of sadaqa as a means of motivation for their community work and personal spiritual growth. In order to demonstrate how their choice to convert to Islam was informed by a racial context, I draw upon history of Islam in America, and notable African American Muslim communities. Furthermore, I investigate many facets of identity that the women chose to adopt when describing themselves and their work to me and the greater community. The women at Baabun Nasr are community activists who are committed to the impoverished local community, and in addressing the needs of this community shatter stereotypes of Muslim women and African American women alike. By being forthright about their work and beliefs they educate individuals about why they believe being a Muslim and a community activist are inseparable. By studying these women and the charity, I hope to share the stories of these Muslim American Women, a pertinent voice to hear in a post 9/11 United States.
Facilitating Mavett Shalom: Reform Judaism at the End-of-Life and After Death in Westchester County, New York
(2022) Bernstein, Samantha; Saleh, Zainab
Many people turn to religion when they are forced to face the realities of death and dying. Even individuals who have maintained a casual or agnostic relationship with religion throughout their lives may participate in this phenomenon and turn to religious authority and community at these times. The current study aims to better understand the reasons why Reform Jews in Westchester County, New York may take advantage of explicitly Jewish resources as they approach their own deaths or cope with the loss of a loved one. Through in-depth, semi-structured, ethnographic interviews conducted with rabbis and social workers, this project provides perspective into the important ways that religious affiliation can facilitate more meaningful and less stressful deaths and mourning processes. By providing community, direction, and identity, Reform Judaism is able to operate in a simultaneously complementary and contradictory way to the hegemonic death practices common in the United States of America, providing what the medical model of death does not.
Gentrification and Education: Modern Day Segregation in Strawberry Mansion
(2019) Lukez, Steph; Saleh, Zainab
Segregation and racism have systematically existed in the United States for hundreds of years. Today, though there have been strides taken in alleviating these inequalities, they manifest themselves in new ways. In Strawberry Mansion, Philadelphia, African Americans are undergoing modern day segregation that arrived in unexpected ways. Through the introduction of charter schools and increased interest in educational advancement from outsiders, Strawberry Mansion is experiencing gentrification. While rent prices are increasing and leaving the impoverished at risk of becoming homeless, school attendance is dropping and local public schools are in threat of being shut down. This thesis works to reveal the underlying factors at play that had led to the harsh displacement of families, and neglect of children’s ability to access education.
Museums and Civic Engagement: Can Museums Atone for What They’ve Done?
(2018) Nguyen, Nhi; Saleh, Zainab
Historically museums have been centers of constructed knowledge where one could go and learn about some sort of “other.” At its very beginning, museums were colonialist in their pursuits to learn about the exotic other, crafting their own narrative on who these people were and feeding that to their own country’s public. With this in mind, I set out to see whether or not museums could work on ways to fight against their own colonial underpinnings and create a space that is inclusive and works for the community it is centered in. I believe that by working with their communities, museums could work towards being an institution that does social good. Through conversations with 4 different organizations and through the perusal of different academic and social texts, I uncovered that museums, and organizations similar, are working towards doing harm reduction work in hopes of mitigating some of the damage that is constant in both the colonial structures of museums but also the damage due to different social and political aspects of today’s world.
Nostalgia, the Specter of Ideals, and the Fall of the USSR: A View from the United States
(2014) Bralla, Connor; Saleh, Zainab; Bain, Sharon
This thesis attempts to interrogate questions of nostalgia, asking how former citizens of the USSR remember the collapse of the Soviet Union as well as state discourse put forth by the Soviet regime. I ask how people perceive this discourse "which was intended to describe the socio-political reality of the Soviet Union and justify the actions of the state" as well as how they perceive the ideals that stand behind this discourse. Finally, I consider what these perceptions can reveal about the presence or absence of nostalgia for the Soviet period. In order to investigate these questions, I conducted interviews with a number of people who were born in the USSR and who moved to the United States at some point in the '90s, focusing on memories of the school system as well as of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. My thesis concludes that those whom I interviewed are relatively unnostalgic for this period of their lives, in some cases being quite glad to be rid of it, in other cases accepting the bad with the good and moving on.
Sex (Work), Drugs, and HIV/AIDS: Narrating Agency in Bali
(2012) Zelnick, Jennifer A.; Saleh, Zainab; Ngwane, Zolani
This paper explores the ways in which ODHA (Orang Dengan HIV/AIDS, or individuals living with HIV/AIDS) in Bali negotiate agency. I argue that institutionalized inequalities produce a dominant and dominating discourse or “master narrative” on HIV/AIDS that systematically (re)inscribes ODHA as immoral, liminal, and deviant. I seek to explore the ways in which these individuals simultaneously accept and reject stigma, structural violence, symbolic violence, and the master narrative as a means of understanding, interpreting, and negotiating their own agency. Building upon existing relevant literature on the Anthropology of HIV/AIDS in Indonesia and my own ethnographic experiences in Bali during the summer of 2011, I will employ social theory in order to examine the underlying causes of such inequalities, and how individuals both accept and challenge these conditions.
