International and Area Studies Commons^™

Living A Parallel Life: Memoirs And Research Of A Transnational Korean Adoptee, Mary C. Robinson

Master of Liberal Studies Theses

This thesis project consists of two parts: a memoir of my experience as a Korean adoptee, and a research paper examining how transracial, transnational adoption affects identity development in Korean adoptees. The memoir, as a first person narrative, gives voice to the research as one example of the findings. The majority of research on Korean adoptees has focused on levels of adjustment within a short time frame after adoptees’ placement in their adoptive homes. While the overwhelming majority of the prior research has declared positive and overall satisfactory adjustment for most adoptees, serious flaws exist in the methodologies that do …

Authenticity And Identity-Making In A Globalized World: Capoeira In Boston And New York, Madeline L. Bishop

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

The Abaya: Fashion, Religion, And Identity In A Globalized World, Elizabeth D. Shimek

Lawrence University Honors Projects

The abaya is a traditional robe worn by women in the Arab Gulf states as both a symbol of national identity and as a part of Islamic veiling customs. Over the last twenty years, partly due to exposure to Western couture fashion, the abaya has changed from a plain, voluminous black robe to a unique signifier of personal taste through variations in fabrics, cuts, colors, and detailing. This study explores both the physical and symbolic changes the abaya (and the industry surrounding it) has undergone, as well as how these changes both reflect and provoke the conflicts in identity residents …

National Identity And The Education Of Immigrant Youth In Spain, Kathleen C. Mautner

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis examines the present-day educational policies enacted by Spain in response to the country’s growing immigrant populations, specifically by comparing the policies implemented in two of Spain’s distinct autonomies. The thesis ultimately argues that the regions’ differing conceptualizations of national identity and their distinct relationships to the central Spanish state play a fundamental role in their motivations to enact comprehensive and effective policies that promote immigrants’ educational and social success.

The Cuban Ripple Effect: Writing Cubanidad In The Diaspora, Isabel Valiela

Spanish Faculty Publications

The article, inspired by Antonio Benítez-Rojo’s postmodern work on Caribbean identity, The Repeating Island, applies the metaphor of a ripple effect to the writers of the Cuban Diaspora. These are writers who have left Cuba after the Cuban Revolution, but who belong to different generations, have left at different times, have established themselves in different countries, and write in different languages on themes unique to their particular experiences and interests. Yet, they share a Cuban identity based on the experience of displacement from their place of origin. Their collective trajectory resembles the ripple effect in water, which expands and changes …

The New Mexican Migration: Remembering Violence, Connecting, And Living In The Third Space, Uriel G. Posada

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The concept of identity has become a topic of discussion in the last few decades, especially with the growing immigration across several countries. Countries such as the United States and Canada are receiving people who arrive from different parts of the world and who are changing the composition of these countries. In this thesis I explore how a group of Mexican journalists are adjusting their identity as they live in countries outside of Mexico. Five of the journalists are now living in the United States, and one of them is in Canada. They were forced to leave Mexico after they …

Les Fondements Littéraires De La Réception D’Aimé Césaire Au Bénin, Guy Ossito Midiohouan

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Aime Cesaire is a popular writer in Benin. Evidence lies in the increasing number of writers and scholars who have been supporting his ideas since the 60s. His books are on secondary school as well as university curricula. He has enjoyed more attention in the 1990s with the advent of democracy and the notable influence of then Head of State N. D. Soglo who is a keen admirer of his political career. Cesaire is held in such an esteem in Benin because he is capable of going beyond his natal Caribbean and willingly express the sad destiny of Africa ever …

Hyphenated Identities As A Challenge To Nation-State School Practice?, Edmund T. Hamann, William England

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

This chapter concludes the edited volume Hyphenated Identities and affords a chance to juxtapose how transnational students negotiate school and identity with how school systems in turn view such students, and then it allows the examination of two different strategies -- situational ethnicity versus the assertion of hyphenated identity -- as a glimpse into the cosmology of transnationally mobile students as they come into adulthood.

