Noor Ghazal Aswad
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Thesis

             My research agenda explores how rhetoric and mediated representations have configured immigrants and refugees historically and in the current context. I focus primarily on the ways in which Syrian immigrants and refugees are represented in immigration discourses during the Trump-era, within ideals of American moral exceptionalism and xenophobic discourses of exclusion.
            
The first part of the thesis will involve a rhetorical analysis of the rhetoric of politicians and diplomats, the rhetoric of influential mass media outlets, and refugee representations in non-profit refugee resettlement organizations in the United States. The second pivotal part of the thesis will be to give voice to those intimately affected by these discourses, namely their perspective, their heritage and their history. As such, I will consider the Syrian perspectives on the Syrian conflict and the refugee crisis. Firstly, I will engage in an auto-ethnography based on my embodied experience as a Syrian/diasporic immigrant in the United States. Secondly, I will examine the rhetoric of Syrian activists and dissidents, identified as a counter-public, in response to hegemonic voices in the political sphere who have spoken on behalf of Syrians and Syrian refugees. Finally, I will engage in a rhetorical analysis on Syrian documentaries on the revolution.

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Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

Ghazal Aswad, N. (2021). Radical rhetoric: Towards a telos of solidarity. Rhetoric and Public Affairs, 24(1-2), 207-222. doi:10.14321/rhetpublaffa.24.1-2.0207 

Ghazal Aswad, N. & de Velasco, A. (2020). Redemptive exclusion: A case study of Nikki Haley’s rhetoric on Syrian refugees. Rhetoric and Public Affairs, 23 (4), 735-760.

Amos, S., Barnes, K., Bilbeisi, T., Boudreaux, J., El-Oqlah, E., Ghazal Aswad, N., Gott, D., Hamilton, R., Hernandez, T., Koehn, C., Nordstrom, S., Shivers, A., Snowden, T., & Tabrizi, H.* (2020). She embodied: A materialized collective. Reconceptualizing Educational Research Methodology, 11(2), 34-57. (authors contributed equally, authors here appears in alphabetical order).


Ghazal Aswad, N. (2019). Biased neutrality: The symbolic construction of the Syrian refugee
in The New York Times. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 36(4), 357-375.


Ghazal Aswad, N. (2019). Portrayals of endangered species in advertising: Exercising
intertextuality to question the anthropocentric lens. Environmental Communication,
13(1), 118-134.


Ghazal Aswad, N. (2018). Exploring charismatic leadership: A comparative analysis of the
rhetoric of Hillary C
linton and Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.
Presidential Studies Quarterly, 49(1), 56-74.


Ghazal Aswad, N., Al-Saleh, Y., & Taleb, H. (2013). Clean energy awareness campaigns in
the UAE: An awareness promoter’s perspective. International Journal of Innovation
and Knowledge Management in the Middle East and North Africa, 2(2), 131-156.
4


Ferroukhi, R., Ghazal Aswad, N., Androulaki, S., Hawila, D. & Mezher, T. (2013).
Renewable energy in the GCC: Status, challenges and drivers. International Journal
of Energy Sector Management, 7(1), 84-112.


Ghazal Aswad, N., Vidican, G. & Samulewicz, D. (2011). Creating a knowledge-based
economy in the United Arab Emirates: Realizing the unfulfilled potential of women in
the science, technology, and engineering fields. The European Journal of Engineering
Education, 36(6), 559-570.


Samulewicz, D., Vidican, G. & Ghazal Aswad, N. (2012). Barriers to pursuing careers in
science, technology, and engineering for women in the United Arab Emirates. Journal
of Gender, Technology and Development, 16(2), 125-152.

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Ghazal Aswad, N., Vidican, G. & Samulewicz, D. (2011). Assessing the impact of socio-
economic inequities on college enrollment: Emerging differences in the United Arab
Emirates. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 33(5), 459-471.

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Books

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​Littlefield, R. S., Currie-Mueller, J., Ghazal-Aswad, N., & Vevea, N. (Eds.). (2014).
Intercultural competency: Learning, communicating, and serving. San Diego, CA:
Cognella Academic Publishing.


