Visiting Doctoral Fellow
Visiting Doctoral Fellow, January – September 2015
Diana is a Ph.D. candidate in History and Civilization at the Sorbonne University (Paris 4). She has an M.A in History from the Sorbonne University and an M.A in Political Science from Saint Denis University (Paris 8).
Her dissertation focuses on the role of music in "Lebanese" society during the period of al-Nahda (Arab Renaissance) from the nineteenth century to the Second World War. The study considers Lebanese musical production from different angles. From a social perspective, it traces the musical life in the Ottoman and Mandatory Beirut based on an analysis of the press at the turn of the twentieth century. From a socio-political angle, it analyzes the role of music in the ideological construction of a "national narrative", asserting a certain Lebanese specificity within the Levant. Finally, it analyses the songs’ texts and their messages from a literary perspective, in order to understand and trace subjective, social and political desires, claims, taste and changes in this period.