The approximately 4 million Arab Americans living in the United States are rarely included in psychological research. This low inclusion rate can be explained in part because most participants in psychology studies are WEIRD (Western, educated and from industrialized, rich and democratic countries), but the stigma associated with mental health in Arab communities is also a major contributing factor.

Myrna Abdel-Aziz, a recent graduate of the Arizona State University Department of Psychology, knows firsthand how difficult talking about mental health can be.  Myrna Abdel-Aziz, a recent graduate of the Arizona State University Department of Psychology. Download Full Image

“I grew up in an Egyptian-Muslim household, and we didn’t talk about mental health at all. It became really prominent when my mom thought she was having a heart attack, but it was really anxiety. It was at that point that I knew needed to help people recognize these symptoms and to provide coping resources,” Abdel-Aziz said.

When Abdel-Aziz first told her family she wanted to study psychology, they were skeptical. But after her mom suffered the anxiety attack, they began to understand.

“There really isn’t much mental health research on the Middle Eastern population, and culture is one of the main reasons why,” she said. “You don’t talk about mental health, you hide it away. Destigmatizing mental health would be extremely beneficial for so many kids.”

In addition to the stigma of mental health, Arab American youth are also figuring out how they fit in American culture. This process is challenging socially and psychologically, and many Arab American youth experience depression and generalized anxiety.

Abdel-Aziz works in the @Heart Lab with Thao Ha, assistant professor of psychology, and in the Couples Coping with Stress Lab with Ashley Randall, associate professor in the College of Integrative Sciences and Arts. In both labs, Abdel-Aziz helps with data analysis by watching videos of experiments and classifying how the participants interact with each other.

She also helps provide behavioral health, autism or developmental services to Arizona families at SEEK Arizona, which was named the 2019 Sun Devil 100 Honoree for leadership, innovation and growth.

In addition to her research with the @Heart Lab and the Couples Coping with Stress Lab, Abdel-Aziz served as a student mentor with the Psychology Advising Leader program. She also worked as a student facilitator and teaching assistant in the Psychology Pathways course. She said her passion is to help other students succeed, and she believes that helping others will help her establish a career in teaching.

Abdel-Aziz’s immediate goal is to help diverse minority groups. She plans to complete a master’s degree in mental health counseling and a doctorate in counseling.

While Nancy Gómez was writing her doctoral thesis, she spent her study breaks working on her walk.

And it paid off: The Arizona State University School of International Letters and Cultures student now wears the 2019 Miss Latin America of the World crown. Nancy Gómez crowned 2019 Miss Latin America of the World. Photo courtesy of Nancy Gómez. Download Full Image

“I always wanted to participate in a pageant, but I was still just so scared, (thinking) 'I don’t have the experience, I don’t have the money, I don’t know the people,'” she said.

But that couldn’t keep Gómez from competing, all while researching and teaching.

When asked to give her final statement at the pageant, she quoted W. P. Carey School of Business student and former beauty queen Yulissa Felix: “Our culture is our biggest pride, and that pride will be our success.” This topic resonated with Gómez, a first-generation American, due to her love of the Spanish language and her Latino heritage.

Judges awarded Gómez the title, and she came back to continue her thesis research and to teach her fall classes.

“Since I was little, I knew I wanted to be a teacher,” said Gómez, who is pursuing her PhD in Spanish. “I just honestly love speaking Spanish; I have a passion for it.”

Gómez spends Tuesdays and Thursdays on campus and online teaching Spanish conversation and composition and elementary Spanish. 

When she's not teaching ASU students, she gives motivational talks to teenage girls and young adult women who would like to follow in her footsteps of becoming a positive role model in their community while also embracing their love for their heritage, language, and culture.

Gómez desires to spread her love of the Spanish language, whether as a teacher or a beauty queen, to those who would like to learn it.

