Presenter: Dan Le
Mentors: Diane Baxter, Anthropology; David Frank, Honors College
Poster: 41
Major: Anthropology
For immigrants and refugees, the concept of “home” is seldom a concrete definition, as the question of where “home” is – either in the country of origin or the new country, activates a tension in self-identity. For the Palestinian immigration and refugee experience, the longstanding Israeli-Palestinian Conflict produces an even more complex tension. The purpose of this study is to explore this tension in a Palestinian-American context. To do so, the research project focuses on an oral history project about Ibrahim Hamide, a restaurateur and human rights activist in Eugene for the past 30 years. The project involved taking participant observation notes prior to the series of interviews, conducting the interviews themselves, coding the interviews for common themes, and then analyzing the information with other works about the Palestinian/Arab American experience. The primary findings of this study indicate that Orientalism, a term by Edward Said that means the representation of the Middle East in a stereotyped and colonialist manner, has a major influence on the tension of self-identity. For Hamide, this tension leads him to find solace in human rights activism and embrace a more globalized sense of identity, rather than choosing between his two “homes.” The significances of this research are that it serves as documented piece of history for the Eugene community and contributes to the importance of the human rights philosophy.