Doctoral Dissertation Research: Reproductive Subjectivity in the Context of Displacement

人类普遍的生殖过程充满了不同的宗教，社会和文化意义。围绕生育决策的互动、协商和争论是民族志数据的丰富来源，这些数据涉及到最亲密的经验方面，不仅涉及性别角色、婚姻、家庭和亲属关系，而且涉及到自我、人格和意义的基本概念。因此，研究生殖揭示了许多基本的文化模型和解释框架，个人使用这些模型和框架来定义什么是美好的生活，并为之奋斗。关于战争和流离失所的社会科学研究表明，这些经验如何改变文化框架，个人通过这些文化框架来解释和改造他们的世界，形成新的主体性，或培养新的欲望。这个项目，培养研究生在严格的数据收集和分析的科学方法，探索人类经验的两个领域的具体交叉点：几乎普遍的繁殖经验和日益普遍的流离失所状况。摩根·查尔米耶在圣地亚哥加州大学的托马斯·科索达斯博士的监督下，将探讨在流离失所的情况下哪些因素影响生殖做法。有充分的证据表明，流离失所会破坏促进生殖生活并使之有意义的社会和家庭网络，从而影响生殖体验。但其他研究表明，流离失所可能对生育模式产生矛盾的影响，因为不稳定性会产生重建亲属关系和社交网络的愿望。为了了解不稳定性如何塑造主观性，该项目考察了叙利亚流离失所的背景，自2011年内战开始以来，已有550万叙利亚人逃离祖国，现在作为难民生活。该项目探讨了叙利亚妇女如何调和创伤和暴力历史与人类在被破坏的生活中创造新意义的必要性的主体间过程。超过12个月的民族志和以人为本，定性访谈实地工作与流离失所的叙利亚家庭生活在约旦，这个项目将询问生殖的愿望和做法是如何重塑流离失所的背景。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The universal human process of reproduction is imbued with diverse religious, social, and cultural meanings. The interactions, negotiations, and contestations that surround reproductive decisions are a rich source of ethnographic data that speaks to the most intimate aspects of experience, not only in terms of gender roles, marriage, family, and kinship but also in relation to foundational notions of self, personhood, and meaning. Studying reproduction thus reveals many of the fundamental cultural models and interpretive frameworks that individuals use to define what constitutes a good life and strive towards it. Social scientific research on war and displacement has shown how these experiences can transform the cultural frameworks through which individuals interpret and remake their worlds, form novel subjectivities, or cultivate new desires. This project, which trains a graduate student in scientific methods of rigorous data collection and analysis, explores a specific intersection of two domains of human experience: the nearly universal experience of reproduction and the increasingly widespread condition of displacement.Morgen Chalmiers, under the supervision of Dr. Thomas Csordas of the University of California at San Diego, will explore what factors influence reproductive practices in the context of displacement. It has been well documented that displacement can influence the reproductive experience by disrupting the social and familial networks through which reproductive life is facilitated and made meaningful. But other research has shown that displacement can have a paradoxical effect on fertility patterns, as precarity creates a desire to rebuild kinship and social networks. In seeking to understand in what ways precarity may shape subjectivity, this project examines the context of Syrian displacement, where since the civil war began in 2011, five and a half million Syrians have fled their home country and are now living as refugees. This project explores the intersubjective processes through which Syrian women reconcile histories of trauma and violence with the human imperative to create new meaning in disrupted lives. Over 12 months of ethnographic and person-centered, qualitative interviews fieldwork with displaced Syrian families living in Jordan, this project will ask how reproductive desires and practices are reshaped by the context of displacement. Research at such a junction reveals the creative ways in which individuals cope with the challenges of displacement despite loss and adversity.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.