Emphasizing Unity and Diversity: Middle East and North African Student Community at the Claremont Colleges

• Main Author: Elazami, Noura
• Format: Others
• Published: Scholarship @ Claremont 2019
• Subjects: Community; Middle East; Identity; MENA; Social and Cultural Anthropology
• Online Access: https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/1341; https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2451&context=scripps_theses

Histories of colonialism, imperialism, racism, and immigration have impacted the political and social identities of MENA peoples and created a sense of unity through histories of belonging. These histories provide the framework with which many people recognize, misrecognize, or erase MENA identities and experiences today. I use this historical context to investigate the ways in which MENA identifying students at the Claremont Colleges seek to foster identity based community on campus. Though efforts continue to be made to foster MENA community at the Claremont Colleges, there is more work to be done in order to foster a community in which the diversity of the MENA identifying student population is recognized, while unity is fostered and maintained.