“I like how she encourages us. … Even if we say something wrong, we just keep talking,” said psychology and criminal justice sophomore Jessica Breeden, one of Gómez's students.

“It’s a really inviting environment.”

Two new fellowship opportunities invite scholars and doctoral students living outside the Phoenix area to Arizona State University in support of their research exploring the diverse history of the West, its intersections with race and violence, and American Indian history.

Through a partnership between The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies and the ASU Library’s Labriola National American Indian Data Center, the two annual fellowships will provide researchers travel support and access to rare primary source materials and unique archival collections. A picture taken in 1920 of a saguaro cactus in Phoenix, part of the ASU Library's McCulloch Bros. Photography Collection. Download Full Image

“The two research fellowships are timely due to ASU’s excellent reputation in American Indian history in the West that is well over half a century old and today’s racial violence in society,” said ASU Regents Professor Donald Fixico. 

The American Indian History of the West Research Fellowship seeks to support and advance scholarship on the rich and diverse history of the West that makes a meaningful contribution to the fields of American Indian history/studies, federal-Indian policies and indigenous relations with other peoples or the natural environment.

The Race and Ethnicity Fellowship is an intellectual response to America’s overwhelming history of violence, especially against people of color. The fellowship seeks to generate research that examines historic intersections of race and violence in the West, looking to the past as a way to understand the present and inform future relations.

“We are so pleased to partner with Dr. Fixico in hosting these fellowships, which offer opportunities to further open our Native American collections to new researchers,” said Lorrie McAllister, associate university librarian for collection services and analysis at the ASU Library. “We look forward to welcoming and supporting the inquiry and scholarship of these fellows during their visits.”

The Labriola National American Indian Data Center brings together the current and historical work of indigenous authors across a multitude of disciplines with a focus on language, government, education, tribal history, biography, religion and customs. The center features thousands of books, journals, Native Nation newspapers, photographs, oral histories and manuscript collections.

Applicants must be an established scholar or a PhD or postdoctoral student conducting critical research about American Indian or race and ethnic history of the West, especially nondominant historical narratives necessitating primary or rare secondary sources. Fellowship applications are due Jan. 31, 2020.

Assistant Professor of religious studies Shamara Wyllie Alhassan has been named the winner of the National Women’s Studies Association/University of Illinois Press 2019 First Book Prize for her manuscript, “Re-membering the Maternal Goddess: Rastafari Women’s Intellectual History and Activism in the Pan-African World.”

The First Book Prize is an annual competition for the best dissertation or first book by a single author in the field of women and gender studies, with an emphasis on work like Alhassan's that speaks across disciplines. Assistant Professor of religious studies Shamara Wyllie Alhassan holds her NWSA award. Download Full Image

She conducted preliminary research on her topic as an undergraduate when she studied abroad in Jamaica her junior year and in Ghana the following semester. After receiving her undergraduate degree, Alhassan went back to Ghana as a Fulbright Fellow and completed a documentary film about Rastafari women in the country.  

Rastafari is a Pan-African sociospiritual movement that began with poor and working class black communities in Jamaica during the 1930s, but its roots can be traced back to 19th-century Ethiopianism, Pan-Africanism and ancient Kemetic philosophies. Rastafari has since become a global phenomenon.

“My research, broadly, is about Rastafari women’s livity, which is basically their lived philosophy and the ways that they build communities of social justice transgeographically,” Alhassan said. “Specifically, I work with Rastafari women in Jamaica, Ghana and Ethiopia.”

Alhassan attended graduate school in 2013 at Brown University and conducted the transnational ethnographic work that became the foundation of her dissertation. However, she struggled to come up with her research topic at first. 

