Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Diaspora theory'

Existing theories of liberal multiculturalism do not adequately address the notion of ethnicity, which remains an important way that people recognize themselves and their identities. Taking the effects of ethnicity seriously forces us to theorize ways that individuals and groups access political and social belonging. This thesis proposes a revised understanding of patriotism and diaspora as multicultural strategies to manage ethnic diversity in the hopes of improving our analytical framework.
Les théories actuelles du multiculturalisme libéral ne répondent pas adéquatement à la notion d'ethnicité, qui reste un moyen important pour que les gens se reconnaissent eux-mêmes et leurs identités. En prenant les effets de l'appartenance ethnique au sérieux, nous devons forcément oblige à théoriser sur les moyens queles individus et les groupes utilisent pour accéder à l'appartenance sociale et politique. Cette thèse propose une compréhension révisée du patriotisme et de la diaspora en tant que stratégies multiculturelles pour gérer la diversité ethnique en vue d'améliorer notre cadre d'analyse.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007.
The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on March 12, 2009) Includes bibliographical references.

In its theoretical part this master thesis identifies the main criteria determinating a diasporic ethnic group, based on publications from the scholarly journal Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies. Further on the master thesis deals with the history of the Jewish diaspora, firstly with the worldwide Jewish diaspora and subsequently with the Jewish diaspora in the United States . The further part of the master thesis concerns a more specific determination of the Jewish diaspora in the United States -- the history, structure and influence of the Jewish lobby in the United States. The last part supports with illustrative examples the influence of the Jewish lobby on the United States foreign policy on the US economic and military aid to Israel in particular.

This thesis seeks to analyse the role of the Gambian diaspora activists in Gambian politics particularly during the December 1st, 2016, Presidential election in which the long-time dictator Yahya Jammeh was defeated by the less experienced and known Adama Barrow. Despite an extensive mobilization effort over the past twenty-two years, spanning across continents, the fragile and disorganized Gambian diaspora has been unable to exert influence in Gambian politics due to unfavourable domestic conditions such as the unwillingness of the opposition to unite as well as state repression. However, the formation of coalition 2016 provided the diaspora activists an opportunity to engage effectively in mobilizing against the Jammeh regime through their online media platforms as well as financial contribution.  By using a multi-level research design using interviews and document analyses, the thesis explores the mobilization strategies of the Gambian diaspora as means of influencing at both the homeland and international levels.

Social and economic challenges in one part of the world influence budgets, security, health, and well being of populations globally as was the case with the 2014 Ebola outbreak. Deficits in healthcare, education, governance, and the economy in African nations result in financial and social contributions from the diaspora residing in the United States. Many African-born immigrants to Florida came with useful knowledge and experience from their home nations that could be a valuable resource in carrying out effective development initiatives. However, accessing that knowledge is challenging. The purpose of this research was to explore the inclusion of members of the African diaspora community in Florida nonprofit development initiatives. The transnational theory of migration underpinned the following research question: What are barriers to, and opportunities for, including members of the African diaspora in Florida-based NPOs that carry out development programs in Africa? Semistructured interviews were conducted with Florida nonprofit leaders (N= 21) who have development projects in Africa. Manual and computer assisted methods using NVivo 11 were used to develop codes and themes for data analysis. Identified barriers to including African diaspora in NPOs included lack of established networks and organizational awareness as well as limited service areas, service locations, funding, and leadership roles. All respondents expressed interest in engaging with diaspora members and other nonprofit leaders via expat networks. Successful engagement with the African diaspora community could promote positive social change by improving program delivery, communication, and programmatic outcomes for a mutual impact in both African and Florida-based communities.

Mohammad Khordadian is a gay, Iranian American dancer and entertainer who immigrated to the United States from Iran shortly after the 1979 revolution. Since his arrival to the United States, Khordadian has produced countless instructional and presentational dance videos which garnered enormous popularity among diasporic Iranians and Iranians in Iran alike. I locate a tension between his adoration by the public and the immense anxiety that male Iranian dancers can induce in other Iranians. Khordadian invokes the historical evolution of the archetypal Iranian male dancer/entertainers written about in Persian literature and poetry --the 12 to 16-year-old, handsome boys with older lovers. As Orientalists linked these sinful relationships to male homosociality and sexual repression in Islam, the memory of the male dancer has been repressed out of an Iranian desire to fold into the pale of Western modernity. Khordadian, with his over-the-top gestures (what I will call “queer gestures”), the transnational circulation of these gestures through instructional videos, and his lived experience as a gay Iranian man, transgresses the boundaries set by heteronormativity and Orientalism. However, this is not without a myriad of complications.