La Poésie Hors-Normes De Mohamed Hmoudane Ou L’Art De La Provocation, Yamna Abdelkader

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Poetry is often understood as a series of deviations from linguistic norms, but Mohamed Hmoudane’s collections appear to be a systematic subversive strategy against both aesthetic conventions and prevailing assumptions about Eastern and Western identitarian categories. Published between 2003 and 2005, the works entitled Attentat, incandescence and Blanche mécanique avert poetic clichés as they invert cultural stereotypes, taking a most satirical stance toward the state of the world at the dawn of a new millenium. The pervasive sense of detachment resulting from Hmoudane’s satirical tendencies is associated with a poetics of excess, and this paradoxical union serves as a powerful …

Caring Work: Opening A Space Of Possibility For Exploring Transnational Feminist Solidarity Between Privileged And Marginalized Women, Beverly Romero Natividad

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Neoliberalism, through its emphasis on personal responsibility and individual freedom in accelerating economic development globally, has only pushed women further into the margin of society. Structural adjustment programs (SAPs), which impose state budget cuts on healthcare and welfare programs, particularly have kept poor women and women of color in poverty and generally, have exploited women's labor. However, in this age of neoliberalism, women's solidarity becomes more significant. Because neoliberalism is founded on individualism, its downfall rests on alliance-building. Against this backdrop, I explore the possibility of fostering transnational feminist solidarity between privileged and marginalized women engaged in formal caring work. …

Assessing (Multi)Culturalism Through Public Art Practices, Anru Lee, Perng-Juh Peter Shyong

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

History Education And Identity Formation: A Case Study Of Uganda, Takako Mino

CMC Senior Theses

History education builds the foundation of a common past necessary for the formation of group identity. Evaluating History curricula is important because group identity guides people’s political behavior. This Uganda case study demonstrates how different actors have manipulated History education in order to enhance the saliency of ethnic, national, and regional identities. The expansion of nationalized education and the teaching of Ugandan, East African, and African history have contributed to fostering the rise of national consciousness in Uganda. Greater awareness of national identity has promoted national integration while marginalizing non-school educated people.

Immigration And Identity Politics: The Senegalese In France, Justine Dodgen

CMC Senior Theses

As immigrants arrive in a new culture, they must modify their behaviors to adapt to their host society. Through a review of current literature, I will examine the psychological and sociological aspects of immigration and the effects on migrant identity. I will argue that migrants most desire a bicultural identity, in which they retain some elements of their ethno-cultural identity while adopting some values of French society. The construction of a bicultural identity presents a challenge due to the particular philosophical foundations of the French nation-state and French culture. In the next chapter, I will analyze the challenges Senegalese migrants …

Representation In Kenya, Its Diaspora, And Academia: Colonial Legacies In Constructions Of Knowledge About Kenya's Coast, Jesse Benjamin

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

This paper explores the construction of knowledge in Kenya in the context and aftermath of colonialism and underdevelopment. Those communities that were politically and economically marginalized in Coast Province over the past century were also displaced in terms of academic opportunities, resulting in fewer social science scholars from Mijikenda and other non-Swahili communities in both Kenyan and diaspora universities. Underdevelopment studies in Africa and Kenya are briefly reviewed, and the colonial history of asymmetric social relations at coastal Kenya is traced. Finally, key debates over identity and history are examined within this context and shown to be exacerbated by diasporic …

Sea Cruise: Israelis And Palestinians Drowning In Water Sport, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The article discusses differing Israeli and Palestinian narratives in regards to the deaths of 9 people during an Israeli blockade of Hamas-controlled Gaza.

