Online Homelands: Israeli-Persian Identity Between The
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ONLINE HOMELANDS: ISRAELI-PERSIAN IDENTITY BETWEEN THE ONLINE AND THE OFFLINE A Dissertation by AYA YADLIN SEGAL Submitted to the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Chair of Committee, Antonio C. La Pastina Committee Members, Heidi A. Campbell Cara Wallis Mohammad Ayatollahi Tabaar Head of Department, J. Kevin Barge May 2017 Major Subject: Communication Copyright 2017 Aya Yadlin Segal ABSTRACT In this dissertation, I present an ethnographic exploration of how a post-migration community—the Persian community in Israel—constructs its identity. Drawing on cultural and postcolonial theories, I discuss the ways in which the community preserves, negotiates, and resists cultural structures in the Israeli ethnic and national contexts. Through a multi-sited ethnographic exploration, I follow members of the Persian community in Israel, a marginalized ethnic minority, as they construct their national-ethnic identity. Embodying the discord between their two perceived homelands, Israelis of Iranian descent carve themselves an idealized homeland online. In it, they simultaneously resist and re-affirm social structures within and between the two nations and cultures. I focus this exploration on the use of social media, mobile-phone applications, and internet radio for post-migration identity formation. Through this study, I aim to answer a set of questions. Primarily, I attend the question - what is the role of online media platforms in the process of constructing Persian identities in Israel? Some other secondary questions studied in this dissertation are: a) How do community members communicate and articulate the ethnic and national layers of the Persian identity? b) What are the transnational and transcultural aspects of the Persian community and identity as communicated by community members? and c) What is the place of online platforms usage in challenging mainstream notions of ethnicity, nationality, homelands, and host lands? ii Through this dissertation, I develop three concepts that contribute to the discussions of new media, culture, identity, migration, and ethnicity. First, I develop the idea of “lived ethnicity,” portraying ethnicity as an evolving and dynamic rather than a static or given identity marker. Looking at practices of “lived ethnicity” within different minority groups (language, collective memory, cuisine, etc.) can allow us a comparative perspective, discussing similarities and differences within specific societies in different times, or between different societies at the same time. A second concept I coin in this dissertation is “affirmative opposition.” Through this concept, I stress that while some cultural oppositional calls negate negative misconceptions about an oppressed group, they can, in fact, repeat and confirm the social narrative that established the very same oppression. Thus, affirmative opposition is a cultural act that simultaneously opposes and reaffirms existing social structures. The term allows us to critically engage with cultural practices as complex systems of negotiation, looking at the possible oppositional and liberating aspects of oppressive structures, and vice versa, identifying oppressive practices embodied in oppositional acts. Finally, contributing to new media studies, I coin the third term, “online homeland,” which expands previous notions of media usage in diaspora into digital realms. The online homeland is a notional space that allows communities to negotiate identities and cultures, becoming visible as a community away from the oppressing cultural gaze. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation, and the resulting Ph.D. degree, could not have been completed without the following people, to whom I extend my most sincere thanks: First, foremost, and always I thank my spouse, my love and my life, Aner. Without you all of this would not have happened. I am sorry for all the things I have said when I was hungry, tired, grading, stressing over deadlines, and writing this dissertation. This final product is as much yours as it is mine. Second, I thank the participants in this study, and members of the Persian community in Israel overall, for their part in this project. I am also thankful for having such an understanding, encouraging, and supporting family in Israel. Thanks are also given to the best committee ever formed in the history of academia: To my advisor and mentor, Antonio La Pastina. thank you for the guidance and support. The knowledge I gained while working with you extends the confines of this dissertation in so many ways, and will forever guide me inside and outside of my scholarly path. Thanks are extended to Heidi Campbell. You provided me with the best academic socialization a graduate student can ask for. You taught me what hard work and academic productivity really mean. For that I am forever grateful. I also wish to thank Cara Wallis. First, thank you for being a rock star. Second, thank you for showing me that one can be highly critical in her research yet keep a polysemic point of view. This state of mind was instrumental while writing this project. iv A warm thank you is also extended to my fourth committee member, Mohammad Ayatollahi Tabaar, without whom I would not have been able to claim any expertise in the context of Iranian culture and nationality. Thank you. Additionally, I am sincerely grateful for the opportunities to work with and learn from faculty members in the Department of Communication at Texas A&M University. From seminars, through collaborations, to research assistantship, I thank you for all the support during the last four years. Thank you is also extended to the administrative staff in our department. Finally, thank you, my fellow graduate students at the Department of Communication, for the support and friendship. v CONTRIBUTORS AND FUNDING SOURCES This work was supervised by a dissertation committee consisting of Professor Antonio La Pastina [advisor], Professor Heidi Campbell, and Professor Cara Wallis of the Department of Communication at Texas A&M University, and Professor Mohammad Ayatollahi Tabaar of the Department of International Affairs at the Bush School of Texas A&M University. This work was made possible in part by fellowship provided by the STAR program of the College of Liberal Arts in partnership with Office of Graduate and Professional Studies at Texas A&M University. There were no other contributors to research conducted for this dissertation. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................ iv CONTRIBUTORS AND FUNDING SOURCES ........................................................ vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................ vii LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................... x CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION: STUDYING THE PERSIAN COMMUNITY IN ISRAEL .......................................................................................... 1 Contextualizing My Ethnographic Work .......................................................... 5 Iranian Migration to Israel ................................................................................. 6 Media Representation of the Israeli Mizrahi Group ........................................ 12 Structure of the Dissertation ............................................................................ 18 CHAPTER II IDENTITIES, COMMUNITIES, MIGRATION, AND MEDIA .............................................................................................................. 24 Defining Identity ............................................................................................. 26 Collective Identities and Identity Construction ................................... 26 Narratives and Reflexivity in Identity Construction ........................... 33 Migration and Identity Construction ................................................... 35 Constructing Identity via Online Environments .............................................. 37 Situating the Self in Online Communities ....................................................... 42 Marginalized Communities and Media Enclaves ............................................ 45 Approaches to Studying Society and Media Technology ............................... 48 Diasporic Identities between Host Lands and Homelands .............................. 52 Moving the Census, the Map, and the Museum Online .................................. 55 Postcolonial Thought and Identity .................................................................. 60 CHAPTER III THEORY AND APPLICATION OF RESEARCH IN AND OF ONLINE ENVIRONMENTS ................................................................ 66 Qualitative Methods Online ............................................................................ 67 Expanding Ethnographic Research from the Offline to the Online ................ 70 Ethnography of and in Online Environments .................................................. 74 Collecting Data between Online and Offline Spheres .................................... 78 vii Online Ethnography as a Multi Sited Project .................................................. 81 Ethical Considerations for Online