“Academia is an exclusive club in terms of who it deems intellectual,” Alhassan said. “Choosing to work with a group of women who have been largely excluded from scholarly engagement was a powerful learning experience. I learned that the academy is interested in studying the human experience from the epistemological perspectives and orientations of white supremacist patriarchy. When the geographic center of reason is shifted and the white supremacist patriarchal orientation unsettled, this poses a set of challenges to the very basis of being an intellectual and the foundation of the academy. The philosophies Rastafari women create help us to question the structures of power and dominance and ultimately move us closer to a more humane world where the humanity of all people are recognized.”

Her first obstacle was trying to prove that the academic construction of who was deemed intellectual and worthy of critical engagement were falsehoods that excluded Rastafari women and other marginalized groups.

“When we look at the broader typography of black women’s intellectual history as well as the black radical tradition or Pan-African movements, we realize that Rastafari women’s contributions to those movements are erased,” Alhassan said. “Rastafari as a movement is barely mentioned but then Rastafari women as a subset of that community are definitely left out of that broader trajectory. So it was my fight to make sure that people really understood that as a scholarly community we can no longer omit entire communities of people because of our own bias or ignorance.”

She chose to write her manuscript in an eclectic, unorthodox way, using nontraditional academic language, which posed another obstacle. But she was determined to write in this way to contribute to a larger body of scholarly work that is trying to trouble the way we think about the way knowledge is produced. 

“It doesn’t have to be one particular way or one particular framework,” Alhassan said. “The way we write must reflect the communities producing the knowledge. This is why the style of my book needed to match the diverse and creative modalities of expression Rastafari women use to produce their philosophies. I tried to allow the craft of writing to reflect the ways Rastafari reason or engage in extended philosophical debate.”

All the hard work ended up paying off. Her dissertation at Brown University, which has now become the manuscript for her book, received the Marie J. Langlois Dissertation Prize for an outstanding dissertation in the area of feminist studies from the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women. 

“The bulk of the book focuses on Jamaica, Ghana and the inaugural All Africa Rastafari Gathering in Shashemene, Ethiopia, and the ways Rastafari women develop tools of healing and communal affirmation through their livity and how this helps them navigate the social sphere in these countries in terms of religious discrimination, anti-black gendered racism and different ways patriarchy operates within the Rastafari movement as well as in the broader social context in these spaces,” Alhassan said.

Along with the book, Alhassan is also editing a full-length documentary film to go along with the research. The documentary will feature some of the same women in Alhassan’s book.

“The documentary provides another medium for people to access the embodied and articulated knowledge of Rastafari women,” Alhassan said. “It also serves as a tool for community accountability in that it provides a more immediate materialization of the research than the book. Most people, when they think of Rastafari, they only think about Bob Marley. So the movement is predominantly represented through a masculine image. It was really important to me to produce images that would feature Rastafari women so that we change the way we perceive the movement.”

Overall the book will hold about 60 women’s voices as well as Alhassan’s voice. Even though it sounds like a lot of narratives to juggle, Alhassan doesn’t mind. The project comes from personal investment and it is well worth the challenge.

“The project was really birthed in honor of my mother, who is also Rastafari,” Alhassan said. “Both my parents are Rastafari, but I started the project to try and figure out more about who my mother is, and then through asking questions about her, I found this whole group of women. Then it sort of morphed into this bigger trajectory.”

She feels honored and amazed to have won this first book prize. Even more so, she is grateful to have her work be recognized and hopes it will help pave the way for other scholars who are researching uncommon topics and who have not had the chance to be represented in academia.

“I’m very appreciative because I know there are numerous scholars who are producing amazing work all the time and don’t get recognized,” Alhassan said. “I’m eternally grateful to the communities of sistren and brethren who gave of their time and opened their homes to me, to my intellectual mentors who helped shape my scholarly practice, and to my family who have loved me through this process. This research was born of love and has survived because of love. I hope this award signals the need for increased intellectual engagement with the literature and art of Rastafari communities and sustained engagement with Africana and Rastafari women’s epistemologies.”

Editor’s note: This is part of a series of profiles for fall 2019 commencement.

