Yesim Kaptan
"Resilience and Reception: Marginalization of Arab American Identities and Immigrant Integration through Global Media Consumption"
My research focuses on one of the most ostracized groups in the United States, Arab Americans. The Arab American community has historically been marginalized and vilified in the Post-9/11 era and most recently in the Gaza War. By conducting personal interviews with diasporic Arab audiences in Greater Cleveland and California, I investigate how Arab Americans in the diaspora negotiate their traditional (national, pan-Arabic, religious) and newly acquired identities in contemporary American culture. I specifically analyze how Arab migrants use digital and global media to understand their immigrant experiences and cope with discrimination. Arab American immigrants maintain their social and cultural legacy and identities by consuming globally distributed media products that transcend national boundaries such as TV series and movies. Focusing particularly on globally circulating Turkish media products, my research sheds light on the impact and sociocultural function of the global media in the cultural integration process in the age of global digital media. AREI Small Grant will help my current ethnographic research that I am currently conducting with diasporic Arab audiences.