Paper short abstract:

Addressing social and other forms of injustice may be achieved by reflecting on theoretical resources within psychological anthropology and by explicitly exploring critically the interface of different groups and the political regimes within which they reside

Paper long abstract:

Psychological Anthropology has been quite “color mute.” Addressing social and other forms of injustice may be achieved by reflecting not only on resources already within psychological anthropology but also by explicitly exploring new themes: First, examining the interface of individuals and groups with the political regimes within which they work; Second, exploring interfaces of subjects and the work of professionals like psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers but also professionals in other fields like economists, environmentalists or architects, and urban planners; Third, choosing issues of social justice as central to the research project and research site; Fourth, drawing upon critical traditions like feminist and post-colonial theories and paradigms and relating them to current and historically rooted forms of injustice while attending to the experiences of individuals. Fifth, adding to person-centered-ethnographies research strategies that look at the broader political picture, like state structures, the education system, the urban environments within which individuals – and communities – live, and interact and struggle. We should ask then explicitly about differences in living spaces and how they reflect on the experiences of individuals, and on ways individuals within such groups struggle with issues of injustice. I will illustrate these themes by analyzing the racialized conversion processes of Jewish immigrants in Israel – how the State tries to construct the subjects of white Russian vs Black Ethiopian Jews differently, and how each group responds to the different conversion tracks offered to them -- individualized vs communal.