NEW FACULTY:
Faculty grows globally; international scholar Echchaibi comes to SJMC
By Yu Miao

Nabil Echchaibi

The perspectives of the School's faculty have again become more global with the addition this fall of international scholar Assistant Professor Nabil Echchaibi. His research has revolved around the development of political identities among young Muslims in diasporas and in the Arab world.

Echchaibi said one thing that particularly attracted him to CU-Boulder is the SJMC Center for Religion, Media and Culture.

"I've been familiar with the work of Professor Stewart Hoover, the director of the center. I've been following his work because it's very relevant to mine," he said.

Born and raised in Morocco, Echchaibi went to an Arabic and French bilingual school.

"Morocco is a very polyglot type of country," Echchaibi said. "Geographically, it is a place of interactions of a lot of different cultures." Fluent in four languages – Arabic, French, English and Italian – he did his bachelor's degree work in English literature and acquired familiarity with Anglo-Saxon literature and civilization.

Echchaibi said he always wanted to be a foreign correspondent, and he came to the United States in 1995 at age 23 with a Fulbright grant to study professional journalism in Indiana University's graduate program. Before leaving for the United States, he worked for a year as a print journalist in Morocco, and during his first semester in the master's program at Indiana he worked as a copy editor for a local radio station. Yet after taking a few theory-driven courses, he said he became fascinated with international communication. He switched to the research track and by 2000 had earned master's and Ph.D. degrees in mass communication from Indiana.

His book "Voicing Diasporas: Ethnic Radio in Paris and Berlin Between Cultural Renewal and Retention" is scheduled to be published at the end of 2008. It explores how young North Africans in France and Germany, as well as French and German residents with North African origins, use media – particularly radio – to express their cultural identity.

Echchaibi said he is also editing a book on the popular embrace of blogging outside the United States. It examines how this new use of the Internet has been employed for various purposes such as community building, political activism and independent personal expression.

Echchaibi just finished writing an article about consumer culture and contemporary Islam. He said that traditionally, Muslim women wear the hijab, the Islamic veil, for spiritual reasons. The hijab, usually white or black, is a religious symbol around which an entire segment of the fashion industry has been built. Nowadays, even very well-know designers such as Channel and Yves Saint Laurent are designing hijab for Muslim women. "Religions have become commodities that are offered in the marketplace for people to buy and bargain," he said.

Before coming to CU, Echchaibi taught for three years at Franklin College in Switzerland and also at Indiana University and the University of Louisville. He has traveled the Middle East and North Africa conducting fieldwork on the proliferation of Islamic satellite television and the role of popular culture in challenging the reign of clerical Islam.

In his first semester at CU, Echchaibi taught Newsgathering 1 to first-year master's students. He said he is designing a seminar course focusing on religion and news media.

Echchaibi and his wife, who is from Italy, have enjoyed living in Colorado. He said they love hiking here, and their two children, ages 8 and 3, are excited to try skiing this winter.