Sarah H Awad | Aalborg University (original) (raw)

Papers by Sarah H Awad

Visual Studies, 2020

This paper presents a theoretical and methodological approach to analysing images in public space... more This paper presents a theoretical and methodological approach to analysing images in public space as part of a transformative visual dialogue in everyday life. Images are conceptualised through the lens of sociocultural psychology and analytically approached through the metaphor of ‘the social life of images,’ by which the life cycle of images is followed as they respond and borrow from one another in a continuous dialogue. The analytical framework starts by situating the image and identifying its spatial and temporal contexts. Then, it considers the social actors influencing the image’s social life and the different stages in an image’s trajectory. Leading to an analysis of the political dynamics of an image and its potential symbolic power to influence the public discourse. Examples from street art, online, and news images will be used to illustrate the analytical approach.

Wagoner, B., Moghaddam, F. & Valsiner, J. (Eds). The Psychology of Radical Social Change: From Rage to Revolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press., 2018

This chapter focuses on the interrelation between resistance, novelty and social change. We will ... more This chapter focuses on the interrelation between resistance, novelty and social change. We will consider resistance as both a social and individual phenomenon , as a constructive process that articulates continuity and change and as an act oriented towards an imagined future of different communities. In this account, resistance is thus a creative act having its own dynamic and, most of all, aesthetic dimension. In fact, it is one such visibly artistic form of resistance that will be considered here, the case of street art as a tool of social protest and revolution in Egypt. Street art is commonly defined in sharp contrast with high or fine art because of its collective nature, anonymity, its different kind of aesthetics and most of all its disruptive, " antisocial " outcomes. With the use of illustrations, we will argue here that street art is prototypical of a creative form of resistance, situated between revolutionary " artists " and their audiences, which includes both authorities and society at large. Furthermore, strategies of resistance will be shown to develop through time, as opposing social actors respond to one another's tactics. This tension between actors is generative of new actions and strategies of resistance.

Farage or the French Resistance of Le Pen -but because it seems more and more likely that they ar... more Farage or the French Resistance of Le Pen -but because it seems more and more likely that they are bringing us back to the past as it actually happened -a past where populism successfully brought nationalist leaders to power. In this context, it seems particularly crucial to understand how we relate to our history, how we learn from it and the consequences it may have for the world we live in. These are the questions this special issue explores by adopting a cultural psychological perspective on collective memory -the lay representations of history -and proposing both theoretical and empirical contributions.

This article looks at how symbols in the urban environment are intentionally produced and modifie... more This article looks at how symbols in the urban environment are intentionally produced and modified to regulate a community's collective memory. Our urban environment is filled with symbols in the form of images, text, and structures that embody certain narratives about the past. Once those symbols are introduced into the city space they take a life span of their own in a continuous process of reproduction and reconstruction by different social actors. In the context of the city space of Cairo in the five years following the 2011 Egyptian revolution, I will look on the one side at efforts of activists to preserve the memory of the revolution through graffiti murals and the utilization of public space, and from the other, the authority's efforts to replace those initiatives with its own official narrative. Building on the concept of collective memory, as well as Bartlett's studies of serial reproductions and theorization of reconstructive remembering , I will follow the reproduction of different symbols in the city and how they were perceived and remembered by pedestrians.

This is a longitudinal study of the identity process through times of dramatic social change. Usi... more This is a longitudinal study of the identity process through times of dramatic social change. Using a narrative psychological approach this research follows the life stories of five Egyptian bloggers as they write their stories on online blogs over the course of the three years following the 2011 revolution, at which time Egypt has witnessed major social and political changes. The aim is to understand the identity process of individuals as they develop and adapt through changing social contexts and how they create alternative social relations as they engage in prefigurative politics. The findings shed light on how ruptures trigger a process of reflexivity, adaptive learning, and sense-making that facilitates coping and the reconstruction of a positive identity after ruptures. It also suggests that the narration of the experience of rupture through storytelling creates a heightened sense of agency in individuals' ability to create new meanings of their world in spite of the socio-cultural and political constraints. This study presents narratives as an informing methodological resource that connects identity process with social representations and emphasizes the value of storytelling as an integral part of the adaptation process.

