Deconstructing the Concept of Colorism in the Maghreb: Tuareg Representation in Algerian Standardized School Textbooks

• In Event: Sunday Roundtable Session 1:15 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Transformations Across Curriculum, Language, and Culture (Table 16)

Abstract

Given the research gap on the theorization of race and ethnicity in the Maghreb region (Dixon & Telles, 2017; Gross-Wyrtzen, 2022; Meziane, 2020) and guided by the concept of colorism (Walker, 1982; Banks, 2000; Hunter, 2005), this study focuses on the representation of Algerian Tuareg ethnic minority. It seeks to offer a picture of how ‘color-based discrimination’ (Keith & Monroe, 2016) is depicted in both the linguistic and visual structures of Algerian junior high standardized school textbooks. The study uses data collected from a multimodal critical discourse analysis of four English as a Foreign Language textbooks. The findings suggest that the content affirms the ‘local Otherness’ of Algerian Tuareg ethnic minority through three different strategies: deagentialization, folklorization and disempowerment.

Author

• Fadhila Hadjeris, University of California - Los Angeles