This project examines the ways in which several texts written in the late twentieth century by African American and Caribbean writers appropriate history and witness trauma. I read the representational practices of Toni Morrison, Ernest Gaines, Paule Marshall, and Fred D'Aguiar as they offer distinct approaches to history and the resulting effects such reconstituted, discovered, or, in some cases, imagined histories can have on the affirmation of the self as a subject. I draw my theoretical framework from the spaces of intersection between diaspora and postcolonial theories, enabling me to explore the values of the African diaspora cross-culturally as manifested in the representational practices of these writers. This study creates an opening into recent discourses of the African diaspora by comparing texts in which the effects of history rooted in diaspora are explored, both in how this history cripples with the impact of trauma and how it empowers dynamic self-actualization and the resistance of the status quo. I argue that in these novels, challenging hegemonic historical narratives and bearing witness to the past are necessary for overcoming the isolating and disempowering effects of trauma, while affirming diasporic consciousness enhances the role of communal belonging and cultural memory in the process of self-actualization.

African American Studies
M.L.A.
This work addresses the following question: How has the prominent scholarly literature on the Cayman Islands promoted a discourse that serves to undermine the acknowledgment of African contributions as well as African self-identification in the country? Utilizing an Afrocentric inquiry, the method of content analysis was employed to interrogate selected texts using location theory. It was found that the majority of literature on the Cayman Islands, as well as the dominant ideology within the Caribbean has indeed undermined the acknowledgement of African contributions as well as African self-identification in the country. More scholarship is needed that examines the experiences of African descended people living in the Caribbean from their own perspective, and critically engages dislocated texts.
Temple University--Theses

"Quare Contestations: Bridging Queer, Lesbian, and Feminist Narratives of the Irish Diaspora" examines three sets of biographical and autobiographical narratives about Irish who migrated to the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries. Dwelling primarily in queer studies and diaspora studies, this thesis participates in the construction of a queer Irish diaspora archive by analyzing the spaces of overlap between Irish queer, feminist, and lesbian - together, quare - theory and lived experience in these narratives. In my analysis, I demonstrate the fluidity, movement, and interdisciplinary scope of a quare framework for approaching studies of gender and sexuality in the Irish diaspora context. This thesis intervenes into the work already being done to queer Irish diaspora by examining the contestations of "Irishness" appearing in the narratives that are analyzed, and by in turn contesting and complicating the action and meanings made by "queer" in the existing archive of queer Irish diaspora literature.

Why do some religious movements succeed and spread, while others, seemingly equally popular and successful at a certain time, ultimately fail? It is from this starting point that this thesis approaches religious success or failure in the Roman Empire: exploring a new analytical method for understanding religious change: network theory. The thesis forms two parts. Part I sets out the theoretical frameworks. The focus of network theory is on the processes by which innovation spreads: how interconnectedness facilitates change. Although some innovations might be ‘superior’, viewing success or failure as the result of interplay between inherent qualities of a religious movement and the structure of the social environment in which it is embedded means it is possible to reduce value judgements about superiority or inferiority. The discussion then turns to religious change. The key point is that sociologists of religion can explain something of the processes of religious conversion (or ‘recruitment’) and the success or failure of a religious movement through an analysis of social interactions. Finally, I explain how I shall use networks both as a heuristic approach and a practical modelling technique to apply to the epigraphic data, and detail some of the previous application of networks to archaeological test cases. Part II applies these methods to the epigraphic data of three religions. In Chapter Four, I examine the cult Jupiter Dolichenus, arguing that the previous explanations for the success of the cult are untenable, showing from the epigraphy that the cult spread through a strong-tie network of Roman military officials. In Chapter Five, I look at the development of Jewish identity in the Diaspora, showing that, during the second century AD, Diaspora Jews began to actively display their Jewish identity in their epitaphs. I argue that this re-Judaization represents the ‘activation’ of an ethno-cultural network, as a response to the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and the crushing of the Bar Kokhba rebellion; the visible remains of the rabbinic reforms. In Chapter Six, I discuss the cult of the ‘Highest God’, Theos Hypsistos, taking Mitchell’s argument further to suggest that the huge increase in the dedications during the second-third centuries is not simply a reflection of the epigraphic habit, but rather, that the cult of Hypsistos was swelled by the Gentile god-fearers, as a result of the changes happening within Judaism itself at this time.

