In the last installment of the fall 2023 #IAS_NUQ AIMS Virtual Seminar Series, Leila Tayeb, assistant professor in residence at Northwestern University in Qatar, examined the evolving landscape of digital intimacy and violence in contemporary Libya.
Over the past decade, Tayeb explained, the ever-shifting dangers of war have compelled individuals to rely extensively on digital communication, utilizing phone calls, texts, and various applications to sustain connections both within and outside of Libya. Tayeb contextualized the heightened reliance on digital communication as partially due to the targeting of mixed-gender spaces by militia violence and the curtailment of women's mobility in conflict zones like Tripoli and Benghazi.
Following 2011, Libya witnessed the entanglement of gendered hierarchies of power with shifts in the civil war, impacting the formation and sustenance of intimate connections. Tayeb's exploration extended to how war encroaches on personal lives, affecting how potential partners are sought, familial approval is obtained, and gendered traumas are navigated.
Drawing on theories of complex trauma, Tayeb shed light on the "crisis ordinariness" that characterizes daily life in contemporary Libya, shaped by individuated and collective traumatic disorders. In a landscape where physical spaces are less accessible due to war, digital platforms become crucial for young people seeking intimate partners, providing alternative avenues of connection.
Supported by Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Arab Media and Information Studies (AIMS) project at #IAS_NUQ is developing the field of critical media and information studies in the Arab region, transforming it into a more interdisciplinary, multilingual, collaborative, research-oriented, and policy-relevant field.
