University of Northern Iowa UNI ScholarWorks Dissertations and Teses @ UNI Student Work 2018 Live thy neighbor Milica Njezic University of Northern Iowa Copyright ©2018 Milica Njezic Follow this and additional works at: htps://scholarworks.uni.edu/etd Part of the Other Sociology Commons Let us know how access to this document benefts you Recommended Citation Njezic, Milica, "Live thy neighbor" (2018). Dissertations and Teses @ UNI. 577. htps://scholarworks.uni.edu/etd/577 Tis Open Access Tesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Work at UNI ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations and Teses @ UNI by an authorized administrator of UNI ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact Copyright by MILICA NJEZIC 2018 All Rights Reserved LIVE THY NEIGHBOR An Abstract of a Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts Milica Njezic University of Northern Iowa July 2018 ABSTRACT This project explored the concept of neighboring from the cultural perspectives of the Bosnian refugees and the researcher who is Bosnian herself. The goals were to answer several research questions: (1) what kinds of tensions do we battle in liminal spaces and how do they, grounded in culture, shape the way we communicate our roles as neighbors, (2) how do Bosnian immigrants perform neighboring, (3) what constitutes a good neighbor, and (4) what are the researcher’s personal stories and are those experiences shared with others? The author argues that neighboring is something we perform, that Bosnian co-participants show unconditional hospitality towards their neighbors because of their collectivist culture, and that methodologically, this project provides an important intervention in the monologic nature of text-centric scholarship and treatment of the readership/viewership. The project is also significant in its contributions to a scarce body of knowledge that exists on the concept of neighboring in Communication Studies. Chapter 1 offers an introduction to the thesis and poses the research questions. Chapter 2 explores the main concepts relevant to neighboring such as hospitality, individualism/collectivism, culture, performance, liminalities, and communitas. The methodology includes ethnographic interviews, autoethnography, and performance ethnography, and is discussed in Chapter 3. The following chapter contains a script of the Live Thy Neighbor performance, which also serves as the analysis of the data. Chapter 5 is the conclusion chapter, where the author reflects on the themes that emerged from the interviews, her autoethnographic and directing journey, the research questions, limitations of the study, and the study’s contributions to the field. LIVE THY NEIGHBOR A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts Milica Njezic University of Northern Iowa July 2018 ii This Study by: Milica Njezic Entitled: Live Thy Neighbor has been approved as meeting the thesis requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts ___________ ____________________________________________________ Date Dr. Danielle Dick McGeough, Chair, Thesis Committee ___________ ____________________________________________________ Date Dr. Karen S. Mitchell, Thesis Committee Member ___________ ____________________________________________________ Date Dr. Paul J. Siddens, Thesis Committee Member ___________ ____________________________________________________ Date Dr. Patrick Pease, Interim Dean, Graduate College iii Live Thy Neighbor is dedicated to those waking up and falling asleep in the in-between, and to their Neighbors. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am forever thankful to my thesis committee: Dr. Danielle D. McGeough, Dr. Karen S. Mitchell, and Dr. Paul J. Siddens for the trust, guidance, and support they provided. Their encouragement and faith in the importance of this project were crucial to creating it. Thank you to my Bosnian co-participants who have opened up their lives to me and trusted me with telling their story. They made this thesis a product of collaboration with the Neighbors and have showed me the importance of embracing the beauty of life in the in-between. Thank you to the Live Thy Neighbor cast and production staff for co-creating an incredible community and performance. Without them, this scholarship would not yet become alive and begin a powerful dialogue. Thank you to my mother and our neighbors in Bosnia and Serbia. My life with them, and memories of them have shaped the way I perform neighboring and my own culture. Thank you to my father for countless philosophical conversations on the topic of neighboring and culture. Lastly, I am infinitely thankful to my partner and all the friends who have contributed not only to the success of this project, but to the beauty of my life. A special thanks to Andrea Djokovic, for becoming my family and for doing so unconditionally. v TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................................... 9 CHAPTER 3. METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................ 23 CHAPTER 4. ANALYSIS/SCRIPT .......................................................................................... 45 CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................. 70 REFERENCES ...................................................................................................................... 93 APPENDIX A: IRB APPROVAL ............................................................................................. 98 APPENDIX B: BAD NEIGHBOR POEM................................................................................. 99 APPENDIX C: REMEMBERING MISHO ............................................................................. 102 APPENDIX D: A MUSLIM, A CHRISTIAN, AND A GRENADE.............................................. 104 APPENDIX E: MISHO’S TRAGEDY ..................................................................................... 107 APPENDIX F: THE REFUGE ............................................................................................... 108