Anthropology
Ph.D.
This dissertation focuses on the African American community of Timbuctoo, Westampton, New Jersey. Timbuctoo was founded circa 1825 by formerly enslaved and free born African Americans. The community operated as a "station" along the Underground Railroad. At its peak Timbuctoo had over 125-150 residents and supported a general store, "colored" school, AMEZ church, cemetery and several homesteads. Today the only standing markers of the nineteenth century community are the gravestones in the cemetery. In 2007, Westampton Township acquired roughly four acres of the nearly forty arces that once comprised Timbuctoo. From 2009-2011, Christopher Barton and David Orr conducted archaeological work at the community. The focus of this dissertation was the excavation and analysis of 15,042 artifacts recovered from the Davis Site, Feature 13. The Davis Site was purchased by William Davis 1879. Davis and his wife Rebecca raised their five children in a 12x16ft home constructed on the 20x100ft property. Between the 1920s to the 1940s the foundation of the Davis home was used as a community trash midden. Specifically, this dissertation looks at the practices of yard sweeping, architecture, construction materials, home canning and the consumption of commodified foods. A practice theory of improvisation is posited as a working model to explaining the reflexive practices used by marginalized residents to contest social and economic repression. This theory of improvisation seeks to complicate narratives of poverty through underscoring the dynamic disposition of material culture and everyday life.
Temple University--Theses

This dissertation investigates how Jewish women social scientists relationally established their gendered-racialized subjectivities and theories about race-gender-sexuality-class through their portrayals of black women’s sexuality and family structures in the African Diaspora: the U.S., Brazil, South Africa, Swaziland, and the U.K. The central women in this study: Ellen Hellmann, Ruth Landes, Hilda Kuper, and Ruth Glass, were part of the same “political generation,” born in 1908-1912, coming of age when Jews of European descent experienced an ambivalent and conditional assimilation into whiteness, a form of internal colonization. I demonstrate how each woman’s familial origin point in Europe, parental class and political orientations, were important factors influencing her later personal/professional networks and social science theorizing about women of color. However, other important factors included the national racial context, the political affiliations of her partners, her marital status and her transracial fieldwork experiences. One of the main problems my work addresses is how the internal colonization process in differing nations within the Jewish diaspora differently affected and positioned Jewish social scientists from divergent class and political affiliations. Gendering Aamir Mufti’s primarily male-oriented argument, I demonstrate how Jewish internal divergences serve as an example that highlights the lack of uniformity within any “identity” group, and the ways that minority groups, like Jews, use measures of “abnormal” gender and sexuality, to create internal exiled minorities in order to try to assimilate into the majority colonizing culture. My dissertation addresses three problems within previous studies of Jewish social scientists by creating a gendered analysis of the history of Jews in social science, an analysis of Jewish subjectivity within histories of women (who were Jewish) in social science, and a critique of the either-or assumption that Jewishness necessarily equated with a “radical” anti-racist approach or a “colonizing” stance toward black communities. The data collection followed a mixed methods approach, incorporating archival research, ethnographic object analysis, site visits in Brazil and South Africa, consultations with library, archive and museum professionals, and interviews with scholars connected to the core women in the study.

Culinary narratives are frequently employed to portray migrant identities and societies in Asian diaspora literature This thesis examines cuisine and consumption in Alison Wong’s As The Earth Turns Silver by highlighting the socio-political linkages between material culture and ethnic identity formation of Chinese migrants in New Zealand. Using Brown’s thing theory, food is reframed as site of meaningful discourse to interrogate the role of cuisine and consumption in mediating the migrant experience. It demonstrates the material and cultural importance of food in facilitating ethnic and political identification, transcultural exchange, and independence for frequently oppressed migrant individuals in diaspora literature.  Conversely, food functions as vectors of aggression in racialising the ethnic other by communicating artificial notions of morality, national identity, and purity to reinforce the hegemony. Additionally, culinary objects facilitate how characters articulate their dislocation and fragmentation as hybrid individuals. Finally, I undertake a craft analysis of Wong’s novel by drawing connections between Wong’s hybridity and her narrative design. I use thing theory to demonstrate how characters use culinary objects to negotiate hybridity while the application of transference technique reveals the way material objects are embedded with abstract emotions to communicate writer and character ethnic subjectivity. Findings from the critical analysis are applied to my short story collection Raw. Thing theory provides the theoretical framework for the practical application of transference in my creative thesis, demonstrating its efficacy in improving craft. The creative thesis demonstrates the applicability of theory in creative practice. Finally, it offers an analytical framework for contextualising food as a site of discourse for hybridized identity politics in diaspora literary criticism.

The purpose of this study was to understand the lived experiences of Jamaican Expatriate Female C-suite executives in the diaspora of working in Multi-national Companies (MNCs). A further question to be answered was the meaning they derived from their experiences. With little research emerging from the Caribbean about this elite class of professionals, the research intended to expose the challenges faced as an outsider in unfamiliar spaces. Research on other groups have exposed limiting factors to women’s progress in MNCs. Critical Race Theory with a brief mention of Critical Human Geography and Intersectionality are lens applied to critique the experiences of the eight participants. This research mined the extant literature that looked at navigating barriers, disrupting stereotypes and gender diversity in international careers. The method of inquiry applied to this research was existential phenomenology and its utility in getting to the essence of the women’s lived experiences highlighted the glass-border phenomenon. In reflecting on the outcome, this research opens the door for scholars and practitioners alike, to critically assess the expatriate literature and to probe further the complex relationship between international business, the movement of black talent across geographic and culturally diverse boundaries and the challenges encountered. The results of this study illuminated several themes from the participants textural descriptions: (1) Moving from Invisible to Visible – Disrupting Bias; (2) Who am I? – Identity, Gender and Heritage; (3) Renegotiating the Rules of Engagement paired with Re-branding the Role and Authority of Women in Business; (4) Male Sponsorship Leads to Acceptance; (5) Improving Skill and Competency Capital for New Roles; (6) Building and Maintaining Bridges – Network Management.

