While Iraqi higher education has been recognised in state building agendas, the social sciences are marginalised and neglected. Academic disciplines concerned with social and human relationships could play vital roles in continued transition from conflict as Iraq contends with turnaround from fragility. However, lack of recognition means the field has not been prioritised.
Through critical, participatory approaches from a social justice perspective, research focuses on how Iraqi academics constitute the social sciences and envision its potential to contribute to Iraq's development. Themes in qualitative survey and interview results constructed via Reflexive Thematic Analysis amplify critical voice and generate understanding of legacy issues. While enduring, seemingly intractable challenges in the social sciences are reported, the thesis attempts to progress this narrative.
Initial roles of Iraqi social sciences are characterised as Marginal, with structural neglect and social biases affecting scholars and students. Ideas for potentially Constructive roles which investigate employability, meaningfulness, and routes towards a dynamic research culture, are hampered by the often Destructive barrier language presents to teaching, learning and knowledge production, perpetuating cycles of recoloniality. Long sought curriculum change has Generative scope attesting to pedagogical and theoretical roles social science academics might explore. Results offer global developments and human relationships through Iraqi lenses as ideational foundations for syllabus design, although the ideological utility of curricula needs broad assent as versions of truth have capacity to disrupt.
The first known report directly concerning the Iraqi social sciences since 2008, this thesis contributes to research considering affirmative ethics in transitional and post conflict scenarios. Prioritising agency through ground-up consultation and dialogue is a socially just, replicable process which ameliorates issues of centralised control and provides legitimacy to educational reforms. Despite a spirit of pessimism, academics propose how the social sciences can tackle issues, solve problems and imagine futures for post war Iraq.
