Marginalised Southern Iraqi Dances: Politics & Production in the 1980s

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I aim to conduct an ethnographic and historical project examining the folkloric industry in Iraq as a tool for upholding nation-state narratives in the 1980s. As an entry point, I aim to look at marginalised dance forms in southern Iraq which are especially stratified along gendered, classed, racial and ethnic lines.Although there is a lack of official archives around marginalised dance forms in Iraq, YouTube holds a vast collection of "unofficial" archives of theatre troupes and dance gatherings dating back to the 80s when there was a heavier investment in preserving Iraqi folkloric dances, locally and regionally. Nevertheless, the dances were often sanitised of their marginalised roots.My interests also lie in these visual/archival forms of documentation. I aim to trace the various identity and power dynamics that stratify these different forms of representation and look at structures being reproduced or perhaps dismantled.