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It frames the process through rites of passage theory, emphasizing separation, liminal “in-between-ness,” and re-integration where social norms restrict expression.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & 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essay mean by “digital liminality” for Middle Eastern students?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"It refers to using digital technologies and networks to “move between worlds” while studying and traveling, creating an in-between identity and enabling access to information and lifestyles that may be restricted at home.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"Why does the essay consider cross-cultural re-integration difficult?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"Students may become more oriented toward Western freedoms and mediated experiences, yet must later re-enter highly conservative societies with rigid standards of behavior and strong restrictions on expression.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"How does the essay use rites of passage theory to structure its analysis?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"It applies Van Gennep’s three-part typology—separation, transition (the liminal phase), and re-integration—then argues that Saudi students often experience incomplete 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\nUniversity of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez  \nIntroduction  \nThe phenomenon of using digital devices to “move between worlds” is not limited to one region, or age group. Therefore this essay about the digital liminality of Middle Eastern students should resonate in several fields, including cultural studies and ethnography. The project grew out ofa year in Riyadh, during which I undertook ethnographic research with Islamic students who faced difficult challenges as they moved from their in-between-ness as university students—during which they roamed widely through both digital and geographical travel—to the process of re-integrating back into their highly conservative home societies.  \nThe number of Muslim students now enrolled in Europe and the U.S., or the number of instructors of English who are employed in the Islamic world, would be difficult to quantify. Saudi Arabia alone sent 66,000 students to U.S. universities in 2011, making it “the fastestgrowing source of foreign students in the U.S., ahead of China”(Knickmeyer 2012). Having witnessed the intensive recruitment of English language instructors while in the Gulf States region, I believe that theorizing this site of intercultural exchange is overdue.  \nWhile teaching in Riyadh from 2013-2014, I saw that Saudi students were achieving separation and liminality 1 through digital technology in ways that were unimaginable for prior  \ngenerations. They were forming new identities and accessing information that could not be  \nadmitted when they were later “re-integrated” into a social order that confines its subjects in within rigid standards of appearance and behaviour, and places “severe restrictions of freedom of expression”(Al-Rasheed 2014: 353) . I wanted to hear what students had to say about their liminality, or in-between-ness—living between the world of Western freedoms and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s world of submission, where most of them would be working, and raising families. My goal was to give students a framework to understand their role as “threshold people” people on the verge of a new way of life, and to help them analyse the challenges of reincorporation in a Saudi context.  \nWhen I began implementing a restructured Freshman English curriculum at Al Faisal University in 2013-2014, I built on an understanding reached with students. When I framed the university experience as a rite of passage in the Fall of 2013 (Stephens 2014; 2015), students immediately grasped that in their digitally-mediated rite of passage, both they and their society will have to change.  \nAlthough many of this generation express in digital form their desire for “some form of change,” these youths “still remain socially conservative”(Ali Sallam and Hunter, 2013: 145) . Yet they also have an appetite for on-line entertainment, and a general willingness to “do as the Romans do,” when abroad. Based on interactions with over 200 Saudi students, I would describe them as moving through a unique liminal phase, because of their acute connectedness to the“outside world.” This is not like the Amish Rumspringa, where after sowing some wild oats, most Amish youth return to the fold, having left behind their period of experimentation.2 Many of my Saudi students come from wealthy families, and have travelled widely in Europe and the U.S. Not a few have attended U.S. universities. Saudi youths may be “completely different”  \nwhen they are in the West, but no one imagines that they will leave their cells behind, or abandon what they have learned through their virtual and physical travels. I ask my students: are you going to give up all you have learned about technology, the lifestyles of other cultures, etc.? They say, of course not. Then I ask: will Saudi society be able to accept all of your changes? They are just as definitive: no. Clearly, in this re-integration process, something has to give.  \nIt is the dif","cbCaipp3k4R6gRDK","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaipp3k4R6gRDK","pdf",583874,31,"English","# Introduction\n## Digital liminality and intercultural exchange\n## Re-integration challenges in conservative societies\n# Rites of Passage framework\n## Separation\n## Transition (liminality)\n## Re-integration","[{\"question\":\"What does the essay mean by “digital liminality” for Middle Eastern students?\",\"answer\":\"It refers to using digital technologies and networks to “move between worlds” while studying and traveling, creating an in-between identity and enabling access to information and lifestyles that may be restricted at home.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the essay consider cross-cultural re-integration difficult?\",\"answer\":\"Students may become more oriented toward Western freedoms and mediated experiences, yet must later re-enter highly conservative societies with rigid standards of behavior and strong restrictions on expression.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the essay use rites of passage theory to structure its analysis?\",\"answer\":\"It applies Van Gennep’s three-part typology—separation, transition (the liminal phase), and re-integration—then argues that Saudi students often experience incomplete separation, using digital technologies to achieve a kind of liminality.\"}]","Digital Liminality and Cross-Cultural Re-integration in the Middle East - Essay | PDF",1792085835,78]