I am an Interdisciplinary Sociologist with a B.Sc. in Psychology & Sociology, an M.A. in Criminology, and an LL.M. in transitional justice. During time off from my SJD, I completed a Postdoctorate in Politics, Philosophy, and Religion. This interdisciplinary background reflects my diverse interests and an unconventional, non-linear academic career. I like to see this diverse background as a strength, as it provides a kaleidoscopic perspective that aims to understand individuals, systems, and societies. Interdisciplinary work is always refreshing. As the late Maryam Mirzakhani said, "There are lots of tools, and you don't know which one would work. It's about being optimistic and trying to connect things." Using such an approach, I use interdisciplinary methods to study state-society relations in Iraq and beyond to centre and amplify voices on the ground in public discourse, analysis, and policy. This is important to me as an Iraqi, because Iraqi voices have been marginalised in policy and analysis for over 20 years. It is time to reclaim Iraqi narratives and decolonise Iraq research.
Research
My portfolio dissertation examines the study of state sovereignty and how the post-2003 Iraqi context invites a new examination of the concept. As it discusses how popular sovereignty and voices fit into the study and understanding of state sovereignty, this dissertation adopts a socio-legal outlook to the subject. My primary research question asks, ‘How can sociological methods of inquiry, such as Digital Sociology, assist in the study of post-2003 Iraqi state sovereignty?’ This dissertation hypothesises that, by allowing us to survey public opinions on social media and other platforms, Digital Sociology should open a window for researchers to public discourse and mobilisation surrounding state and popular sovereignty. It also hypothesises that sociological methods for analysing epistemic sovereignties and violence can showcase people’s desires to be heard and for their agency to shape representative governance. Each of the portfolio dissertation chapters thus implements Digital Sociology as a methodology.
One dissertation chapter explores how one can reconcile competing notions of sovereignty within the context of the 2019 Tishreen Movement and the dynamics between officially recognised Iraqi statehood and popular sovereignty. While ‘Tishreeni’ protestors fought for their idea of state sovereignty on the streets, the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) fought for state sovereignty in the war on ISIS. Both claim to centre Iraqi interests but have clashed since 2019. Social constructionism postulates that a universalised and restrictive definition of governance-based state sovereignty would gloss over the very practices vital to the identity construction of a society and a state. This chapter combines social constructionism, discourse analysis, and digital sociology. Studying virtual interactions between ‘Tishreeni’ activists and PMF affiliates, as well as their interactions around contentious legislations, will shed some light on this research. This research will help us better understand how sovereignty and agency are accounted for within the Tishreen Movement and the PMF in Iraq.
Another chapter of my portfolio dissertation explores how discourse around soft and military external intervention in relation to Iraqi sovereignty has evolved since 2003. Since the US invasion of Iraq, war analysis has typically been political or legal, where legal scholars de-politicise international law and political scientists view Iraq through the prism of regional and Western players. Either way, Iraqi voices and sovereignty are pushed to the margins. Few have attempted to decolonise the discourse and unite both perspectives. This chapter borrows from Third World Approaches to International Law as a method of epistemological inquiry around legal discourse and Charles W. Mills’ “White Ignorance” as a cognitive phenomenon in political analysis. Using these frameworks, this chapter examines published media coverage of armed conflict in Iraq and political analysis by think tanks. This chapter examines how epistemic violence over the past two decades acts as a form of intervention, and how Iraqi resistance to this violence counts as Rhetorical Sovereignty. By positioning Rhetorical Sovereignty against epistemological violence, this chapter aims to decolonise narratives around foreign intervention in Iraq.
This dissertation aims to explore state sovereignty through the lens of Iraqis’ social media interactions and constructions, and whether public discourse over social media provides a constructive, bottom-up, storied approach to state sovereignty. This dissertation acknowledges research limitations, such as a lack of accessibility to displaced people with limited Internet access and my inability to travel to Iraq for field research because of death threats. My research is valuable as it examines a popular outlet of expression and mobilisation for most Iraqis of different backgrounds. Using social media data bridges the ethnographic distance between researcher, subject, and audience. This novel approach to examining state sovereignty, especially in post-2003 Iraq, can offer a necessary perspective missing in legal literature.