Ghazal Aswad, N. (2019). Fragmented paradigms of transculturality: Negotiating equivocal
agency in refugee representations in refugee resettlement organizations. In H.
Ghabra, F.Z. Alaoui, S. Abdi and B.M. Calafell (Eds.), Negotiating Identity and
Transnationalism in Middle Eastern and North African Communication and
Critical Cultural Studies. Peter Lang (Forthcoming 2020).

Conference Presentations

Ghazal Aswad, N. (November 8-11, 2018). The inter-play of communication studies
approaches to social justice for refugees, migrants and asylum seekers. The 104th
National Communication Association Annual Convention, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Ghazal Aswad, N. (November 8-11, 2018). Redemptive narratives of rejection in Nikki
Haley’s discourse on Syrian refugees. The 104th National Communication
Association Annual Convention, Salt Lake City, Utah (Top Student Paper).

Ghazal Aswad, N. (April 4-8, 2018). The hand that rocks the cradle. Cross-cultural
musings on the rhetorics of motherhood. Southern States Communication
Association, Nashville, Tennessee.

Ghazal Aswad, N. (April 4-8, 2018). The symbolic construction of the universal refugee: A
discourse analysis of Syrian refugees in the New York Times. Southern States
Communication Association, Nashville, Tennessee (Top Student Paper).

Ghazal Aswad, N. (April 4-8, 2018). Who was more charismatic? An exploration of the
rhetoric of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in the 2016 election. Southern States
Communication Association, Nashville, Tennessee (Top Student Paper).

Ghazal Aswad, N. (November 16-19, 2017). Communicating the risk of climate change:
An analysis of the cover images of popular US news magazines. The 103rd
National Communication Association Annual Convention, Dallas, Texas.

Ghazal Aswad, N. (November 16-19, 2017). Creating a legacy of imposter-free women.
The 103rd National Communication Association Annual Convention, Dallas,
Texas.

Currie-Mueller, J. L., Littlefield, R. S., Ghazal-Aswad, N., Daniel, E. S., & Garrett, J.
(2016). “I Can See the Trust”: Building a Communication Infrastructure Using
a Culture-Centered Approach. The 66th International Communication
Association Conference: Fukuoka, Japan.

Parcha, J., Ghazal Aswad, N., Listopad, S., Bedsaul, J., & Pleggenkuhle, J. (2015,
November 19-22). “Attention whores” and “other people’s shoes”: Exploring
participation and non-participation in the ALS ice bucket challenge. The 101 st
National Communication Association Annual Convention, Las Vegas, Nevada.
 Littlefield, R., Beauchamp, K., Currie-Mueller, J. and Ghazal Aswad, N. (2014, April 25).
Building a culture-centered communication network. Sustainable Agriculture
Conference, Sitting Bull College, Fort Yates.

Ghazal Aswad, N., Al-Saleh, Y., & Taleb, H. (2012, July 11-14). Clean energy awareness
campaigns in the UAE. Gulf Energy Challenges - 3rd Annual Gulf Research Meeting,
5 Workshop 16: The Political Economy of Clean Energy Solutions in the GCC,
Cambridge, UK.

Ghazal Aswad, N. (March 4-5, 2012). Opportunities and challenges facing Arab women in
computing. Women in Computing in the Arab World, New York University, Abu
Dhabi.

Ghazal Aswad, N. (2012, March 4-5, 2012). Expanding the pipeline of female computer
scientists and engineers in the United Arab Emirates. Regional Workshop on Women
in Computing in the Arab World, New York University, Abu Dhabi.

Ghazal Aswad, N., Vidican, G. & Samulewicz, D. (2011, February 19-22). Socio-economic
status and women’s participation in science, technology and engineering: Varying
motivations towards educational attainment. Oral presentation. 2011 IEEE GCC
Conference and Exhibition, Dubai.

Samulewicz, D., Vidican, G. & Ghazal Aswad, N. (2010, October 20-22). Expanding
women’s participation in science, technology and engineering: the case of the
United Arab Emirates. Oral presentation. The 8th Triple Helix Conference, Madrid.
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Ghazal Aswad, N., Vidican, G. & Samulewicz, D. (2010; September 25-30). Expanding the
role of women in science, technology and engineering in the United Arab Emirates.
Oral presentation. World Renewable Energy Congress, Abu Dhabi.

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