Only men can initiate boys into men. Boys are prepared into men by men of integrity, for that reason, when a father is absent a male model has to be found. Lack of models is the number one enemy for our adolescent males in Zimbabwe today. The absence of adult role models means adolescent males are moulded by unsupervised, doubtful and inexperienced peers. In the past the bringing up of a child was a community responsibility. In the present day children are growing up as sheep without a male shepherd. The qualitative and quantitative research methods guided the process of this study. The study revealed that fathers are absent because they have migrated to other countries and that their absence has a negative impact on developing healthy adolescent males. Migration of fathers to the Diaspora could not be resisted by men because of the socioeconomic and political situation in Zimbabwe. Fathers have left the country for greener pastures. The exodus of fathers to the Diaspora has created a vacuum when it comes to mentoring and moulding of male children into adults. The study carried out with adolescent boys indicated that fathers in the Diaspora are engaged in some form of income generating activities. As a result, some of these men are able to provide material needs intended for their families back home. However, the absence of these fathers has made some children feel emotionally abandoned and betrayed, while others are disappointed by fathers who did not bid them farewell at the time they were living the country. There is another group that felt that the absence benefited them. The absence of fathers destroyed father – son relationships, generated anger, bitterness and lack of any future trust with fathers. When children are angered and bitterness resides in them, they would go against their father’s potential assistance. On the other hand, in the process of the study on the absent father, a Christian model of caring for an individual and community emerged. The church has been noted to be the only institution that would guide the society to value the job of caring for the people of God who are in needy situations. When the church cares for the adolescents it will be caring for itself as well as the body of Christ. The author considered the views from James fowler (1981) and Gerkin (1997) on the stages of faith development and the idea of seeing the church as a community of faith in order for this research to portray the community of faith as a Community of Love. This is because it is only by Christ’s love that people are forgiven by God through grace. In addition, it is through love that people are nurtured; miracles of spiritual and numerical growth are realised. Acts 2; bears witness of the power in love fellowships or communities. He states that in sharing the gospel of Christ in love fellowships each member becomes a part of Christ’s body that spreads the gospel. The love fellowships make the church to be more than a preaching or meeting point. It becomes a family where all members have the opportunity to share their experiences at fellowship and individual levels. People will not depend on one person for spiritual growth but on each other for spiritual nourishment. Gerkin was important throughout the research with his pastoral care approach of caring for an individual and the communities of a Christian story in addition to guiding the researcher to create a model for a caring community. Therefore, caring of boys whose fathers are absent requires both individual mentors and local communities to model them. The church has been found wanting by the boys in this study. Boys have indicated that the church was not aware of their pain. This shows that the church was unable to see the depressed and hear the silent voices in order to interpret their situation. This reveals that the church has some parts that need spiritual attention in order for the body of Christ to function optimally. Children will open their hearts in love fellowships in order to be healed, nurtured, sustained and guided through love. Faith will be expressed in a more mature and responsible way when all is done in love. Faith in this study is the act of love that guides individuals and communities to an expression of freedom and responsibility in trusting God’s presence in human situations. It aims at increasing love for one another and to God. For it is only through Christ’s love that healthy memories are created. Chapter one gives the background and context of the problem to the study. It reveals that the motivation to carry out the study emerged from the author’s journey with his father and interactions with young people as a youth pastor. Therefore the socio-economic and political situation in Zimbabwe created an environment for the study to be carried out. In addition, absences of mothers at church prompted him to consider carrying out a study on the: Absent fathers due to migrant work: Its traumatic impact on adolescent males in Zimbabwe. Many women went to collect money from their husbands who are in the Diaspora each month end . Chapters twodemonstrates how a qualitative and quantitative method of carrying of the research is helpful. Listening to stories of the adolescent males enriched the research process. Chapter three dealt with the stages of human development coined by Erik Erikson with the intention to give the reader an understanding regarding the worth of adolescence stage. Chapter four explains father and fatherhood, the role of a father and impact of absence towards the up bringing of adolescent male children. Adolescent males develop their masculinity from their fathers for this reason every child should have a male model in order for him to be a man. In chapter five the researcher engaged in dialogue with adolescent males. Chapter six gave the concluding thoughts and recommendations to the study. The church has been identified as central in guiding children at individual and group levels in this era. The church should be a component of the extended family that is unique but related to the family units without competing with it. Every son needs a biological father from whom he learns how to manage weakness and strengths in his life and act in response to the challenges of the global village. Therefore, a father ought to be a male person in Zimbabwe who fears God and loves his sons not an angel out of this planet. Finally every adolescent child needs Christian males to guide him for it is through Christ’s love that healthy male memories are created.
Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2011.
Practical Theology
Unrestricted