Deconstructing Collective Identities And Violence: Analytical Perspectives From Indonesia, Brandon Scott Sternquist

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this study is to establish a more applied, analytical approach to analyses of collective identity and violence while providing insights into the dynamics of the regions of Indonesia considered. By focusing on two regions of Indonesia - Aceh and Kalimantan - which are populated by distinct peoples and have experienced violence in contemporary times, this study contributes to the expanding literature on the social dynamics of identity and violence. To ensure a more practical approach within the study, concepts and frameworks which have contributed to discussions of the nature of identity and acts of violence are utilized. …

The Transnational Gaze: Viewing Mexican Identity In Contemporary Corridos And Narcocorridos, Charlene Ladawn Montano

Honors Papers

Through the lenses of technology and gender I offer a new perspective on the employment and utilization of corrido tropes throughout history and in modern culture. Technology has expanded the transnational gaze, not only increasing the sheer number of listeners but also incorporating a visual element to the (narco)corridos. The enlarged and geographically diversified community of listeners coupled with visual elements only strengthens the tropes evident since the earliest corridos.

Gender is markedly absent in the literature that discusses corridos, but its presence in the tradition has a strong influence on the Mexican mask. The ways in which gender is …

L’Écriture De La Perte Chez Assia Djebar, Lila Kermas

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This study proposes a reflexion on the feeling of “loss” as a source of literary creation. The different tensions generated by an hybrid identity of a character in a quest, especially in La disparition de la langue française (“disappearance of the French language”) by Assia Djebar ; what matters here is to see how the feeling of crisis and the split reveals itself and how it dissolves in and through (the process of) writing.

Politique Culturelle : Tradition, Modernité Et Arts Contemporains Au Sénégal, 1960-2000, Kinsey Katchka

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This essay approaches contemporary arts in Senegal and their exhibition from the perspective of cultural policy. This is an especially salient approach in Senegal, where policy has played a significant role in exhibition and creative practice since the colonial period. This history is conventionally examined through a distinctly nationalist framework that reveals the government’s clear distinction between "tradition" and "modernity". State exhibition practice and rhetoric have reinforced this dichotomy, serving to position the Senegalese state as purveyor, definer, and arbiter of cultural heritage. However, diverse creative expressions throughout the capital city of Dakar call into question nationalist rhetoric’s rigid distinction …

Les Limites De L’Appartenance : Composition, Intertextualité Et Langue Dans Les Dents Du Topographe Et Méfiez-Vous Des Parachutistes De Fouad Laroui, Carla Calargé

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

In this article, I examine two novels by Fouad Laroui, Les dents du topographe (1996) and Méfiez-vous des parachutistes (1999). I analyze the difficulties encountered by their narrators when they try to find and define non alienating cultural and geographical spaces to which they could belong. For that purpose, I study the composition of the two novels, the play of intertextuality as well as the language of the main characters.

Art And Identity: The Creation Of An ‘Imagined Community’ In India, Maria Kingsley

Global Tides

Colonial powers, indigenous traditions, and internal ethnic and religious rivalries all contribute to Indians’ modern sense of identity. This paper demonstrates how the development of Indian art reflects the contributions of these factors to the creation of an “imagined community” in India. In particular, the artistic discourse in India reflects a larger tension in Indian identity and politics between becoming a part of the modern, global economy and remaining a unique, national, self-defining community.

Representation In Kenya, Its Diaspora, And Academia: Colonial Legacies In Constructions Of Knowledge About Kenya's Coast, Jesse Benjamin

Faculty Articles

This paper explores the construction of knowledge in Kenya in the context and aftermath of colonialism and underdevelopment. Those communities that were politically and economically marginalized in Coast Province over the past century were also displaced in terms of academic opportunities, resulting in fewer social science scholars from Mijikenda and other non-Swahili communities in both Kenyan and diaspora universities. Underdevelopment studies in Africa and Kenya are briefly reviewed, and the colonial history of asymmetric social relations at coastal Kenya is traced. Finally, key debates over identity and history are examined within this context and shown to be exacerbated by diasporic …

