Doctoral Dissertation Research: Youth Activism in Post-Conflict Societies

斯坦福大学博士生Yasemin Ipek Can将在Sylvia Yanagisako博士的指导下，对冲突后社会的公共空间和青年行动主义进行研究。这项研究将在黎巴嫩进行，那里最近出现了青年（青年党）激进主义。她将研究黎巴嫩青年党的流行和动态概念，青年党既是控制公共空间的社会代理人，也是黎巴嫩身份的代表。关注青年行动主义提供了一个独特的视角来理解内战后宗派两极分化背景下的日常争论、焦虑和对未来的预期。Ipek Can将在贝鲁特进行为期12个月的实地工作，在那里她将研究两个多宗派社区的日常青年社会互动。她的研究方法将传统的民族志方法与语言人类学和社会网络分析相结合，以记录年轻人之间互动的各种动态。对年轻居民的生活史访谈、参与观察他们的家庭环境、日常聚会和对话，以及分析他们使用社交媒体的情况，将得到社交网络分析的支持。这项研究还包括对州政府官员、地方官员和以青年为基础的非政府组织的半结构化访谈，以及对其出版材料的内容分析。该项目将是一个开创性的民族志，将冲突后社会中青年的身份和归属感的情感和时间维度理论化。这项研究的结果也将增加黎巴嫩学者、黎巴嫩政府、当地以青年为基础的非政府组织、关注青年的跨国组织，以及研究青年、宗派主义、冲突解决、日常公众、情感、暂时性和语言在日常社会互动中的作用的学者之间的合作。资助这项研究也支持了研究生的教育。

Stanford University doctoral student Yasemin Ipek Can, supervised by Dr. Sylvia Yanagisako, will undertake research on public space and youth activism in post-conflict societies. The research will be conducted in Lebanon where there has been a recent valorization of youth (shabaab) activism. She will study the popular and dynamic notion of shabaab in Lebanon both as a social agent that claims control over the public space and as representative of Lebanese identity. Focusing on youth activism offers a unique lens for understanding everyday contestations, anxieties, and anticipations of the future in the context of post-civil war sectarian polarization.Ipek Can will conduct 12 months of fieldwork in Beirut where she will examine everyday youth social interaction in two multi-sectarian neighborhoods. Her methodology will combine traditional ethnographic methods with insights from linguistic anthropology and social network analysis in order to document the diverse dynamics of interaction among young people. Life history interviews with young residents, participant observation of their family settings, everyday gatherings and conversations, and analysis of their use of social media will be supported with social network analysis. This research also entails semi-structured interviews with state officials, local governors and youth-based NGOs, as well as content analyses of their published materials. This project will be a pioneering ethnography for theorizing the affective and temporal dimensions of identity and belonging among youth in post-conflict societies. The findings of this research will also increase collaboration among Lebanese scholars, Lebanese government, local youth-based NGOs, transnational organizations focusing on youth, and scholars studying youth, sectarianism, conflict-resolution, everyday publics, affect, temporality and the role of language in everyday social interaction. Funding this research also supports the education of a graduate student.