Intercultural communication, creative practice and embodied activisms: arts-based interculturality in the Maghreb

ABSTRACT

Grounded by a theoretical framework of art and interculturality, critical intercultural communication, and performance studies, this study analyses women's intercultural arts-based practice and performance in the North African Maghreb region. We examine how creative practice is employed in constructing cultural identity, peaceful political resistance, and decolonisation of Maghrebi citizens and nations. We analyse how Maghrebi creative practice transcends linguistic, social, and political boundaries, offering possibilities for profound intercultural exchange. We also examine how creative practice allows re/envisioning cultural identities through music, dance and theatrical work, and developing diverse embodied, performative communities of feminist practice both within and outside the Maghreb.

تحلل هذه الدراسة، التي تستند على إطار نظري للفن والتعدد الثقافي، التواصل النقدي بين الثقافات، ودراسات الفنون التمثيلية الممارسات الفنية متعددة الثقافات بين النساء في منطقة المغرب العربي بشمال أفريقيا. ويبحث المقال في كيفية توظيف الممارسات الخلاقة في بناء الهوية الثقافية، المقاومة السياسية السلمية، وإنهاء إستعمار البلدان و الشعوب المغاربية. نحلل كيف تتجاوز الممارسة الإبداعية المغاربية الحدود اللغوية والاجتماعية والسياسية، وهو ما من شأنه أن يوفر إحتمالات التبادل العميق بين الثقافات. كما ندرس كيف أن الممارسة الإبداعية تسمح بإعادة/تصور الهويات الثقافية من خلال الموسيقى والرقص والعمل المسرحي، وتطوير مجتمعات مجسدة ومؤدية مختلفة من الممارسات النسوية داخل المغرب وخارجه.

Fondée sur un cadre théorique de l'art et de l'interculturalité, de la communication interculturelle critique et des études de performance, cette étude analyse la pratique et la performance interculturelles des femmes basées sur les arts dans la région du Maghreb nord-africain. Il examine comment la pratique créative est employée dans la construction de l'identité culturelle, la résistance politique pacifique et la décolonisation des citoyens et des nations maghrébins. Nous analysons comment la pratique créative maghrébine transcende les frontières linguistiques, sociales et politiques, offrant des possibilités d'échanges interculturels profonds. Nous examinons également comment la pratique créative permet de ré/envisager les identités culturelles à travers la musique, la danse et le travail théâtral, et de développer diverses communautés de pratique féministe, incarnées et performatives à l'intérieur et à l'extérieur du Maghreb.

KEYWORDS:

• Embodied activism
• identity
• interculturality
• North African Maghreb region
• music
• performance studies

Acknowledgements

Lara Martin Lengel expresses appreciation to Fulbright Program and the American Institute of Maghreb Studies for funding foundational field research that grounds this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Author order is alphabetical indicating equal contribution.

2 For work on a Bakhtinian perspectives for “creative understanding as an alternative strategy for the study of intercultural communication, see Min (2001).”

3 Intersectional performances involve a blending of embodied and categorical attributes, such as gender, class, and race, as a means of exploring how systemic oppressions impact individuals and bodies simultaneously within the ‘matrix of domination' (Collins, 1990/2009, p. 299) that illustrates the interconnected news of multiple biases and morning standards within society. Intersectional performances highlight the impacts of these simultaneous, yet all individually significant oppressions and status markers.

4 For work on FEMEN's hyper/visible embodied activism in the Maghreb see Newsom et al., 2018; Colpean, 2020; Eileraas, 2014; Khrebtan-Hörhager & Kononenko, 2015; Mesbah, 2020.

5 Bhabha’s ‘third space' has been widely employed in critical language and intercultural communication studies (See Banerjee & Baker, 2019; Chang & Chang, 2018), but less so in African (Kalua, 2009) and studies centred in the Maghreb or Mashriq (Khan, 1998).

6 Like Chrifi Alaoui (2014), we, too, problematise the term ‘Arab Spring.' For more on the beginning of the events of Thawrat al-karāmah [ثورة الكرامة; Revolution for Dignity], see Lengel and Newsom (2014).