This thesis explores diaspora experiences among Somali-Swedish parents and their daughters where the girls are enrolled in a Muslim-profiled school. The thesis uses migration theory with a transnational perspective, with findings that depart from the traditional view of migrants’ rootedness in a single country. It adopts the new paradigm for the sociology of childhood, where childhood is regarded as a social construction and children are considered to possess agency and competence. Anthony Giddens’s structuration theory and its main concept ‘duality of structure’ was employed as a theoretical tool. Methods that were used were participant observation, interviews (individual and in group) and analysis of essays. The thesis consists of three studies. The first study explores how Somali-Swedish parents explain their choice of a Muslim-profiled school for their children. The results refute the traditional view that such choices are solely faith-based, showing faith as important but not determining. Important factors were finding a school that met their high educational ambitions and  made both parents and children feel trusted, safe and not disrespected because of their faith and skin-colour. The second study explores transnational experiences, particularly the transfer of transnational practices from the Somali-Swedish parents’ to their children and the construction of a transnational social space, built on close global relationships. The results show that transnational practices are feasible irrespective of physical travel. The study also exemplifies the group’s readiness to relocate between countries by the onward migration from Sweden to Egypt, and implications for the children are illuminated. Somalis in diaspora often explain their propensity to move by their past nomadic life-patterns, but this study shows as strong factors the desire for better opportunities in combination with experiences of cultural and economic marginalisation in the West. The third study analyses how girls in grade 5 (about eleven years old) imagine their future career and family life by analysing essays. The findings reveal that their dreams are both consistent with the expectations of their families (in particular, high educational ambitions) and inspired from elsewhere (particularly in terms of future family life). How the girls imagine their adulthood could be seen as an example of how their original culture is subject to change in a new environment.

At the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: Manuscript.

 

