Abstract

Between 2005 and 2009, I conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Lebanon that would ultimately result in a dissertation that looked at some of the ways an anticipation of war impacted people’s everyday lives, and what this said about the way people were experiencing violence. During this time, I worked with political activists and with former militia fighters from Lebanon’s war (1975–1990) to gather their stories of past experiences with war, and to observe them as they dealt with present and future political conflict. Aside from recording interviews, I engaged in a wide array of activities that included attending political, religious, and social events, hanging out at political party offices, participating in relief efforts and in demonstrations (and helping to organize them in a few cases), and living through several armed conflicts.