Shaking the Ground: Intersections of Cultural Trauma, Collective Memory, and Resilience in Assyrian Popular Music and DanceSyriaca.org: The Syriac Reference PortalThe National Endowment for the HumanitiesThe International Balzan Prize FoundationDavid A. Michelsoncbsc_adminRecord added to Zotero bycbsc_adminSyriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portalhttp://syriaca.org/cbss/XXJT67CB/tei
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CREATED: This bibl record was autogenerated from a Zotero record.NadiaYounanShaking the Ground: Intersections of Cultural Trauma, Collective Memory, and Resilience in Assyrian Popular Music and Dancehttp://syriaca.org/cbss/XXJT67CBhttps://www.zotero.org/groups/a_comprehensive_bibliography_on_syriac_studies/items/XXJT67CBhttps://www.zotero.org/groups/4861694/items/XXJT67CB2023This dissertation is a study of the interstices between cultural trauma and collective memory in diasporic Assyrian popular music and dance expressions. An ethnic and religious minority from the converging borders of Syria, Turkey, Iraq, and Iran, the Assyrians have experienced repeated persecution resulting in forced migration and refugee flight, most recently with the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in 2014. The majority of Assyrians now live in diaspora, with significant communities in North America, Europe, and Australia. Focusing on the North American diaspora, this research examines how shared trauma and memory form the foundation of an imagined Assyrian nation and collective consciousness. Contributing to scholarship on forced migration, refugee flight, and community formation in diaspora, this dissertation draws from primary source data gathered through multi-sited, ethnographic fieldwork in the cities and surrounding areas of Toronto, Ontario; Chicago, Illinois; San Jose, California; and Scottsdale, Arizona.
This study aims to discern the nuances of how people maintain integrity and produce, or reproduce, cultural identity in the wake of destructive forces. How have music and dance been used to communicate the (hi)story of Assyrians, with its absence in state histories, scholarly literature, and mainstream media? When physical place is not tenable as the foundation for group identity, why – and with what understandings – do Assyrians in diaspora turn to music and dance as sites for expressing or contesting collective identities? How can the expressive culture of the Assyrian community (re)place or (re)build what has been lost, and what purposes do music and dance serve for (re)constructing collectively imagined identity under circumstances of mass dispersal and displacement? Through the analysis of (1) Assyrian popular songs, (2) semi-formal interviews and participant-observation at community events, and (3) dance as embodied knowledge, my research demonstrates how migration and resettlement can bring a resolve for Assyrians to survive, celebrating or competing through cultural practices that express emergent Assyrian identities in and across their new lifeworlds.
Younan, Nadia. “Shaking the Ground: Intersections of Cultural Trauma, Collective Memory, and Resilience in Assyrian Popular Music and Dance.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Toronto, 2023.
Nadia Younan, Shaking the Ground: Intersections of Cultural Trauma, Collective Memory, and Resilience in Assyrian Popular Music and Dance (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Toronto, 2023).