عنوان

"Afghanistan Is Darkness and Light":

Number

TLpq2490769806

.Language of Text, Soundtrack etc

انگلیسی

Title Proper

"Afghanistan Is Darkness and Light":

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

First Statement of Responsibility

Lahmann, Heddy

Title Proper by Another Author

Creative Arts for Youth and Peace in Afghanistan

Subsequent Statement of Responsibility

Burde, Dana S.

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

New York University

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

2021

Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item

267

Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree

Ph.D.

Body granting the degree

New York University

Text preceding or following the note

2021

Text of Note

This dissertation examines a creative arts program aimed at countering violent extremism among youth in Afghanistan in order to better understand the relationship between arts education and peaceful attitudes and behaviors. Funded by the US State Department and implemented by Bond Street Theatre, the program reflects current policy, practice, and scholarship on youth, national identity, and countering violent extremism in conflict-affected contexts. Through a mixed-methods and multidisciplinary approach, this study narrows in on whether and how the program achieves its intended outcomes and widens the lens to examine the implications of the program as a foreign diplomacy effort to combat violent extremism through art. I use propensity score matching with survey data to measure the effects of the program on key protective factors linking arts activities with peacebuilding, including social support, civic efficacy, and a sense of common humanity. I consider these outcomes in light of qualitative data related to youth's desires and experiences within the program. Using qualitative and arts-based interviews, I interrogate the program's objective to promote a sense of national identity by investigating what it is youth in Afghanistan want, and whether and how what they want relates to national identity. My study demonstrates that Afghan youth want many of the same things that youth in other parts of the world (non-Western and Western) want: to be seen, heard, to have a voice, and meaningful social connections. Yet they also want foreigners to stop interfering in Afghanistan to serve their own political ends and to recognize the humanity of Afghans. Many positive developments emerged out of the arts program including the opportunity for youth to be seen, heard, and have a voice in their communities. Yet despite its strengths and benefits, the program had negative effects on social support. I argue that these negative outcomes point to the broader problem of short-term interventions, and to interventions that avoid engaging with the larger structural problems underlying youth's motivations for engaging in violent extremism. In this case, the program addressed some the strongest desires expressed by youth, but when these opportunities were taken away or cut short, youth felt abandoned, reinforcing a narrative of perpetual foreign interference and abandonment.

Art education

Middle Eastern studies

Peace studies

Political science

Burde, Dana S.

Lahmann, Heddy

Electronic name

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y