Resistance Territory: The Production of Territory in Iranian Kurdistan through Street Demonstrations and Media in 2014 and 2017
| dc.contributor.advisor | Murphy, Alexander | |
| dc.contributor.author | Moradi, Sanan | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2022-10-04T20:49:45Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2022-10-04 | |
| dc.description.abstract | This project examines the production of Kurdish territory in street demonstrations and media. Thousands of Iranian Kurds demonstrated, in October 2014 to express solidarity with the residents of Kobani in Syria who were besieged by the Islamic State (IS), and then in September 2017 to celebrate Iraqi Kurdistan’s independence referendum. Closely related to the demonstrations were the Iranian Kurds’ use of satellite television and social media to communicate the events in Syria and Iraq to Kurds in the region and in diaspora and non-Kurdish sympathizers. Far from merely expressing solidarity with Kurds in Syria and Iraq, such activities helped produce and strengthen the idea of Kurdistan as a geopolitically significant territorial construct. In both street demonstrations and mediated practices, however, the Iranian Kurds had to resist and negotiate the Iranian state’s securitization policies that routinely suppress Kurdish activism. This research explores the growing identification of Iranian Kurds with Kurdistan against the backdrop of Iran’s securitization of space, asking how Iranian Kurds produced territory through demonstrations and media practices. The study draws on semi-structured interviews and qualitative media data and employs a mix of digital methods and Foucauldian discourse analysis. The results indicate that Iranian Kurds produced Kurdistan as a significant territorial imagination and resisted state securitization in three ways: first, by deploying symbolic, discursive, embodied, and emplaced tactics in the demonstrations; second, by affective engagement with media and visual images; and third, by building multi-scalar social media solidarity networks. Although aimed to suppress Kurdish activism, Iran’s securitization efforts effectively encouraged identification with Kurdistan on the part of Iranian Kurds through the development of new tactics of resistance. | en_US |
| dc.description.embargo | 2024-08-09 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1794/27667 | |
| dc.language.iso | en_US | |
| dc.publisher | University of Oregon | |
| dc.rights | All Rights Reserved. | |
| dc.subject | demonstrations | en_US |
| dc.subject | Iran | en_US |
| dc.subject | Kurds | en_US |
| dc.subject | media | en_US |
| dc.subject | social media | en_US |
| dc.subject | territory | en_US |
| dc.title | Resistance Territory: The Production of Territory in Iranian Kurdistan through Street Demonstrations and Media in 2014 and 2017 | |
| dc.type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation | |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Department of Geography | |
| thesis.degree.grantor | University of Oregon | |
| thesis.degree.level | doctoral | |
| thesis.degree.name | Ph.D. |
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