Iman Ali, PhD student in socio-cultural anthropology, was selected as a 2022 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP) fellow.
Iman's Research interests:
Broadly, I am interested in learning about UN peacekeeping, commonly referred to as the “Blue Helmets.” More specifically, I am interested in learning about the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) which has been in South Lebanon since 1978. In my research, I ask how an “interim” force, created within five days, became one of the most expensive peacekeeping missions with an annual budget of over $500 million, and a troop of 10,000 soldiers from 48 countries. My dissertation research aims to understand UNIFIL’s ability to self-sustain its presence for four decades as an “interim” force. Some of my current questions of interest are: What does everyday peacekeeping look like in practice? What can ethnographic research study tell us about the logic of peacekeeping in terms of how it perpetuates, reproduces, and sustains itself? What can the case of Lebanon tell us about the past, current, and future practices of UN peacekeeping?
The photo above was taken by Iman in June 2022 in Khiam’s infamous detention center in South Lebanon. This former prison was established by the French in the 1930s and later used by Israel during its 15-year occupation of Lebanon to indefinitely detain, torture, and kill prisoners until 2000. The center was later bombed by Israel in 2006. Pictured here is some of the rubble inside the former detention center with the town of Khiam in the back.