The Embodiment of Football: Women Football Players' Perceptions of the FIFA Hijab Ban and the 2016 U17 FIFA Women's World Cup
(2021) Eifrig, Saede C. A.; Saleh, Zainab
The close temporal proximity of the FIFA hijab ban and 2016 U17 Women's World Cup in Jordan played a significant, but under-researched role in the development of women's football in Jordan. The 2016 World Cup was both the first major FIFA tournament hosted in the Middle East and the first time the hijab was permitted, "and more importantly welcomed, at a major FIFA tournament". This research aims to trace the embodiment of power and social relations through women's football in Jordan. It centers narrative accounts from five female athletes and a film director and analyzes textual and visual sources to better understand the impact of the FIFA hijab ban and the 2016 U17 Women's World Cup hosted in Jordan on the embodiment of social relations and power in football. I argue that football is not just a matter of exercise, but a matter of social relations and relations of power. In part because of its popularity, but also due to its adaptability and relatability, football offers itself as an ideal framework for studying complex social, class, and political relations, self-expression, and self-discovery. This thesis illustrates the complex and heterogeneous identities of women's football players in Jordan and their relationships with players, coaches, and family, and explores how they navigate a sense of self within transnational politics, online discourse, class, gender, and national identity. The research further dives into the intricacies of representation, agency, and opportunity for women footballers in Jordan. Specifically, I strive to capture the relationality between these Jordanian women through their perceptions of self and other and am guided by post-colonial, decolonial, and transnational feminist theory and inspired by Edward Said's "Orientalism".
The Yellow Piece of the Mosaic: The Racialization of Asian American Students at the Nation’s Most Diverse High School
(2016) Feng, Jessica; Saleh, Zainab
Mosaic High School, named the most diverse in 2015, subtlety upholds two problematic stereotypes of Asian Americans thus impacting diversity and inclusion at Mosaic and beyond. Racialized as the forever foreigner, Asian Americans serve as justification that inclusivity efforts are ineffective. Racialized as the model minority, Asian Americans are the perfect “victim” of affirmative action. This lack of diversity and inclusion is overall harmful, but it specifically leaves Asian Americans with narrow comparative frames of reference thus upholding toxic “success frames”.
‘This is How the Rest of Your Life Should Look’: Young Women’s Intimate Engagements with HBO’s Girls
(2013) Larsen, Kirsten; Saleh, Zainab
My thesis explores the intimate engagement of young women with the popular HBO television show Girls. While the show emerged amidst a storm of controversy and critiques, my subjects found that Girls spoke to their lives and experiences. Watching the show and engaging with it critically and intimately allowed them to articulate the experiences, fears, anxieties, and desires of their own lives as they saw a reflection on screen. I merged my ethnographic work with these young women with the larger popular and critical discourses and interpretations about Girls online within news and entertainment media, as the reality of millennial daily life is constantly mediated by the internet. Looking at how these young women interpreted, questioned, and struggled with Girls at this particular “postfeminist” moment, we are reminded that individuals are embedded with particular social fields and dominant ideologies. In examining the struggle with Girls we gain a more nuanced understanding of how these young women engage with television, and what they want from it.
Thoughts on the Sense of Belonging in Granada: The Alhambra and the Ayuntamiento as Sites of Belonging
(2021) Mora, Natalia; Saleh, Zainab
The reign of the Muslim empire of Al-Andalus in the Iberian Peninsula, which started in 711, ended in 1492 with the Reconquista ofthe city of Granada by the Catholic Monarchs. Today Granada's tourism is central to its economy and culture and the Alhambra, the old Muslim city of the Alhambra, is a large component. Research has often put the Alhambra and its history in conversation with the Jewish quarters of the city, however, I will explore how it is that the Alhambra and the Ayuntamiento, Granada's city hall, affects Granada's citizens' sense of belonging. I will look at the process of empadronamiento, which occurs as a way to reach a sense of belonging in the city and compare it to other non-legal processes which allow for the same feeling. This will be put in conversation with the Alhambra's historical position as well as its tourism. By looking at the Alhambra, and Granada's tourism, I will explore how much of Spain's Muslim past is truly celebrated. The celebration of Spain's Muslim past will also be seen through the lens of convivencia which assumed coexistence despite race or religion. Through these conversations and the words of my interlocutors' words I will attempt to answer the question of how the Ayuntamiento and the Alhambra impact Granada's residents' sense of belonging.
Yesh Breira/There is an Alternative: Towards the Development of Anti-Zionist Jewish Community
(2023) Sloan, Jared; Saleh, Zainab
We are in the midst of a generational shift in Jewish attitudes towards Israel, with one of the largest waves of young Jews since prior to the 1967 war either distancing themselves from Israel or rejecting it entirely. Despite this shift, the overwhelming majority of American Jewish institutions are still explicitly Zionist, often in ways that are openly hostile to non-Zionist beliefs. My research enters into this generational gap, seeking to understand the ways in which Jewish non-Zionist young adults navigate their desire for Jewish community and political commitments to Palestinian liberation. As current college students and recent graduates, many of these individuals have newfound opportunities to take control over their Jewish identities and particularly the communities and modes of practice they choose to engage with. Taking inspiration from prior scholarship by anti-Zionist Jews, particularly Atalia Omer’s Days of Awe, as well as work in critical theory, I explore the delinking of Judaism and Zionism that my interlocutors embody, and the forms of Jewish practice that can emerge. Centrally, I argue that while they separate Judaism from inherent support for Zionism and the Israeli state, most of them feel called to fight for Palestinian liberation not in spite of their Judaism but because of it. Through a mixture of intentional communities, ritual practice, and political activism (while blurring the boundaries between all three) young non-Zionist Jews are powerfully articulating a different way to be Jewish that is grounded in solidarity and justice.

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