introduction

[Lutfi Hussein]

Hello,

I am very pleased to have joined this list.

I was admitted last week, but I decided not to introduce myself until the Fall
semester was over. So, here I am.

I am a Ph.D. student of linguistics at Arizona State University, U.S.A. This is
my first year in the program as I received my M.A. in linguistics (from  ASU)
in spring 2000. The title of my master's thesis is "Arabs in the New York
Times: A Critical Discursive Analysis of Ideologies (Re)Produced in the Last
Twenty Years."

In that project, I did quantitative and qualitative analyses of the articles
published on the first, fifteenth and last days of each month of the two years
1980 and 1999. The theoretical frameworks I applied in the analysis were those
developed by van Dijk and Fairclough.  (Data collecting turned out to be both
systematic and enjoyable thanks to Lexis-Nexis.) I chose those two years with
an interval of 20 years to see if the image of the Arabs had changed at all.
Some things changed but others didn't. One of the main findings that proved
consistent in the two respective years was the emphasis placed on an
ideological dichotomy between US (the West) and THEM (Arabs).

Being an Arab born and raised in Jordan, I am interested in the representation
of Arabs in United States mainstream media. For present projects, I'm focusing
on gender, power, media and discourse. One of the papers that I wrote this
semester for a Critical Rhetoric seminar was on "gender between power and
resistance" in the discourse of a Web site that is dedicated to the social
empowerment of Arab women. The Web site, founded in North America, was
costructed and is maintained by Arab women, hoping to give voice to "oppressed"
Arab women in North America and the Arab countries.

I think the social role(s) of Arab women, whether in the West or in their
respective Arab countries, is undergoing some major changes. I am confident
that CDA will provide me with the tools necessary to account for those dramatic
changes. In this connection, the English language is playing a major role as
it's becoming the language of "freedom-seekers." The aforementioned Web site is
a good example of that. The whole Web site is in English and the discussion
list that belongs to the Web site is conducted in English even though most of
the members are Arabs.

Now you understand my excitement about being on this list. I look forward to
future discussions.


Thank you.
Lutfi


_____________________
Lutfi Hussein
Department of English
Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ 85287-0302, U.S.A.
Home-page: http://www.public.asu.edu/~lutfiawa