The Whitening Of Brown Skins And The Darkening Of Whiteness, Elaine Laforteza

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

This paper draws on the interrelation of whiteness and Orientalism to provide a framework for examining the use of skin-bleaching lotions and soaps by some Filipino men and women. Through this focus, I investigate the ways in which skin-bleaching negotiates the "threatening" existence of brown flesh upon the contours of Filipino bodies and within the corpus of western(ised) nations. These threats are negotiated through the skin wherein various chromatic inflections of the flesh become processed as a part of or a threat to normative comfort zones. Skin-colour is thus the site of and for discursive construction and a domain of …

Re-Presenting The Religious: Nation, Community And Identity In Museums, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper examines the roles that museums play as 'unofficially sacred' places, underscoring or challenging the religious life of a people and 'nation'. It focuses on three key questions: (1) Do sub-national and transnational religious formations pose a challenge to or present opportunities for nation-building strategies, and what part do museums play in this struggle? (2) In what ways do re-presentations of religion in museums contest or reinforce religious community and identity? and (3) What challenges do museum displays pose to the understanding of religious meanings? This paper explores these three key questions about the intersection of religion with politics …

Shifting Identity: Process And Change In Identity Of Aging Mexican-American Males, Gary L. Villereal, Alonzo Cavazos

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This article addresses the shift in machismo identity that occurs in Mexican-American male identity and the developmental process and the change in one's role as an elderly Mexican-American man.

Socialization of male-ism in Mexican-American boys begins with the cultural expectation that a young boy is and will be a man. There are also explicit expectations that girls should be respected but that, in contrast to boys, girls should be submissive and obedient. This is the beginning of machismo and the separation of being a "man" versus being a "woman."

Aging results in a loss of machismo and this is evident …

L'Incipit Dans L'Œuvre D'Ahmadou Kourouma, Sélom Komlan Gbanou

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

The literary work can develop an internal identity as a particular mark. Several African writers incorporate into their novels indications of culture that derive from verbal arts. This method gives to the writing a particular aesthetic in between two cultures, creating in the writing an individuality of certain writers such as Ahmadou Kourouma. For him the question is not only to distort the French language to express his Malinke identity, but also to develop a method of incipit that belongs to verbal art.

Robertson Davies: Narrative Structure And The Search For A Canadian Identity, Angela M. Busboom

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduation requirement for the BSU Honors Program.

The Making Of Little Sweden, Usa, Steven M. Schnell

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Ethnic tourism in the United States has become big business. An estimated six billion dollars were spent on various forms of "heritage tourism" (including ethnic tourism) in the US in 1995 alone.¹ At first glance, this desire for roots and tradition within an American public more often noted for its worship of progress and individualism may seem surprising. Yet as Americans have become increasingly mobile, wired, and rootless,² many have become disillusioned with the growing urbanization and industrialization of their society³ and have begun efforts to recapture a sense of what they perceive as traditional rural community. …

Singapore And The Experience Of Place In Old Age, Lily Kong, Brenda S. A. Yeoh, Peggy Teo

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Through case studies of two neighborhoods in Singapore with large concentrations of elderly residents-Tiong Bahru and Chinatown-we explore the relationship between the aged's emotional attachments to place and the sustenance of their personal identities, their continued participation in life, and their adaptation to changing circumstances. In particular, we examine their feelings of physical, social, and autobiographical insideness. We emphasize the rapidly changing physical conditions in Chinatown wrought by the government's conservation strategy and their implications for the elderly. In Tiong Bahru young people are moving to newer housing developments, leaving the aged behind in an essentially little-changed physical environment; we …

Making "Music At The Margins"? A Social And Cultural Analysis Of Xinyao In Singapore, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Formalist critics and aestheticians have argued that music does not possess any kind of "extra-musical" significance, that there is no meaning beyond the form and structural relations of the notes. For them, music exemplifies the laws of mathematical harmony and proportion rather than the social and political contexts within which it is produced, reproduced and consumed. This view has been challenged by a number of social theorists: Max Weber, Theodor Adorno and Edward Said have all argued for an understanding of music within its social, cultural, economic and political contexts. Such analysis of popular music is now unquestioned. Indeed, it …