Wesam Wekhyan

My doctoral research explores how tribal identity, relational life, and social transformation unfold within Bedouin communities in Madaba, Jordan. The project examines how collective belonging and indigenous knowledge are sustained and reinterpreted amid shifting social, political, and environmental conditions. Rather than approaching tribal identity as a fixed category, I study it as a living moral and social framework through which people negotiate continuity, responsibility, and community in everyday life.

Methodologically, my work brings together decolonial and participatory approaches with insights from Islamic liberationist thought, emphasising relational accountability, reciprocity, and care as foundations of ethical research. I am interested in how local epistemologies, storytelling, and creative practices operate as forms of knowledge production that challenge dominant academic and development paradigms.

Alongside this research, I founded ezwa, a community-based creative culture hub in Madaba. ezwa extends this ethos beyond the academy, creating spaces where storytelling, craft, and collective reflection become living forms of knowledge-making and community expression. It functions both as a research site and as a platform that connects intergenerational voices and practices sustaining everyday life.

Broadly, my interests include decolonial and Islamic liberationist methodologies, community-based research, indigenous epistemologies, participatory and arts-based methods, and ethics grounded in lived relationships. My work contributes to reimagining how knowledge from within local moral worlds can reshape broader understandings of identity, community, and transformation.