MAHÉ BEN-HAMED

For almost 20 years, my research has been situated in linguistic anthropology, at the intersection of Language Sciences and Natural Sciences. Trained as a biologist, I have approached the diversity of world languages from the theoretical and methodological standpoint of evolutionary ecology to provide, on one hand, relevant transdisciplinary tools for historical sociolinguistics to leverage the massification of language description data, and on the other hand, to study specific linguistic domains (at various geographic scales and historical depths), that have long been conceptualized using linear and Euro-centric evolutionary models. Beyond the evolution dynamics that question the nature/culture divide, languages and sociolinguistic systems undergo homogenization and extinction dynamics similar to those affecting natural species and ecosystems, calling for a simultaneous consideration of the preservation of natural and cultural modes of life.

On a more personal level, I have been training since 2011 in various contemplative and somatic practices (focused on the perception of the body, gesture, and movement), with specific interest in their clinical applications, especially concerning trauma, and in their extensions beyond healthcare institutions. In recent years, this life thread has become my main research focus, studying the politicized uses of somatics and the contemplative  (both as practices and epistemologies) by social (and environmental) justice movements in the United States, the United Kingdom, and continental Europe. Combining a practitioner, a facilitator, and a researcher standpoint I explore:

• The critical reformulations of somatics and contemplative practices by these movements, focusing on historically and systemically marginalized corporealities.
• The forms of citizenship and collective actions that emerge, particularly around concepts such as healing justice, deep democracy, and somatic abolitionism.
• The imaginaries, utopias, and futurisms that develop within these movements, as well as the theorizations of somatic/contemplative practices as technologies for social change.

Finally, I also leverage somatic and contemplative approaches to explore alternative and participatory forms of knowledge production and sharing, especially through mediums such as sound, object theater, improvisation, and ephemeral writing.

CNRS Department
Linguistics/anguage Sciences (34)

Disciplines
Anthropology, Linguistics

Keywords

• Politicized uses of somatic and contemplative practices
• Critical epistemologies
• Corporealities and/in crisis
• Minority experiences and sensibilities
• Somatic activisms
• Therapeutic citizenships
• Cultural memory and affective cultures
• Participatory research
• Research/creation
• Sensory writing

    
Geographies
North America, UK, Europe

Scientific disciplines