SOAS, University of London (The School of Oriental and African Studies)

Overview

Name:

Ms Khadija Chennoufi-Gilkes

Email address:

145505@soas.ac.uk

Thesis title:

Insiders and Insider-Outsiders: A transnational discourse-network study of the Algerian Kabyle Amazigh cultural movement via social media

Year of Study:

Year Started: 2011

Internal Supervisors

• Anne Pauwels
• Julia Sallabank
• Edward Simpson

PhD Research

I am a research student in Linguistics, specialising in Socio-Linguistic Anthropology. I take an inter-disciplinary approach combining multi-sited ethnography with discourse and historical analysis. I am interested in cosmopolitan, multi-lingual research and my main country of research interest is Algeria. I have an additional interest in Nepal with a comparative reference to the Indigenous People's movements in the two countries. I am interested in researching Indigenous and minority voices in new democratic political processes taking place and this includes the usage of social media such as Facebook as well as YouTube video.

My interest in comparative cultural and socio-linguistic research on minority and indigenous identity politics relates primarily to Kabyles from Algeria. A key area of my research is the use of the Internet by indigenous cultural activists for advancing claims in a trans-national public sphere. I am aiming to document and analyse social media and personal narratives in the context of political transition to democracy in particular national contexts. My main focus is on the circulation of discourses via social media on indigenous identity mobilization. In the case of Algeria, which has become the principal focus of my research, I am studying discourses surrounding the Indigenous Kabyle social movements aimed at linguistic and cultural revitalisation of Amazigh/Imazighen identifications.

I have a special interest in language revitalisation efforts relating to my case study of transnational Kabyle Iqvaylien cultural activism. My research on indigenous identity activism and the utilisation of social media was initially conducted amongst Nepalese Sherpas who have been based both in Nepal and the UK. Having begun my research on the Sherpa Indigenous movement with a project named ‘Janajati Ayojana’ (Indigenous Nationalities Project), I am now concentrating my research on the Kabyle Algerian context. I am in the process of making linguistic and other preparations for my Kabyle case study based on networks in Algeria, France and the UK. In both my case studies, a primary focus is on transnational usages of social media. I am especially interested in cultural associations, minority language revival efforts and related use of social media as well as diversity within the social circulation of discourses on Imazighen identifications. I am particularly interested in the role of language maintenance and revival of Taqvaylit, the Kabyle language, as well as other forms of symbolic cultural assertions as articulations of Amazigh indigenous identity.

I am seeking to locate the emerging relationships between different identity categories, citizenship and the state in newly secularising or democratising countries. Through my research, I aim to explore alternative ways of imagining the Nation and belonging, collective and individual, thereby, tracing unexpected linkages with a multi-sited and multi-modal approach to case study research. Although my main PhD research focus is on Algeria's Kabyles and its indigenous Amazigh/Imazighen movement(s), I continue to retain an actor-network based comparative interest in Nepalese Sherpas and the Janajati movement. I have established a Facebook Research site at http://facebook.com/khadijachennoufigilkes and it forms one of the tools of my research