The present chapter explores agency as a process of group creativity where individuals collaborat... more The present chapter explores agency as a process of group creativity where individuals collaborate using signs with the aim of changing social reality. This is illustrated with a case study of the Egyptian street graffiti that emerged in the first year after protestors took to the streets on 25 January 2011 and on the artwork centered around Tahrir Square. Revolutionaries used graffiti as a tool to communicate their message, claim public space, and make an impact on the public. We look at how revolutionary graffiti emerged as a form of resistance during the 2011 Egyptian revolution, bringing underground artists to the surface in a collaborative effort. The phenomenon is studied from a creativity perspective, discussing what characteristics support seeing this art as an expression of agency through group creativity and what social factors facilitated it to come about. We argue that revolutionary graffiti offers an understanding of creative agency as a collaborative group process using imagination to move beyond reality and present a peaceful and liberating form of expression that would not have emerged individually. Thus, the case study of Egyptian graffiti is used to draw attention to agency found in groups, contrary to Freud’s and Le Bon’s tendencies to relate groups to violence and chaos.

This paper analyzes the use of Twitter during the revolution in Egypt for three key dates during ... more This paper analyzes the use of Twitter during the revolution in Egypt for three key dates during the 18 days of protests in 2011 that led to the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak. The data show how the demonstrators used Twitter to organize the protests, to mobilize committed demonstrators as well as ordinary citizens, to provide tactical and strategic know-how, to provide surveillance, and to bear witness to the violent acts against them by pro-Mabarak forces. The surveillance information included tweets providing security information such as minute-to-minute updates on what streets were being blocked by police, what the police were doing, and instructions telling demonstrators what information to tweet if they saw someone being arrested or if they found themselves under arrest. Other surveillance information included information such as what the international and state media were reporting.

Talks by Sarah H Awad

Aesthetics of Resistance, 2019

From Zuccotti Park in NYC to Tahrir Square in Cairo, occupy movements and other forms of urban pr... more From Zuccotti Park in NYC to Tahrir Square in Cairo, occupy movements and other forms of urban protests have been powerful resistance movements against increasing inequality and marginalization as consequences of global neoliberal processes. These resistance movements also challenged the institutions of representative democracy, which have been irresponsive to the demands of the masses.

Among other distinctive characteristics of the contemporary urban collective resistance movements such as the extensive use of social media, street art has gained crucial relevance and became an important form of political participation and resistance.

In this dossier on “Aesthetics of Resistance”, Myrto Tsilimpounidi asks the question of what does street art and tries to find an answer in the streets of Athens. She shows how street art becomes an utterance of an alternative voice resisting the hegemonic stories of the city. Sarah H. Awad underlines the same power of the street art in giving visibility and voice to resistance movements. Awad discusses Egypt and shows how graffiti during the uprisings in 2011 challenged the monopoly of the state over the representation in public spaces. Erdem Colak focuses on post-Gezi Turkey. Visual and performative practices of resistance were defining elements of the Gezi Park protests in 2013. Colak discusses how power bloc has been trying to establish, yet failed, its cultural hegemony

Presented at Cultures of Diversity: Arts and Cultural Life in Arab Societies before Independence ... more Presented at Cultures of Diversity: Arts and Cultural Life in Arab Societies before Independence
Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arab World
University of Edinburgh
December 2015

