Racial-Ethnic Trauma and Liberation for MENA Americans (Part 1‪)‬ Liberation Now Podcast

In this episode, Amir Maghsoodi speaks with pioneering Arab/MENA psychologists Drs. Mona Amer, Maryam Kia-Keating, and Germine “Gigi” Awad, about their paper in the American Psychologist titled “A model of cumulative racial-ethnic trauma among Americans of Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) descent.” They discuss the creation of the model and provide details about its various components, contextualizing them with present-day examples. The authors also share their motivations and process for writing this paper as well as their hopes for what readers take away from reading it. Listen in to learn about cumulative racial-ethnic trauma for MENA Americans, and tune back in next week to hear the authors discuss the model’s implications for healing and liberation. Link to download the paper: https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2019-01033-007.html ABOUT THE GUESTS Germine “Gigi” Awad, Ph.D., (website) (Twitter: @Dr_GigiAwad) is an Associate Professor in the College of Education Department of Educational Psychology and a Louise Spence Griffeth Fellow. Her scholarship is characterized by three interrelated areas of inquiry: prejudice and discrimination, identity and acculturation, and more recently, body image among women of color. She has also written in the area of multicultural research methodology. The majority of her research is guided by the questions "What factors lead to discrimination against ethnic minorities?" and "What impacts perceptions of experienced discrimination?"
The two populations that she has primarily focused on are Arab/Middle Eastern Americans and African Americans. Although overt discrimination towards ethnic minorities has decreased over the years, the practice of more covert, subtle forms of prejudice remains. The events of September 11, 2001, however, reintroduced more explicit forms of prejudice towards Arab/Middle Eastern Americans, and those perceived to be Muslim, complicating the dialogue on discrimination in the United States. Awad is concerned with how prejudicial attitudes and ideology impact attitudes towards ethnic minorities generally and within specific domains such as the workplace and higher education. In addition, she examines how racial/ethnic identity and acculturation impact ethnic minorities' perception of discrimination. Most recently, she has expanded her identity and acculturation research to the study of body image concerns among women of color.
Awad received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Psychology from Southern Illinois University Carbondale and  B.S. in Psychology from John Carroll University.
Maryam Kia-Keating, Ph.D., (website) (Twitter: @drkiakeating) is a Professor of Clinical Psychology in the UCSB Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology, a Licensed Clinical Psychologist, and founder of Power of Drishti, providing meditations and music for changemakers, first responders, clinicians, frontline workers, activists, and other people on-the-go. She oversees the Trauma & Adversity, Resilience & Prevention (TARP) research program at the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education. After attending Dartmouth College, Harvard University, and Boston University, Dr. Kia-Keating completed her post-doctoral work at the University of California, San Diego, and served as the Clinical Director of a secondary prevention school-based program for adolescents. Dr. Kia-Keating's scholarship is focused on resilience in the context of experiences of trauma, adversity, and toxic stress for diverse communities, including refugees and immigrants from around the globe. She uses participatory and human-centered design approaches, working in partnership with communities to find innovative solutions to complex needs. Her community co-designed HEROES program for parents and children teaches mindfulness, parent-child attunement, and restorative communication to support resilience, and mitigate the negative impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). She was appointed to the