Depuis la fondation de la République populaire de Chine en 1949 jusqu'à la période postérieure à 1990 suivant la Réforme et l'Ouverture, la Chine a connu des transformations politiques, économiques et culturelles significatives. En tant que groupe spécial, les Chinois d'outre-mer ont été profondément affectés par ce processus. Cette thèse, basée sur des perspectives politiques et des documents gouvernementaux déclassifiés, étudie l'histoire des immigrants chinois du sud du Zhejiang en France (principalement de Wenzhou et Qingtian), tentant de révéler les politiques chinoises à l'égard des Chinois d'outre-mer et les conditions sociales auxquelles ces immigrants ont été confrontés au cours de différentes périodes historiques.La communauté des immigrants chinois du sud du Zhejiang en France a commencé à se former à la fin du XIXe siècle, restant relativement petite et maintenant des liens étroits avec leurs villes natales. Après la fondation de la République populaire de Chine, le refroidissement des relations sino-françaises a rendu difficile le retour de ces immigrants chez eux, beaucoup étant dissuadés par la propagande et les obstructions du Kuomintang. Les mouvements politiques internes tels que la Réforme agraire et le Grand Bond en avant ont davantage porté atteinte aux droits des Chinois d'outre-mer, entravant leur retour.Cependant, l'atteinte aux droits des Chinois d'outre-mer n'était pas constante tout au long de ces mouvements politiques. Dans les premières années de la République populaire, les politiques chinoises oscillaient entre « gauche » et « droite ». Les Chinois d'outre-mer, en raison de leur statut économique spécial, étaient souvent vus comme un remède aux récessions économiques causées par des mouvements politiques extrémistes de gauche. Des institutions telles que le Conseil des Affaires d'État et la Commission des Affaires des Chinois d'Outre-mer ont saisi ces occasions pour mettre en œuvre des politiques protégeant les droits des Chinois d'outre-mer, attirant certains immigrants chinois du sud du Zhejiang en France à rentrer chez eux pour rendre visite à leurs proches. Ils ont également mené une série de travaux de front uni à travers les médias et les associations chinoises en France, engageant des luttes fréquentes et intenses avec le Kuomintang, soulignant le lien indissociable entre les immigrants chinois du sud du Zhejiang en France et les tendances politiques plus larges de la Chine. Avec le réchauffement des relations diplomatiques sino-françaises et l'établissement de relations diplomatiques en 1964, la tendance des immigrants chinois en France à rentrer chez eux pour rendre visite a augmenté, et l'influence du Kuomintang dans la communauté chinoise française a diminué. Pendant la Révolution culturelle, les droits des Chinois d'outre-mer ont de nouveau été gravement violés. Cependant, il convient de noter qu'après 1970, sous la direction de Zhou Enlai et l'incident de Lin Biao, l'impact sur les immigrants chinois du sud du Zhejiang en France a progressivement diminué à mesure que la situation politique en Chine s'apaisait, et leurs droits ont été restaurés plus tôt que ce que suggèrent les conclusions universitaires existantes.Après la Réforme et l'Ouverture, le gouvernement chinois a mis l'accent sur le rôle des Chinois d'outre-mer dans le développement économique, assouplissant progressivement les politiques d'entrée et de sortie et encourageant les investissements des Chinois d'outre-mer. Cependant, la mise en œuvre de ces politiques n'a pas été sans heurts, connaissant des revers avec les directives du gouvernement central souvent confrontées à la résistance au niveau local. Des changements significatifs à Wenzhou n'ont eu lieu qu'après 1984. Le grand flux de personnes a également conduit naturellement à des problèmes d'immigration illégale. [...]
From the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 to the post-1990 period following the Reform and Opening-up, China underwent significant political, economic, and cultural transformations. As a special group, overseas Chinese were deeply affected during this process. This thesis, based on policy perspectives and declassified government documents, studies the history of Southern Zhejiang Chinese immigrants in France (primarily from Wenzhou and Qingtian), attempting to reveal the Chinese overseas Chinese policies and social conditions faced by these immigrants during different historical periods. The Zhejiang Southern Chinese immigrant community in France began to form at the end of the 19th century, remaining relatively small and maintaining close ties with their hometowns. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the cooling of Sino-French relations made it difficult for these immigrants to return home, with many deterred by the propaganda and obstructions from the Kuomintang. Domestic political movements such as Land Reform and the Great Leap Forward further infringed on the rights of overseas Chinese, impeding their return. However, the infringement on overseas Chinese rights was not constant throughout these political movements. In the early years of the People’s Republic, China’s policies oscillated between “left” and “right.” Overseas Chinese, due to their special economic status, were often seen as a remedy for economic downturns caused by extreme leftist political movements. Institutions like the State Council and the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission took these opportunities to implement policies protecting the rights of overseas Chinese, attracting some Zhejiang Southern Chinese immigrants in France to return home to visit relatives. They also carried out a series of united front work through media and Chinese associations in France, engaging in frequent and intense struggles with the Kuomintang, highlighting the inseparable link between the Zhejiang Southern Chinese immigrants in France and China’s broader political trends. With the warming of Sino-French diplomatic relations and the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1964, the trend of Chinese immigrants in France returning home to visit increased, and the influence of the Kuomintang in the French Chinese community diminished. During the Cultural Revolution, the rights of overseas Chinese were again severely violated. However, it is worth noting that after 1970, with Zhou Enlai’s leadership and the Lin Biao incident, the impact on Zhejiang Southern Chinese immigrants in France gradually diminished as the political situation in China eased, and their rights were restored earlier than existing scholarly conclusions suggest. After the Reform and Opening-up, the Chinese government emphasised the role of overseas Chinese in economic development, gradually relaxing entry and exit policies and encouraging investment from overseas Chinese. However, the implementation of these policies was not smooth, experiencing setbacks with central government directives often facing resistance at the local level. Significant changes in Wenzhou only occurred after 1984. The large outflow of people also naturally led to issues of illegal immigration. Today, the hundreds of thousands of Chinese living in France maintain close ties with their hometowns, a connection deeply rooted in the historical and demographic characteristics of Zhejiang Southern Chinese immigrants. This thesis highlights their experiences during different historical periods, revealing their significant and complex role in China’s modernization process. The study aims to use this group with “overseas relations” as a mirror to reflect on China’s historical progress from 1949 to the post-Reform and Opening-up era

