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THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO WAITING ON EMBERS: DURATION, DISPOSSESSION, AND EVERYDAY LIFE AMONG IRAQI MIGRANTS IN JORDAN A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE DIVISION OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY BY ZACHARY D. SHELDON CHICAGO, ILLINOIS AUGUST 2020 This dissertation is dedicated to my grandmother, Dr. Eleanor B. Sheldon. TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures iv List of Tables v Note on Transliteration vi Acknowledgements vii Dissertation Abstract xi INTRODUCTION DURATION, DISPOSSESSION, AND EVERYDAY LIFE 1 CHAPTER ONE VISIBLE ACCUMULATIONS: SEEING IRAQ MIGRANTS IN AMMAN’S LANDSCAPE OF POLITICS 35 CHAPTER TWO PORTENTIOUS STATUSES: TITLE TO MOBILITY AND THE FRAGMENTING OF AN IRAQI FUTURE 80 CHAPTER THREE AMBIVALENT DIVERSIONS: CONTRADICTIONS OF AN ATTENUATED PRESENT 121 CHAPTER FOUR RENDERED TRANSACTIONS: ALIENATION IN A RESTAURANT KITCHEN 163 CONCLUSION 207 RESITUATING THE DISPLACED Bibliography 212 iii LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE 1. Locations of polling stations and Le Royal Hotel in Amman. 60 FIGURE 2. A tourist map marked to show polling stations, the location of Le Royal, and an approximation of the East-West boundary. 61 FIGURE 3. Iraqis in Jordan: Visions, Impressions, and Stories by Safwat Fahim Kamil. 65 FIGURE 4. Le Royal’s golden lamassu watches over a BMW sedan and a diplomat’s SUV. 69 FIGURE 5. The IHEC announces itself in the lobby of Le Royal. 71 FIGURE 6. Le Royal lit up red for Valentine’s Day. 73 FIGURE 7. Working with meat. 165 FIGURE 8. The fiery tanoor oven. 187 FIGURE 9. A dish of masgoof fish prepared for the bosses’ guests. 200 iv LIST OF TABLES TABLE 1. Present continuous actions in English and Iraqi Arabic. 133 TABLE 2. Present continuous and past completed actions in English and Iraqi Arabic. 134 v NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION I have transliterated Arabic words using the International Journal of Middle East Studies system as a base, omitting diacritical marks except for ‘ayn (‘) and hamza (’). To transliterate the Baghdadi-Iraqi Arabic spoken by many of my interlocuters, I have added the dialect-specific consonants gaf (g), cha (ch), and zhay (zh). vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation emerged over the course of eight years and many trips between Chicago and Amman, during which time I was fortunate to receive tremendous support from many remarkable people. Above all, I thank the men and women who appear in this dissertation. Everything in these pages flowed from their patience, hospitality, and generosity. I am especially indebted to Aya Al- Wahab, Waleed Al-Zaydi, Muhammad Al-Dulaymi, Muhammad Al-Taranaweh, and Hassanayn al-Shareef for being my guides to the city of Amman during different parts of my fieldwork, to “the ribs” for making my stay so much fun, to Hatim George and Layla Piot for their care and conversation, to Ayyad Abbas, who knows everyone, thinks about everything, and still has plenty of love, kindness, and curiosity to spare, and to Fatima Al-Rawi and Samawi Al-Helli, for their help in getting this project off the ground. Special gratitude is owed to those who helped me convalesce through the frequent bouts of illness I experienced in the field. This research was supported by the National Science Foundation, the Foreign Language and Area Studies Program, the Fulbright Program, the American Center of Oriental Research, and the University of Chicago. None of these grants would have come together without the diligent attention of Anne Chien, the hardest working person in Haskell Hall. Being welcomed into Amman’s many remarkable intellectual communities taught me so much about what it means to be a scholar. I am deeply grateful to Nora Akawi, Jawad Dukhan and the rest of the Columbia University Global Center – Amman, Studio-X, and the Sijjal Institute staff for their enthusiastic support in convening the Janet Abu-Lughod Library seminars, through which I was privileged to meet an exceptional group of researchers, practitioners, and creatives. I thank Barbara Porter for sustaining a flourishing home for inquiry at the American Center of Oriental Research, along with Sara, Jack, Susan, and the rest of the staff who offered me such a vii hospitable environment during my residence. Maryam Ababsa, Geraldine Chatelard, and their colleagues at Institute Français du Proche-Orient provided me with many insights into the workings of Amman’s economy and society through their scholarship and in our conversations. Lucine Taminian of the American Academic Research Institute in Iraq offered invaluable guidance at the earliest and most difficult stage of my fieldwork. Ayad Abbas’ generous introductions to the Thursday Talks group and to lectures at the Orfali Gallery let me glimpse the luminous realm of Iraqi intellectuals and expanded my perspective beyond measure. I am also grateful to Carol Palmer for inviting me to