Beckett Eickerman has a big heart. Graduating ASU student Beckett Eickerman says that after earning the MTESOL degree, he wants help create and implement a standardized curriculum for pre-literate adult refugees in the U.S. Download Full Image

For the past two years, the Arizona State University student has been active in internships teaching English to adults in the Phoenix area, including to refugees. Eickerman, who formerly worked in I.T., said he was inspired to the teaching career in an undergraduate linguistics class.

Perhaps Eickerman’s great empathy for the plight of those who have left, or lost, their home countries comes from his strong connection to his own home, having been born, raised, and schooled in the Phoenix area.

He was a transfer student to Arizona State University after having earned an Associate of Arts degree at Mesa Community College. This fall, Eickerman is completing the accelerated MTESOL (Master of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) program at ASU and has thrown his hat in the ring for a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship in the Netherlands. He’ll have his fingers crossed until this spring, when the competitive program notifies those it has accepted.

We sat down with Eickerman on the eve of graduation to find out a little bit more about his plans.

Question: What was your “aha” moment, when you realized you wanted to study in your field?

Answer: There were two "aha" moments for me. The first, smaller "aha" was in ENG 404: Culture in the Language Classroom when (English instructor and director of internships) Ruby Macksoud talked about her experiences working at companies abroad teaching English to adults. Until that moment, I hadn't realized that teaching English to adults was a possible career. Learning that led me to doing the undergrad TESOL certificate, and then later the 4+1 MTESOL program.

The main "aha" moment started when I was applying to Fulbright this year to go to the Netherlands to be an English Teaching Assistant — this required a potential project proposal. In looking for a project I found an organization in the Netherlands that accepted volunteers to help with projects for LGBT asylum seekers. Finding this caused me to reflect back on my MTESOL internship where I taught English to adult refugees at GateWay Community College. That internship was incredibly difficult because I had students who had no literacy in their first language and hardly any literacy in English. After reflecting on that internship, and talking with Ruby about the gaps in English Language Teaching for refugees here in the U.S. — especially compared to the Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) program — I knew what I wanted to study and do. So, my "aha" moment was when I realized that I want to create and implement a standardized curriculum for pre-literate adult refugees in the U.S.

Q: What’s something you learned while at ASU — in the classroom or otherwise — that surprised you, that changed your perspective?

A: In high school, I had a classmate who planned to teach English abroad after graduation. A close friend said that was something anyone with a high school diploma could go do. At the time, I agreed with that sentiment, it made sense and it would be so easy to do. No. No, it is not. I learned first-hand, and through classes — especially APL 518: World Englishes with (Associate Professor) Aya Matsuda — that just because you can speak English does not mean you can teach English.

Q: Why did you choose ASU?

A: Honestly, because it's in state and the closest to me. But after being taught by the amazing professors in MTESOL and linguistics programs, I'm very glad I came here.

Q: Which professor taught you the most important lesson while at ASU?

A: Ruby Macksoud taught me so much and it's hard to pick just one thing. For me, it comes back to what she teaches about reflection and adaptability. After teaching a lesson, reflecting on what worked in the lesson plan, what didn't work, and why, and then making changes to adapt to the needs of the students are key to being a good teacher of ESOL.

Q: What’s the best piece of advice you’d give to those still in school?

A: Talk to your professors — go to their office hours or make appointments. Ask them questions about the content, readings, assignments, etc. Voice other questions and concerns. Ask them for advice. Just talk to them.

Q: What was your favorite spot on campus, whether for studying, meeting friends or just thinking about life?

A: The graduate student lounge in Ross-Blakley Hall. It's secluded and tucked away so not a lot of people use it and only the occasional person walks by. It might be a bit small, but since it doesn't have its own ceiling it seems a lot bigger than it is. The vaulted ceiling makes it open to the acoustics of the first and second floor, which I like because I can't stand a completely silent space. And it has great big windows to look out of.

Q: What are your plans after graduation?