This thesis investigates the narrated experiences of a number of individuals that migrated to Argentina from Russia and Ukraine in the wake of the fall of the Soviet Union. The over-arching aim of this thesis is to study the ways in which these migrants navigated the social reality in Argentina, with regards to available physical, material, and socioeconomic positions as well as with regards to their narrated self-understandings and identifications. The empirical data consists of ethnographic in-depth interviews and participatory observation from Buenos Aires between the years 2011 and 2014. Through the theoretical frameworks of political discourse theory, critical race studies, auto-ethnography, and theories on coloniality, the author examines questions of migration, mobility, race, class, and gender in the processes of re-establishing a life in a new context. The interviewees were not only directly affected by the collapse of the USSR in the sense that it drastically changed their terrain of possible futures as well as retroactive understandings of their pasts, but they also began their lives in Argentina during the turmoil of the economic crisis that culminated in 2001. Central to this thesis is how these dislocatory events impacted the interviewees’ possibilities and limitations for living the life they had expected, and thus how discursive structures affect subject positions and identifications, and thereby create specific conditions for different relocatory trajectories. By focusing on how these individuals narrate their reasons for migration and their integration into Argentine labor and housing markets, the author demonstrates the role Argentine and East European history, as well as the neoliberal restructuring of the postsocialist region and Argentina in the 1990’s, had for self-understandings, subject positions, identities, and mobility. Various intersections of power, and particularly the making of race and whiteness, are important for the way that the interviewees negotiated subject positions and identifications. The author addresses how affect and hope played a part in these processes and how downward mobility was articulated and made meaningful. She also examines how participants’ ideas about a “good life” were related to understandings of the past, questions of race, social inequality, and a logic of coloniality.
Den här avhandlingen undersöker hur ett antal individer som migrerade från Ryssland och Ukraina till Argentina efter Sovjetunionens fall berättar om sin erfarenhet. Det övergripande syftet är att studera hur dessa migranter navigerade i den sociala verkligheten i Argentina, särskilt vad det gäller kroppsliga, materiella och socioekonomiska positioner, såväl som hur detta påverkat deras berättade självförståelse och identifikationer. Det empiriska materialet består av etnografiska djupintervjuer och deltagande observationer gjorda i Buenos Aires mellan åren 2011 och 2014. Författaren använder sig av ett teoretiskt ramverk bestående av politisk diskursteori, kritiska ras- och vithetsstudier, autoetnografi och teorier om kolonialitet för att undersöka frågor om migration, mobilitet, rasialisering, klass och kön i en kontext av återetablering av ett liv i ett nytt samhälle. De som intervjuas i denna avhandling påverkades inte bara av Sovjetunionens kollaps, på så sätt att det påverkade deras förståelse av möjlig framtid samt deras retroaktiva förståelser av det förflutna, utan de påbörjade även sina nya liv i Argentina under den ekonomiska krisen som kulminerade år 2001. Centralt i avhandlingen är hur dessa dislokatoriska händelser inverkade på de intervjuades möjligheter och begränsningar för att kunna leva det liv som de hade förväntat sig, och därmed hur diskursiva strukturer påverkar subjektspositioner och identifikationer och därmed skapar specifika villkor för olika vägar för återetablering. Genom fokus på hur dessa individer berättar om sina anledningar för migrationen och om deras väg in i den argentinska arbets- och bostadsmarknaden visar författaren vilken roll argentinsk och östeuropeisk historia, såväl som 1990-talets nyliberala omstrukturering av den postsovjetiska regionen och Argentina, hade för deras självförståelse, subjektspositioner, identitet och mobilitet. Viktigt för hur de intervjuade förhandlade om olika subjektspositioner och identifikationer är intersektionella maktordningar och särskilt skapandet av ras och vithet. Författaren analyserar hur affekt och hopp spelade en roll i dessa processer och hur social deklassering artikulerades och gjordes meningsfull. Här undersöks även hur de intervjuades idéer om möjligheten att leva ett ”gott liv” var sammanflätade med förståelser av det förflutna, rasialisering, social ojämlikhet och en logik som präglades av kolonialitet.
Тема этой диссертации – это личный опыт ряда индивидуумов, переехавших в Аргентину вскоре после распада Советского Союза, на основе их собственных повествований. Основная цель работы заключается в исследовании того, как мигранты-участники вписывались в общественную реальность Аргентины на фоне её превалирующих физических,  материальных и социо-экономических позиций, а также по отношению к тому, как согласно их рассказам, эти люди сами себя воспринимали и идентифицировали. Эмпирическая компонента диссертации включает в себя комплекс углубленных этнографических интервью и включенного наблюдения, проводимых в Буэнос Айрес в 2011 -2014 гг. Автор изучает вопросы миграции, класса, социальной мобильности, расы и гендера в процессе переустановки жизни в новых условиях, руководствуясь теоретическими посылами теорий политического дискурса, критических расовых исследований (critical race studies), автоэтнографии и теорий колониальности. В дополнение к тому факту, что на интервьюируемых оказал непосредственное влияние распад Советского Союза, который кардинальным образом изменил как возможные сценарии их будущего, так и ретроактивные интерпретации их прошлого, эти люди начали свою новую жизнь в Аргентине сразу после сумятицы экономического кризиса, достигшего кульминации в 2001 г. Центральным аспектом диссертации является изучение воздействия, которое имели эти дислоцирующие обстоятельства на спектр естественных возможностей и преград на пути реализации жизненного проекта участников исследования, как они себе его представляли, а также какое влияние оказывают соответствующие дискурсивные структуры на позиции и идентификации субъектов, обуславливая определенные условия реализации различных траекторий их жизни в эмиграции. Фокусируя внимание на том, как эти индивидуумы повествуют о том, что побудило их к эмиграции в Аргентину и интеграции в местные рынки труда и жилья, автор подчеркивает ту роль, которую сыграли в этом особенности как аргентинской, так и восточноевропейской истории, наряду с более поздними структурными изменениями 90х гг., происходившими как на постсоветском, так и аргентинском пространствах в эпоху неолиберализма. Это касается в равной степени аспектов самовосприятия, позиций субъектов, а также вопросов их идентификации и мобильности. Важной составляющей того, каким образом интервьюируемые устанавливали рамки своей субъективной идентификации и позиции, являлись различные грани концепции власти; в частности того, как возникают понятия расы и ‘белизны’ (whiteness). Автор обращается к вопросу, какую роль в этих процессах сыграли аффект и надежда, и как субъекты исследования артикулировали и находили смысл в своей нисходящей мобильности. Параллельно автор анализирует то, как представления участников о "хорошей жизни" ставились ими в зависимость от их собственной интерпретации прошлого, наряду с вопросами расы, общественного неравенства и колониальной логики.
Esta tesis investiga las experiencias narradas por una serie de individuos que emigraron a Argentina desde Rusia y Ucrania a raíz de la caída de la Unión Soviética. Su objetivo general es estudiar el modo en que estos inmigrantes transitaron la realidad social argentina en lo que se refiere a las posiciones físicas, materiales y socioeconómicas disponibles, así como también a su auto-comprensión y a las identidades construidas desde sus narraciones. La autora examina cuestiones de migración, movilidad, raza, clase y género en los procesos de restablecimiento de la vida de estos sujetos a través del marco de la teoría política del discurso, los estudios críticos de la raza, la auto-etnografía y teorías sobre la colonialidad. Los datos empíricos consisten en entrevistas etnográficas en profundidad y observación participante realizadas en Buenos Aires entre los años 2011 y 2014. Los entrevistados no sólo se vieron directamente afectados por el colapso de la URSS en el sentido de que éste cambió drásticamente su terreno de futuros posibles y la comprensión retroactiva de su pasado, sino que también comenzaron sus vidas en Argentina durante las turbulencias de la crisis económica que estalló en el año 2001. En esta tesis, es central la indagación sobre cómo estos eventos dislocatorios impactaron en las posibilidades y limitaciones de los entrevistados para vivir la vida que esperaban y cómo las estructuras discursivas afectan las posiciones y las identificaciones de los sujetos, creando condiciones específicas para diferentes trayectorias de reubicación. Al enfocarse en cómo estos individuos narran sus razones para la migración y su integración en los mercados laborales y de la vivienda en Argentina, la autora demuestra el papel que tienen en las auto-comprensiones, posiciones de sujeto, identidades y movilidad, tanto la historia argentina y de Europa del Este, así como también la reestructuración neoliberal de la región postsocialista y de la Argentina en los años 90. Diversas intersecciones de poder, y particularmente la raza y la blancura son importantes para la manera en que los entrevistados negociaron posiciones subjetivas e identificaciones. La autora aborda cómo el afecto y la esperanza desempeñaron un papel en estos procesos y cómo la movilidad descendente se articuló y se hizo significativa. También examina cómo las ideas de los participantes acerca de una "buena vida" se relacionan con la comprensión del pasado, las cuestiones de raza, desigualdad social y una lógica colonial.

