Special Issue: On Fitting In

Special Issue 2

Letter from the Editor

22 october 2023

The editorial board is delighted to share our second Special Issue, On Fitting In. The two essays you will find in this issue are personal reflections on identity that address the tension of fitting in when one feels pulled between two conflicting cultures. Both authors approach these reflections from postcolonial perspectives, but they use distinct lenses to draw their conclusions, taking gender theory as a focus in one case and mapping in the other. 

Throughout “In the Grey Zone: The Invisible Conflict of a Gendered Colonized Mind,” Mariam Rabah breaks down how she does and does not fit into Egyptian society as a young woman who attends the American University in Cairo and primarily speaks English in her daily life. She considers the ways that gender, religion, and colonization separate her both from Egyptian society and Western culture. The essay starts with a reflection on the author’s own place in Egyptian society and how her love of the Korean pop band BTS drew criticisms from those around her, leading her to question how society connects gender and sexuality. In “The Land of In-Between,” Frances Wang-LaVallée writes about gradually learning to embrace her Chinese heritage, exemplified by her Chinese name and the chop, a seal used to sign documents in East Asia, that her father gave her when she was born. She explains that for her, because both her Chinese and American names are engraved on it, the chop symbolizes an ambiguous space between the two cultures. She creates a map of her world through images, from children reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to New York City’s ice cream trucks, in order to consider her Asian-American identity as well as her relationship with New York and America more broadly.  

Together, these two essays remind us that choosing not to fit in can lead to greater freedom and self-knowledge. Rabah grapples with intellectual colonialism in modern Egyptian society, highlighting its wide-ranging effects on her own life and ultimately choosing to forge her own path between Egypt and the West. Wang-LaVallée underscores the contradictions of growing up Asian-American, using mapmaking to describe unlearning internalized racism and coming to terms with her Chinese heritage. We hope that these pieces will provoke reflection and conversation, and we invite you to read the call for papers for our next issue, On Identity. We look forward to your submissions!

Sincerely,

The Process Editorial Board

In the Grey Zone: The Invisible Conflict of a Gendered Colonized Mind

Mariam Rabah

Mariam Rabah analyzes how, as a young woman who attends the American University in Cairo and primarily speaks English, she does and does not fit into Egyptian society. In doing so, she considers the ways that gender, religion, and colonization contribute to the internal tensions between Egyptian society and Western culture she struggles with.

Keywords: gender, decolonization, identity crisis, resistance