A: In January, I will likely be teaching ESOL classes at GateWay Community College. I may do online ESOL teaching as well, but I am still undecided about that. I'll also be waiting to hear if I've been accepted to be an English Teaching Assistant in the Netherlands through Fulbright.

Q: If someone gave you $40 million to solve one problem on our planet, what would you tackle?

A: I would tackle the lack of standardized curriculum for adult refugees in the U.S. With the money, I would set about hiring and collaborating with the right people to create the U.S. equivalent of the Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) program.

Editor’s note: This is part of a series of profiles for fall 2019 commencement.

Graduating Arizona State University student Sayantan Mukherjee believes that “quality education is the only way up.” "In the past five years at ASU, I have learned a good many things," said graduating ASU student Sayantan Mukherjee. "I could write an entire essay on that. However, there is one thing that usually secures the top place on the list—a remarkable balance between student and teacher life." Download Full Image

Mukherjee, who is originally from the small town of Dubrajpur in West Bengal, India, is setting into motion his own vertical mobility by earning a PhD in linguistics and applied linguistics this fall. He defended his dissertation, “Understanding ‘Fairness’ in India: Critically Investigating Selected Commercial Videos for Men’s Skin-Lightening Products” on Oct. 30.

“Sayantan Mukherjee stands out among our PhD students for his original and carefully strategized dissertation research,” said Karen Adams, a professor in the Department of English’s linguistics and applied linguistics program who chaired Mukherjee’s dissertation committee. “’Understanding “Fairness” in India’ breaks new ground in gender studies and in issues of colorism.”

Mukherjee’s innovative research on skin-color discrimination in India shines on a necessary light on a systemic problem. His dissertation study analyzed the language and semiotics (images and symbols) of YouTube commercials for skin-lightening products aimed at young, urban men in India. Mukherjee concluded that preferences for lighter skin — likely remnants of India’s time under British colonial rule — have become “naturalized” among makers and purchasers of these products.

In other words, in these Hindi-language advertisements, both company and consumer tacitly believe possessing lighter skin confers certain social benefits.

Mukherjee said he arrived as this choice of topic somewhat organically. “I was already interested in the discourse of television advertisements,” he explained, “and I became curious about how advertisements construct/portray gender stereotypes.” A visit home to India during summer break 2016 provided the specific focus.

“My friends and some acquaintances started reassuring me that my tanned skin/dark skin tone, thanks to the excess amount of sunlight in Arizona, should not be a problem for my marriage.”

Mukherjee was floored. He had been aware of skin-color discrimination faced by females in India, but had never considered males to be impacted. With that realization, Mukherjee said, he finally understood a small part of what Indian women had faced. “I genuinely feel sorry for my lack of awareness.”

“Once I returned to Tempe after the summer break, I soon invested myself in understanding and foregrounding this issue of colorism.”

Mukherjee cautioned that in Indian society, the issue is complex and addressing the biases and ideologies underlying skin-color discrimination will take time.

“There are people who have started campaigning against skin-color discrimination in India, but it is still very little compared to what we need,” he said. “Spreading awareness among people is important. Making them realize that idealized beauty standards are detrimental to the growth of a remarkably diverse society like India. Discouraging the use of skin-lighteners is a good starting point to tackle this issue as well, and it is so because of two reasons — it helps minimize skin-color discrimination and it saves people from using harmful chemicals on their skin just to attain a lighter tone that misleadingly denotes beauty or attractiveness for all genders.”

Mukherjee has presented his work at the annual conference of the American Association for Applied Linguistics, the top professional society in his field, and has been the recipient of several fellowships from the ASU Graduate College.

We visited with Mukherjee to get his thoughts on other aspects of his life at ASU — and to find out what’s next.

Question: What was your “aha” moment, when you realized you wanted to study in your field?

