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Belonging With the Lost Boys ALEXANDER PDF

179 Pages·2014·14.79 MB·English
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Belonging With the Lost Boys: The Mobilization of Audiences and Volunteers at a Refugee Community Center in Phoenix, Arizona by Melinda Alexander A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Approved November 2014 by the Graduate Supervisory Committee: Kevin McHugh, Chair Christopher Lukinbeal Cecilia Menjivar Thomas Catlaw ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY December 2014 ABSTRACT In 2001, a refugee group of unaccompanied minors known as the Lost Boys of Sudan began arriving in the United States. Their early years were met with extensive media coverage and scores of well-meaning volunteers in scattered resettlement locations across the country. Their story was told in television news reports, documentary films, and published memoirs. Updates regularly appeared in newsprint media. Scholars have criticized public depictions of refugees as frequently de-politicized, devoid of historical context, and often depicting voiceless masses of humanity rather than individuals with skills and histories (Malkki 1996, Harrell-Bond and Voutira 2007). These representations matter because they are both shaped by and shape what is possible in public discourse and everyday relations. This dissertation research creates an intersection where public representation and everyday practices meet. Through participant observation as a volunteer at a refugee community center in Phoenix, Arizona, this research explores the emotions, social roles and relations that underpin community formation, and investigates the narratives, representations, and performances that local Lost Boys and their publics engage in. I take the assertion that "refugee issues are one privileged site for the study of humanitarian interventions through which 'the international community' constitutes itself " (Malkki 1996: 378) and consider formation of local 'communities of feeling' (Riches and Dawson 1996) in order to offer a critique of humanitarianism as mobilized and enacted around the Lost Boys. i DEDICATION Many South Sudanese tell their stories in the hope that action will be taken to alleviate and prevent future suffering. This dissertation is dedicated in that same hope. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Sincerest thanks to my supervisory committee, my family, and to the community that supported and participated in this research. This research was also supported by funding from the Melvin G. Marcus scholarship for field research through the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning at Arizona State University, and the Margaret Trussell scholarship, through the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES....................................................................................................................................v LIST OF FIGURES.................................................................................................................................vi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ................. ................................................................................................... 1 Research Site.......................................................................................................2 Methods and Data Collection.............................................................................11 Significance ……………………………………………………………………….. 18 2 THE SUDANESE CIVIL WARS AND THE ORIGIN OF THE LOST BOYS ........................ 20 Physical and Cultural Geography......................................................................21 The Sudanese Civil Wars...................................................................................22 The Impact of War on Southern Sudanese Society..........................................26 Oil and Human Rights in Sudan.........................................................................28 Relief Workers Name the Lost Boys..................................................................31 U.S. Involvement in Sudan.................................................................................34 The Current Situation in South Sudan...............................................................41 3 REPRESENTING REFUGEES AND THE MORAL WEBS OF HUMANITARIANISM ....... 42 Representation of Refugees..............................................................................43 Representing the Lost Boys...............................................................................47 Affect, Emotion, and Humanitarian Action.........................................................52 4 EXPANDING THE 'CIRCLE OF THE WE': THE STORY OF THE LOST BOYS OF SUDAN 61 Cultural Trauma..................................................................................................62 Surrounded By a Story: Circulation and Reflection...........................................71 The Lost Boys’ Relationship to Their Own Story...............................................87 In Conclusion......................................................................................................98 iv CHAPTER Page 5 PERFORMING THE LOST BOYS: SOCIAL ROLES, RACE, AND CULTURAL CITIZENSHIP 102 Performative Roles of the Refugee and the Volunteer...................................104 Race as a Product of Social Relations............................................................129 Cultural Citizenship: the Right to Be Different.................................................137 In Conclusion....................................................................................................146 6 CONCLUSIONS: COMMUNITIES OF FEELING .............................................................. 