University of Louisville ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository Electronic Theses and Dissertations 5-2005 Survival songs : how refugee and immigrant women experienced violence. Judith C. Heitzman University of Louisville Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.library.louisville.edu/etd Recommended Citation Heitzman, Judith C., "Survival songs : how refugee and immigrant women experienced violence." (2005). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 602. https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/602 This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has retained all other copyrights. For more information, please contact [email protected]. SURVIVAL SONGS: HOW REFUGEE AND IMMIGRANT WOMEN EXPERIENCED VIOLENCE By Judith C, Heitzman, ABD, LCSW B. S., University of Louisville, 1986 MSSW, University of Louisville, 1989 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Louisville In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Social Work Kent School of Social Work University of Louisville Louisville, KY and College of Social Work University of Kentucky Lexington, KY May 14, 2005 SURVIVAL SONGS: HOW REFUGEE AND IMMIGRANT WOMEN EXPERIENCED VIOLENCE By Judith C. Heitzman, ABD, LCSW B.S., University of Louisville, 1986 MSSW, University of Louisville, 1989 A Dissertation Approved on April 14, 2005 By the Following Dissertation Committee: Daniel Wulff, Ph.D., Chairperson Debra Anderson, Ph.D. Bibhuti Sar, Ph.D. Sally St. George, Ph.D. Barbara Wheeler, Ph.D. ii DEDICATION To my husband, Rev. Tony Heitzman whose enduring patience, support and love made this journey possible, To Candida, Jonia, Luna, Mariah, Philamina, Ruth and Zee, who so generously shared their stories of survival for this study, To all persons who assist refugees and immigrants internationally, and To the millions of refugee and immigrant women worldwide who daily respond to suffering with courage and determination. May they find strength and support to survive their ordeals. Judith Cooper Heitzman iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS An undertaking of this magnitude could not have been accomplished without the people who generously shared their time, energy, wisdom, and scholarship. I especially wish to thank: Dr. Dan Wulff, who mentored me through this process with tenacity and levity while enriching my quest for respectful, collaborative scholarship, Dr. Ruth Huber, who encouraged my doctoral studies and prepared me for qualifying exams with tender loving care, Dr. Debra Anderson, who broadened my understanding of qualitative inquiry with women violence survivors, Ms. Norma Niev, who faithfully provided a fun and supportive environment, Dr. Bibhuti Sar, who brought expertise in cultural diversity to my committee, Ms. Jan Spang, whose friendship, insight and support sustained me throughout this doctoral experience, Dr. Sally St. George, whose steadfast editing and optimistic spirit guided me through the qualitative inquiry and writing process, Dr. Barbara Wheeler, whose gracious mentoring and scholarship in the field of music and music therapy broadened the scope of my learning, Dr. Vernon Wiehe, who inspired me to connect the trauma of surviving violence with the restorative properties of music, and iv Dr. Gale Goldberg Wood, who first fostered my appreciation of social constructionism as a means to empower marginalized persons, particularly women violence survivors. v TABLE OF CONTENTS COMMITTEE SIGNATURES....................................................................... ii DEDICATION ……………………………………………………………………. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ……………………………………………………… iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ………………………………………………………... vi ABSTRACT ……………………………………………………………………… xiii CHAPTER 1 – PROBLEM STATEMENT Introduction ……………………………………………………………… 1 The Experience of Violence as a Refugee or Immigrant Woman …. 3 Why Hear Only Women’s Voices? ……………………………………. 4 Can Music Sooth the Pain of Violence? ……………………………. 6 Music as a Coping Mechanism ……………………………………….. 7 Potential Significance of this Study …………………………………… 8 CHAPTER 2 – LITERATURE REVIEW Refugee and Immigrant Women Survivors of Violence …………….. 10 Violence Against Women………………………………………………. 10 Patriarchy and Sexism …………………………………………. 13 Atrocities …………………………………………………………. 15 Sexual violence against women ………………………. 15 Domestic and Community Violence …………………………... 18 Cultural imperialism and colonialism …………………. 20 Suffering and the Effects of Violence ………………………………… 21 vi Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Trauma Recovery ……. 