7 For an analysis of the affective resonance of audiences in the performing arts, see Pais (2012).

8 See Bellil (2017) for extensive work on Tamaziɣt or Tamazight, the indigenous language of the Imazighen (plural of ‘Amazigh' or ‘free people), and decolonising language policy, Aïtel (2014) for cultural identity, Silverstein (2013) for Amazigh activism, and Bigi (2002) for transnational dimensions of Amazigh activism.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lara Martin Lengel

Lara Martin Lengel, Ph.D. began her research on transnational gender and media studies as a Fulbright Research Scholar and American Institute of Maghreb Studies Fellow in the North African nation of Tunisia (1993–1994). Her refereed research appears as lead articles in Text and Performance Quarterly, Convergence and Journal of Communication Inquiry and in numerous other journals including, among others, Communication Studies, Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, French Journal of Media Research, International Journal of Communication, Studies in Symbolic Interaction, International Journal of Health Communication, Gender & History, International and Intercultural Communication Annual, Feminist Media Studies, and International Journal of Women’s Studies. Her edited volumes include Casting Gender: Women and Performance in Global Contexts (with J.T. Warren), and Intercultural Communication and Creative Practice: Music, Dance, and Women’s Cultural Identity. Along with her Fulbright Research and American Institute of Maghreb Studies Fellowships, she and colleagues have been awarded nearly $500,000 in highly competitive federal grants, from the Fulbright-Hayes programme, U.S. Department of State Middle East Partnership programme and U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. She has served on several national and international review and selection boards for Fulbright, Higher Education for Development, USAID, and the Social Science Research Council.

Meriem Mechehoud

Meriem Mechehoud, M.A. engages in interdisciplinary research centres on public and cultural diplomacy, political and civic engagement, and the role of civil society in democratic processes in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Her research is informed by a Georgetown University Certificate in Leadership, Civic Activism and Citizenship, funded by the Middle East Partnership Initiative. Meriem completed a Bachelor of Arts degree with focus on women in politics and multicultural pedagogy in post-colonial contexts, at La Faculté des Lettres, Sciences Humaines et Sociales, Laboratoire Langues et Texts, and Le Centre de Réseaux et Systèmes d’Information et de Communication et de Télé-enseignement, l’Université Badji Mokhtar, Annaba, Algeria, where she also co-founded and collaboratively lead a language and cultural club. Meriem’s service leadership record includes serving as a Volunteer English Teacher of middle school students at Rouad El Ghad Languages Centre in Skikda, Algeria, and serving on the Graduate Student Senate, a Board Member of the Graduate Women Caucus, and a Board Member of the Muslim Student Association at Bowling Green State University, where she is currently a Ph.D. student and Graduate Teaching Associate. Her research refereed work, among others, on fandom culture in the Muslim world, presented at the PCA/ACA national conference in New Orleans, argues that MENA popular and other cultural texts and practices are consistently dismissed as insignificant by researchers and mainstream discourses both within and outside the region.

Victoria A. Newsom

Victoria Ann Newsom, Ph.D. is a Professor of Communication Studies and affiliate faculty in Social Justice and Diversity at Olympic College in Bremerton, Washington. Her research centres on the negotiation of gender, power and identity in communication and performative contexts. Her current projects include work in media activism, peace studies, Islamophobia studies, post-colonial feminism(s), performative pedagogies, fan and media studies and cultural studies-grounded analyses of transnational policy making. She has published articles in, among others, International Journal of Communication, Studies in Symbolic Interaction, Global Media Journal, Communication Studies, Communication Yearbook, Journal of International Women's Studies, Feminist Media Studies, iMex: México Interdisciplinario / Interdisciplinary Mexico, French Journal for Media Research and Women & Language. Her books include Embodied Activisms: Performative Expressions of Political and Social Action (2022) and Contained Empowerment: The Liminal Nature of Contemporary Feminisms and Activisms (in press). Dr. Newsom’s current research and activist interests focus on the preservation of human rights and human dignity, and the intersection of post-truth media and consumerism. Victoria is also particularly dedicated to curriculum and pedagogy development and assessment in the areas of digital and critical literacies.