Contested Belongings: Arab Diasporas and Western Expatriates in the Shadow of Empire

Session Submission Type: Paper Session

Abstract

This panel seeks to examine the fluid and contested nature of identity, belonging, and political engagement among diasporic and expatriate populations across the United States and the Arab world. Contributors examine how various Arab diasporas and Western expatriate communities engage with, respond to, and narrate the impact of war and violence in the Middle East. They engage with the lived experiences of these communities, exploring cultural production, political discourse, and localized responses to questions of power.

The first paper investigates how Western expatriates in Qatar perceived and responded to the U.S. and broader Western reactions to the Gaza war of 2023-2024. Based on qualitative interviews and social media discourse analysis, this study interrogates how Western expatriates reconciled their national identities with their positioning in a Middle Eastern state deeply implicated in the crisis. The paper sheds light on the complexities of diasporic affiliations, examining the tensions between Western governmental narratives, Qatar’s diplomatic posture, and the responses of local and expatriate communities.

The second paper shifts focus to the Syrian diaspora in the United States, exploring how Syrian individuals from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds engage in cultural production as a means of expressing identity and responding to the ongoing conflict in Syria. This paper examines literature, art, music, and digital media produced by Syrian Americans to investigate how these works articulate diasporic belonging, trauma, and political agency. The study considers how cultural output serves as both an act of preservation and a form of resistance, navigating the complex intersections of ethnicity, religion, and national memory within the US context.

The third paper explores the activism and creative work of Sudanese migrant musicians, dancers, and artists, particularly women, who have been affected by war and militarization. Through community-engaged ethnography, it examines how these artists, based in California, use their talents for political action, community education, and creative expression to advocate for peace in Sudan. The study highlights their contributions to social and political justice, coalition building, and collective activism, both in the United States and Sudan. It also discusses strategies for fostering solidarity between Arab and Sudanese migrants, despite challenges like anti-Blackness and unequal global attention. The paper underscores the importance of shared goals and collective freedom in building more just and inclusive communities.

The last paper provides an analysis of the aesthetics of witnessing and grieving in Yemeni American visual art created in response to the US violations of Yemeni lands, lives, and rights. The primary sources of analysis are the mixed-media artworks of Yemeni American female artists Asiya Al-Sharabi’s “Trumperie” (2016-2017), Alia Ali’s “Under Thread” (2019), and Yasmine Diaz’s “Echoes of Invisible Hearts” (2018-2019). Such creative installations, rooted in the politics of refusal, demonstrate how visual art and advocacy intersect to shape narratives, foster consciousness of one’s community struggles, and challenge power structures.

Taken together, these papers offer a nuanced understanding of how diasporic and expatriate communities navigate geopolitical upheaval, producing narratives and cultural responses that challenge dominant discourses on identity, conflict, and intervention. This panel contributes to broader discussions on diaspora politics, cultural memory, and the shifting contours of diasporic identities in US-Arab transnational contexts.

Sub Unit

• Annual Meeting of the American Studies Association

Individual Presentations

• Transcultural Identities: Western Diaspora in the Arab World and Solidaristic Action - Eid Mohamed, Qatar University

• “I loved her / and I want to tell her”: Performing Solidarity & Embodied Identity through Sudanese Women's Dance in California's Afro-Arab Diaspora - Shah Noor Hussein, University of California-Santa Cruz

• Protesting Empire in Yemeni American Visual Art - Waleed F. Mahdi, University of Oklahoma

Chair

• Eid Mohamed, Qatar University

Biographical Information

Eid Mohamed is an assistant professor at the Department of English Literature and Linguistics at the College of Arts and Sciences at Qatar University. He got his PhD from George Washington University in American Studies. Mohamed’s work is located at the crossroads of several areas of inquiry in US-Middle encounters in literary, media and cultural studies. His publications include a sole-authored book on the role of Egyptian cultural and literary producers in mediating critiques of the US power and how one can historicize the Egyptian responses to power as well as the hopes and despairs of the Obama presidency and the Arab Spring (Arab Occidentalism, I.B. Tauris, 2015; and a new paperback edition in 2017). Mohamed has published several articles in academic journals including Journal of Cultural Analytics, New Media and Society, International Journal of Cultural Studies, Journal of Arabic Literature, Journal of Refugee Studies, and Refuge: Canada’s Journal on Refugees.

Helen is a PhD student in Arabic and Islamic Studies at Georgetown University, specializing in literature and literary theory. Helen's work is carried out mainly in comparative terms. She is particularly interested in the dynamics of intellectual transfer across cultural and linguistic barriers, and her work seeks to encourage a rethinking of unmindful reflexes and habits of thought surrounding the Middle East in western academia. Drawing on both classical Arabic sources and contemporary comparative perspectives, she seeks to amplify dismissed voices and narratives and to reintegrate them into mainstream cultural consciousness. Originally from Syria, Helen is positioned at the intersection of Syrian voices in exile and the broader landscape of Middle Eastern politics.

shah noor hussein (they / them) is a writer, educator, and multimedia artist crafting narratives at the nexus of Black feminist thought and Queer diaspora studies. They are a doctoral candidate and Cota-Robles Fellow in the Departments of Anthropology and Critical Race & Ethnic Studies at UC Santa Cruz. shah earned their masters in Anthropology and Social Change with a focus on queer Black feminism, liberatory pedagogy, and media production from California Institute of Integral Studies (2017). shah’s work has been published in numerous anthologies, including a forthcoming collection of Black feminist writing, When We Exhale, alongside the works of Maya Angelou, Sonia Sanchez, and June Jordan. Their academic writing has been published in several peer-reviewed journals as well as two anthologies, The Black Aesthetic Volume II and Color Theory. shah has taught anthropology, ethnic studies, and writing courses and workshops at UC Santa Cruz (2022), Stanford University (2020), Laney College (2019), and UC Berkeley (2018). Their creative and academic development has been supported by grants from the Margaret Mead Journalism Fellowship (2020), Santa Cruz Arts Council (2019), and California Institute of Integral Studies’ Center for Writing & Scholarship (2017). shah’s research illuminates the significance of young women’s cultural remixes through a multimedia study of popular culture in the African diaspora. Through this lens, Sudanese women’s adaptability to shifting political landscapes create contested spaces where national, political agendas can be unsettled, renegotiated, or reinforced. shah’s experimental films have screened nationally and internationally at the Museum of Sonoma County (2022), Association of American Geographers Conference (2022 – 2023), and the Aguas Migrantes Short Film Festival in Mexico (2018). shah’s photography has been featured in galleries, museums, and arts institutions including SOMArts Cultural Center (2020), Alena Museum (2019), and Ashara Ekundayo Gallery (2018). shah's poetry has been published in The Arrow Journal (2023), Fog Lifter Press (2022), LA Review of Books (2020), Umber (2019), and CUNJUH (2017). They have performed their creative writing at the Museum of the African Diaspora (2020 - 2022), Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive (2018), Eastside Arts Alliance (2017).

Waleed F. Mahdi is an associate professor and co-director of Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma. He is a recipient of several national and international awards. His peer-reviewed work appears in top-tiered journals, including American Quarterly, Journal of American Ethnic History, and Journal of Cinema and Media Studies. His recent book, Arab Americans in Film: From Hollywood and Egyptian Stereotypes to Self-Representation (Syracuse University Press, 2020), examines how Arab American belonging is constructed, defined, and redefined across Hollywood, Egyptian, and Arab American cinemas. He also guest-edited special issues and completed a multi-institutional research collaboration with Columbia University, the University of Jordan, and the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. Waleed has been elected President of the Arab American Studies Association for a two-year term (2024-2025).