Answer: My “aha” moment had happened long before I joined ASU while I was doing my BA in English literature in India. I was studying the history of the English language and some interesting things about sound change, grammar, culture, etc. I realized there was so much more to learn about human language. My former professor at Visva-Bharati — the university in India I attended for my undergraduate studies — Dr. Anupam Das told me a lot about a discipline called “linguistics” that is dedicated to scientifically studying human language. With all eagerness, I would listen to him say how language as a system encodes both linguistic and cultural concepts. The very existence of language presupposes the excellence of human intelligence as a species. It was during this time that I found my passion. My BA in English was soon followed by two master’s degrees in linguistics at the University of Delhi and lately a doctorate in linguistics and applied linguistics at ASU.

Q: What’s something you learned while at ASU — in the classroom or otherwise — that surprised you, that changed your perspective?

A: In the past five years at ASU, I have learned a good many things. I could write an entire essay on that. However, there is one thing that usually secures the top place on the list—a remarkable balance between student and teacher life. I was fortunate enough to secure a teaching assistant position in the Department of English. It helped me understand what kind of life a college student usually leads to achieve his/her goals in the United States, and how significant the roles of the teachers are here. Coming from India, I had had no prior experience of the student life in the U.S., nor had I imagined being a TA teaching first year composition courses to young college students. I realized most students are hardworking. They are here because they want to be here; just like me. As a student, they struggle at various things like I do, and as a teacher, I can make their learning process as smooth and rewarding as possible — the same way I have had it from my teachers.

Q: Why did you choose ASU?

A: I chose a handful of schools to apply for my doctoral studies in the U.S. Arizona State University was one of my top preferences because of its faculty strength in the area I was interested in. Even in 2014, I was aware of the ASU’s reputation as a public university that prided itself on diversity and innovation. I must say, having secured a PhD at ASU, that I would again choose ASU for the very same reasons if I were to do another PhD.

Q: Which professor taught you the most important lesson while at ASU?

A: It is hard for me to pick just one, so I will pick two. First it would be my chair Professor Karen Adams. She taught me to take on challenges that made me a better academic. Things I was scared of doing, research areas I was nervous to explore, projects I dreaded, she believed in me and inspired me to move ahead with confidence. It is because of her that I became interested in multimodal critical discourse analysis — a perfect academic lens to see and analyze the current world. I could not have asked for a better chair and adviser.

The second person I am forever indebted to for her constant support and encouragement would be (Regents Professor) Elly van Gelderen. She taught me that learning is important, but so is self-care. She taught me syntax — the area I am most passionate about in theoretical linguistics. She has been a wonderful teacher, friend, and colleague.

Q: What’s the best piece of advice you’d give to those still in school?

A: If you are attending graduate school, pat yourself on the back for already achieving so much that many others only aspire to. You, and no one but you, decide the trajectory of your progress. Trust yourself and learn as much as you can. Find support and inspiration, and maintain a distance with people that stall your progress.

Q: What was your favorite spot on campus, whether for studying, meeting friends or just thinking about life?

A: My favorite spot on campus has been the graduate lounge inside Ross-Blakley Hall. I was able to be productive for hours while there. Some of my wonderful friends and colleagues often accompanied me in that lounge, so I had some good time there.

Q: What are your plans after graduation?

A: Currently, I am seeking a professorial position at a good U.S. institute. If I get a fulfilling position at a reputed educational institution in India, I am more than willing to return to my home country too.

Q: If someone gave you $40 million to solve one problem on our planet, what would you tackle?

A: I believe everyone’s top priority should be handling climate change in a sustainable manner and remedying the damages we have done to our planet as much as we can. Judging the scale of this massive long-term endeavor, I do not think $40 million would be a lot of money though.

Apart from this global issue, if I was given $40 million, I would like to use that money to better the future of underprivileged children in India by providing resources and ensuring quality education for them. I, myself, had an extremely struggling childhood, so I know quality education is the only way up, and it changes things for future generations also.