This presentation looks at caricature as an artistic way of expression that represents and reconstructs social representations in a society. It investigates how Egyptian newspaper caricatures were used as a tool to express resistance to authority as well as to certain social representations and how it negotiated the formation of a national identity. Data compromise more than 300 caricature images from two journals: ‘Al Kashkul’ and ‘Al Seyasa al Esbo’yia,’ published between the years 1926 to 1931. This marks a unique time in Egyptian national discourse as it was on the road towards securing complete political independence from British occupation. This period also falls in between two unique discourses in relation to national identity: preceding it there was the Wafd party’s grassroots movement in 1918 to construct an Egyptian identity that is separate from the British as well as from the Arab and Ottoman, an identity that draws back from Ancient Egyptian civilization. While after this period from 1952 the Egyptian identity moved gradually towards a national discourse of pan-Arabism. Data analysis uses cultural psychology as the theoretical framework and borrows from the philosophy of aesthetics.
It is argued that the caricatures in those two publications expressed an explicit political resistance against the Egyptian government officials primarily, however, it provided minimal negotiation of a national identity but rather fed into the dominant narrative of a helpless average Egyptian who lacks agency. The caricatures did not present the average peasant Egyptians as social actors in the dynamics of political or social life; they were presented as ignorant, passive, and exploited by Egyptian and British authorities who are conspiring against the interest of Egyptians. The caricatures’ role was limited to presenting what might have been part of the reality but from an aesthetic resistance perspective they did no effort to reconstruct this image in an empowering way to orient an imagined future of an independent national identity.

The aim of this PhD course/ series of lectures is to propose some links between philosoph- ical a... more The aim of this PhD course/ series of lectures is to propose some links between philosoph- ical aesthetics and cultural psychology and to explore their heuristic fertility and value for cultural psychology. The aesthet- ic dimension is a paradigmatic locus of meaning-making both on the productive and receptive sides and is not restricted to
art in any limited or customary sense. What types of analytical tools or philosophical frames
can further cultural psychology’s engagement with the aesthet-
ic dimension of life on multiple levels?

Books by Sarah H Awad

“Street Art of Resistance is an international and interdisciplinary examination of the role of st... more “Street Art of Resistance is an international and interdisciplinary examination of the role of street art in social change. It is a definitive collection of essays; it has case studies from Belfast to Egypt, art forms ranging from
murals to tattoos, and insights that are both theoretical and practical. Street art is a way for supressed voices
to gain representation in the public sphere. These voices combine the power of art to challenge assumptions
with the power of the street to make things public; the result is an opening of possibility that refuses to be
ignored.”
-Alex Gillespie, London School of Economics and Politic Science

This seminar is part of the process of developing the ‘Street Art of Resistance’ book. Different ... more This seminar is part of the process of developing the ‘Street Art of Resistance’ book. Different authors will present their work about street art as well as other aesthetic tools used by social movements from different cultural contexts.

Cultural Psychology offers a new approach to imagination which brings its emotional, social, cult... more Cultural Psychology offers a new approach to imagination which brings its emotional, social, cultural, contextual and existential characteristics to the fore. In this approach, fantasy and imagination are understood as the human capacity to distance oneself from the here-and-now situation in order to return to it with new possibilities. To do this we use social-cultural means (e.g. language, stories, art, images, etc.) to conceive of imaginary scenarios, some of which may become real. Imagination is involved in every situation of our lives, though to different degrees. Sometimes this process can lead to concrete products (e.g., artistic works) that can be picked up and used by others for the purposes of their imagining. Imagination is not seen here as an isolated cognitive faculty but as the means by which people anticipate and constructively move towards an indeterminate future. It is in this process of living forward with the help of imagination that novelty appears and social change becomes possible. This book offers a conceptual history of imagination, an array of theoretical approaches, imagination's use in psychologist's thinking and a number of new research areas. Its aim is to offer a re-enchantment of the concept of imagination and the discipline of psychology more generally.

Visual Studies, 2020

Wagoner, B., Moghaddam, F. & Valsiner, J. (Eds). The Psychology of Radical Social Change: From Rage to Revolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press., 2018

Aesthetics of Resistance, 2019