24 Stress and the duration of suffering............................. 27 Grief and Loss Experiences …………………………………… 30 Grief and loss issues faced by women who survive violence. …………………………………………………. 30 Defining grief, loss, and bereavement ……………….. 31 Bereavement and violence …………………………….. 32 Bereavement complications for refugee and immigrant women ……………………………………….. 33 Surviving Violence ……………………………………………………… 34 Pre-trauma Risk and Resiliency ………………………………. 34 Resiliency ………………………………………………………… 36 Storytelling and Survival ……………………………………….. 37 Listening to survivors’ visions …………………………. 38 Transitioning to Another Country as Refugee or Immigrant Women …………………………………………………………… 39 Music and Coping with Stress …………………………………. 44 Music therapy …………………………………………… 48 Music performance ……………………………………... 49 Restorative properties of music ……………………...... 49 Emotional responses to music ………………………… 55 Music and meaning making ……………………………. 57 Music as a universal form of expression ……………… 59 Music, metaphor, and healing………………………….. 59 vii CHAPTER 3 – METHOD Researcher Context …………………………………………………….. 62 Storytelling ……………………………………………………….. 63 Pragmatism …………………………………………………........ 63 Language ………………………………………………………... 64 Patriarchy and language (aka sexism)……………....... 65 Violence against Women …………………………………….... 65 Music and Healing ………………………………………………. 66 A Passion for Justice ………………………………………….... 67 Best Teaching ………………………………………………….... 67 Assumptions …………………………………………................. 68 Description of Method ………………………………………………….. 69 Hermeneutics …………………………………………............... 70 Reflexivity ………………………………………………….......... 72 Triangulation …………………………………………………….. 73 Trustworthiness …………………………………………………. 73 Rigor ……………………………………………………………… 74 Research Design ………………………………………………... 75 Grounded Theory ……………………………………………….. 76 Participants………………………………………………………………. 78 Defining the Participant Population …………………………... 78 Recruiting Participants …………………………………………. 80 Consent Procedures and the Institutional Review Board …... 82 viii Compensation …………………………………………... 83 Data Collection …………………………………………………………... 83 Collecting Field Notes ………………………………………….. 85 Data Analysis ……………………………………………………………. 85 Step-by-step ……………………………………………………... 86 Illustrations of data analysis …………………………… 87 Making sense of the data ………………………………. 89 Peer Reviewer …………………………………………………… 91 Emerging Themes ………………………………………………. 91 Punctuating the Themes ……………………………………….. 92 Character Portraits and a Composite Story ………………….. 94 From Emerging Themes to Evolving Theory ………………… 95 CHAPTER 4 - RESULTS Character Portraits ……………………………………………………… 98 The Participants …………………………………………………. 99 Africa ……………………………………………………………… 99 Ruth ………………………………………………………. 99 Zee ……………………………………………………….. 100 Central America …………………………………………………. 101 Candida ………………………………………………….. 101 Philamina ………………………………………………… 102 Eastern Europe ………………………………………………….. 103 Jonia ……………………………………………………… 104 ix Luna ……………………………………………………… 104 Mariah ……………………………………………………. 105 The Composite Story …………………………………………… 106 Gentle Grit ………………………………………………………………. 106 Life Before the War was Routine and Ordinary ……………… 107 The Brutality of War …………………………………………….. 108 Sexual Violence against Women ……………………………… 111 How Violence affected Family Members ……………………... 114 Escaping the Violence ………………………………………….. 115 The Refugee Camps are no Guarantee of a Harbor Safe Harbor from Danger …………………………………………….. 116 Cultural Taboo of Talking about Sex or Sexual Abuse ……... 118 The intergenerational cycle of violence and conflict … 119 Grief Responses to Losses ……………………………………. 120 Longing for the old country ……………………………. 122 Music and Coping ………………………………………………. 123 Prayer and Coping ……………………………………………… 125 Coming to the USA ……………………………………………… 127 Responses to the World Trade Center bombings …… 129 Lessons Learned ………………………………………………... 130 Feedback from Participants ……………………………………. 131 Feedback from Peer Reviewer ………………………………… 132 My Field Notes …………………………………………………... 133 x Philamina ………………………………………………… 133 Zee ……………………………………………………….. 133 Mariah ……………………………………………………. 133 Candida ………………………………………………….. 134 Jonia ……………………………………………………… 134 Luna ……………………………………………………… 135 Ruth ………………………………………………………. 135 Reflections on the field notes ………………………….. 136 From Emerging Themes to Evolving Theory ………………… 137 Theory evolution process ………………………………. 138 Evolving Theory about Refugee and Immigrant Women …… 139 Evaluating the theory …………………………………… 139 CHAPTER 5 - DISCUSSION 140 Study Overview …………………………………………………………. 143 Grounded Theory, Emerging Themes, and Evolving Theory.. 144 Application of theory criteria …………………………… 145 Findings ………………………………………………………….. 145 The violence …………………………………………….. 145