lecture at the British Research Library. This work grew leaps and bounds through conversations with many other scholars of Jordan and of Iraq whom I was lucky to get to know before, during, and after my fieldwork, among them Allison Hartnett, Bridget Guarasci, Halah Fateh, Hayder Al-Mohammad, Katharina Lenner, Khairy Makhzoomi, Lillian Frost, Luigi Achilli, Mahmood Ayasra, Melissa Gattar, Omar Sirri, Safwat Fahim Kamil, Sara Pursely, Steven Schaff, Yazan Doughan, Zainab Saleh, and Zaid Issam. Adjusting to life after fieldwork wasn’t easy, but I had a lot of help. I’m especially grateful to Uday, for opening his home and his heart, Mallory, for being my crack-of-dawn swimming and complaining buddy, Marco, for getting me out to the movies, and Kerem, for making me laugh. I thank my fellow workers at Graduate Students United and my socialist comrades in the Chicago DSA Labor Branch, who taught me that politics isn’t what you do for work, it’s what you do in the workplace. For Hazal, I could never write enough, except to say that I never thought I’d meet someone like you in a place like this, but I’m beyond happy that I did. The ideas in this dissertation were worked out through participation in numerous conferences and workshops. The impetus behind chapter one emerged at the 2016 Middle East Studies Association panel on “Everyday Specters of (Dis)Order in Jordan”, and was further viii developed at the 2019 “Contemporary Amman and the Right to the City” conference, arranged by Studio-X Amman and the IFPO. An early sketch of what would become chapters two and three was presented, workshopped, and published through the 2017 Project on Middle East Political Science roundtable on “Refugees and Migration Movements in the Middle East.” A rough outline of what would become the dissertation’s central argument was shared at the 2018 American Anthropological Association panel on “Nationalism and its Adaptations in an Era of Mass Displacement.” Sections of each chapter received comments over the course of the 2018-2019 UChicago Urban Fellows biweekly workshop. A condensed version of the fourth chapter was presented at the 2019 American Anthropological Association panel on “Publics and Labor: Value and Everyday Sociality in the Middle East.” The section of the introduction that deals with extending Hana Batatu’s class analysis was first shared at the 2019 “Beyond Turmoil and Conflict: Iraq since 2003” graduate student roundtable. A first draft of chapter three received invaluable criticism at a 2020 meeting of the “Historical Capitalisms and Social Theory” workshop at the University of Chicago. I am grateful to the organizers, discussants, co-participants, and attendees of these events, and thank all those who contributed such worthwhile criticisms and helpful suggestions. Over eight years in Chicago’s Anthropology department, I have enjoyed some truly mind- expanding relationships with faculty mentors. Among my committee members, I thank Hussein Agrama for teaching me about the importance of contradiction to thought, and for showing me how to teach a seminar with style and grace; Julie Chu, for always treating me like a peer and for giving me the best advice I’ve ever gotten about who to read, how to write, or what to do next too many times to count; John Kelly, whose irrepressible intellectual effervescence is a sacred spring amid the great desiccation that is the corporate university; and Orit Bashkin, for opening so many ix doors to the past and present of Iraq Studies and for exemplifying the best aspects of professorial collegiality. I thank James Fernandez, the “fifth man” of the committee, for his friendship, his humanity, and for developing the best theory of culture I’ve ever come across. In addition, many thanks are due to Stephan Palmier for his generous readings of my work, and Ghenwa Hayak, for her adroit contributions to my proposal hearing and defense. Although we mostly talked about New York City when we were together, the late Nancy Munn’s contributions to this dissertation cannot be over-stated. I greatly wish I could have presented her with the finished work that grew out of the proposal on which she so thoughtfully commented. This project drove home the importance of family, and I have been beyond blessed in that regard. Mom, your intellectual curiosity and your unwavering commitment to care for those who need it most make you forever my role-model. Dad, your tales and legends set me on this path, and your visits to Jordan turned Amman into my true second home. In a family full of curious and clever people, I want to make special mention of my grandmother, Dr. Eleanor B. Sheldon, to whom I dedicate this work and who showed me the way to the life of the mind. x ABSTRACT Waiting on Embers: Duration, Dispossession, and Everyday Life among Iraqi Migrants in Jordan My dissertation explores how Iraqi migrants in Jordan confront obstacles to the ongoing viability of their form of life following war and displacement.
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