Layla AbdelRahim
Layla AbdelRahim | |
|---|---|
| Alma mater | Bryn Mawr College; School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences; Stockholm University; Université de Montréal |
| Occupation(s) | Comparatist, anthropologist, anarcho-primitivist philosopher |
| Known for | Anarcho-primitivist perspectives; critiques of civilization, education, and domestication |
| Notable work | Children's Literature, Domestication, and Social Foundation: Narratives of Civilization and Wilderness (2015); Wild Children – Domesticated Dreams: Civilization and the Birth of Education (2013) |
Layla AbdelRahim is a comparatist and anthropologist known for her anarchoprimitivist perspectives. Her scholarship on the narratives surrounding civilization and wilderness has significantly impacted disciplines such as anthropology, literary studies, cultural studies, comparative literature, philosophy, animal studies, ecophilosophy, sociology, anarcho-primitivist theory, anarchism, epistemology, as well as critical examinations of civilization, technology, and educational systems. She connects the loss of biodiversity and environmental harm to monocultural frameworks and a civilized worldview grounded in anthropocentric utilitarianism.
Her publications, including Children's Literature, Domestication, and Social Foundation: Narratives of Civilization and Wilderness (published by Routledge in 2015) and Wild Children – Domesticated Dreams: Civilization and the Birth of Education (Fernwood, 2013), offer important contributions to theories of children's literature while critiquing education as an extension of civilization’s impulse to domesticate youth.
Education
AbdelRahim completed her undergraduate degree (A.B.) at Bryn Mawr College in 1993. Following this, she was awarded the prestigious Thomas J. Watson Fellowship to undertake an anthropological research project across Europe. She pursued graduate education at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (l'EHESS) and earned a master's degree in social sciences from Stockholm University, where she later held a position as a visiting researcher specializing in social anthropology. Her doctoral studies culminated with a Ph.D. from the Université de Montréal’s Department of Comparative Literature. Her dissertation, titled Order and the Literary Rendering of Chaos: Children's Literature as Knowledge, Culture, and Social Foundation, investigates how ontological assumptions shape human self-understanding within anthropology and their role in human-induced biodiversity loss.
Thought
AbdelRahim identifies the roots of oppression in ontological foundations tied to domestication, which categorize beings according to hierarchies of consumption. Utilizing insights from paleontology, ethology, and biological anthropology, she disputes anthropological accounts that depict humans primarily as predators and consumers. This critique further encompasses economic structures and socio-political frameworks influencing environmental conditions, educational practices, and child-rearing methods. Her exploration of narratives contrasting civilization with wilderness informs diverse academic areas such as philosophy of science, evolutionary theory, anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, environmental economics, education, and literary criticism.
Media appearances
AbdelRahim features prominently in anOther Story of Progress, a documentary directed by Thomas Toivonen. She is acknowledged as a leading figure among contemporary anarcho-primitivist philosophers.
Books
- Children's Literature, Domestication, and Social Foundation: Narratives of Civilization and Wilderness (Routledge, 2015)
- Wild Children – Domesticated Dreams: Civilization and the Birth of Education (Fernwood, 2013)
Publications
- Beyond Symbolism and towards Systemic Breakdown, The Anarchist Library, May 2008
- Regarding Objects, Affection, and Objectification, The Paulinian Compass, June 2009
- Understanding the Destruction of the Mind, The Paulinian Compass, November 2009
- Avatar: An Anarcho-Primitivist Interpretation of World History, The Anarchist Library, December 2009
- Tracing Wilderness and Domestication in Children's Stories, The Paulinian Compass, July 2010
- Education as the Regulation of Inner Experience, Fifth Estate, May 2014
External links
- Living people
- 21st-century Canadian non-fiction authors
- 21st-century Canadian female writers
- Anarchist theorists
- Anarcho-primitivism advocates
- Bryn Mawr College graduates
- Canadian female anthropologists
- Deep ecology proponents
- Philosophers specializing in technology
- Russian individuals of Sudanese heritage
- Alumni of the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences
- Stockholm University alumni
- Université de Montréal alumni
- Watson Fellowship recipients
- Montreal-based writers
- Born in the 20th century
- Russian anarchists
- Sudanese anarchists
- Anarchists active in the 21st century
- Year of birth unknown (living people)