149 The Preconditions to Humanitarianism............................................................151 Communities of Feeling....................................................................................154 The Webs of Humanitarianism Enacted Around the Lost Boys......................161 REFERENCES.................................................................................................................................. 163 v LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Significance of Cattle to the Pastoral Peoples of South Sudan ........................................ 7 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Diing Arok Unpacks New Cows, and Mama Achan Paints Them ............................ 5 2. Chol Deng and Diing Arok Greet Visitors at an Art Fair ............................................ 6 3. Chol Deng Shows a Finished Cow ............................................................................. 6 4. Amguma Deng, Nyakour Kogooa, and Teresa Alal Marino, Founders of So Sudan 9 vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION “Have you heard of the Lost Boys of Sudan?” “Do you think I live in a cave? Of course I know about them!” - Conversation overheard at a public event where the Arizona Lost Boys Center (AZLBC) sent representatives in 2009. This dissertation research is concerned with representation, perception and reception of refugees in the United States; and in particular, with the mobilization of humanitarianism among local publics surrounding the Lost Boys of Sudan1 in Phoenix, Arizona. I posit that the narration of the Lost Boys’ journey is a trauma claim, is part of the process of constructing a cultural trauma, through which suffering is acknowledged, moral responsibility is defined or assigned, and social solidarities are expanded (Alexander 2004). I am interested in the constraints and opportunities afforded to human beings, as social roles are enacted in everyday encounters between Lost Boys and their publics (audiences and volunteers). The label, “Lost Boy” is viewed as a signifier constructed through multiple narratives, projections, representations, and performances. This label grants legitimacy not accessible to other refugees/immigrants because of a particular evocation in the public mind. The story of the Lost Boys is well known to many U.S. audiences; images and records of their past, as well as the weight of expectation for their roles in rebuilding South Sudan, surround them. I suggest that audiences are emotionally and ideologically primed prior to meeting a Lost Boy, much as Massumi (2002a) describes audiences of (former President) Reagan: media representations transmit an incipience, which is actualized through various channels – family, church, school, etc. The interpretive work is done in various community groups. The story of the Lost Boys, as told by media in the U.S., becomes an “American” story, bolstering particular 1 I made an explicit decision to use the name the Lost Boys throughout this dissertation, without the use of quotation marks, to indicate the degree of acceptance with which the community regards and identifies with the name. 1 nationalist myths and ideologies (Robins 2003, McKinnon 2008) and presenting incomplete or erroneous information about the refugees themselves (Willis 2004), while at the same time, reinforcing the semantic authority (Felman 2002) of the Lost Boys and hailing them as heroic survivors of trauma. These critiques of mass media representation provide a starting point for this dissertation. This dissertation research examines representation and subject-making from the bottom- up, illuminating and mapping the multiple positions and communities that emerge as issues regarding immigration, race, and cultural expression meet and intersect in the lives of South Sudanese and their local publics through the everyday remaking of the Lost Boys’ public image. I seek to unravel and trace these understandings through interviews with Lost Boys, audiences, and volunteers, and through evaluation of my own experiences as a volunteer with the Arizona Lost Boys Center (AZLBC, a nonprofit community center in Phoenix). The main and final aim of this research is to offer a critique of the humanitarianism that is enacted around the Lost Boys. RESEARCH SITE Greater Phoenix received more Lost Boys for resettlement than any other city in the United States (History of AZ Lost Boys Center), with 475 Sudanese refugees arriving to Arizona in 2001, according to the Arizona Department of Economic Security. The Arizona Lost Boys Center (AZLBC) was opened in 2003 through the efforts of local volunteers who wanted to assist the Lost Boys, a Leadership Council of South Sudanese, and a grant from the Department of Health and Human Services. When I began volunteering in 2009, the Center was run by a staff of four, nearly all part-time, employees. Between one to three South Sudanese were participating in meetings of the Board of Directors; the remaining, majority of members were local volunteers. The other one or two of the South Sudanese representatives on the Board were Lost Boys from the Leadership Council, a group formed by Lost Boys who are elected by their peers to lead the community. 2

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In 2001, a refugee group of unaccompanied minors known as the Lost Boys of Sudan Their story was told in television news reports, documentary films, and .. United States (History of AZ Lost Boys Center), with 475 Sudanese refugees . of people from South Sudan are also the names that describe.
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