This thesis evaluates the usefulness of post-nationalist theory in developing and understanding existing debates around national cinemas in film studies. Whilst a great deal of research has focused on the significance and importance of national cinemas, changes in the international landscape have offered challenges to the value of national cinema as a concept. To date, these challenges have been primarily addressed within discussion of transnational cinema which, although useful, has yet to fully interrogate the power relationships between nations. The importance of post-nationalist theory in this regard is that it deliberately seeks out texts which explore these power structures and often focuses on contact zones in which the dominant nationalism, and therefore national cinema, is being overtly opposed and undermined. The central question addressed by this thesis is ‘How can post-nationalist theory advance cinematic debates concerning national and transnational cinemas?’ In order to address this, the films of several migrant, exilic and diasporic filmmakers will be discussed as case studies. This is because their hyphenated identities offer access to a greater number of nationalisms, and also highlight a state of rootlessness in which oppositional positions can be more easily adopted. The filmmakers discussed are: Fatih Akin, whose work offers representations of migrant figures and literal border crossings; Ferzan Ozpetek, who expands these migrant representations to include issues of sexuality and class as non-official nationalisms; Atom Egoyan, whose cinematic style opposes cinematic forms, conventions and nations; Michael Haneke, whose films engage in an overtly oppositional style; and Gurinder Chadha, as a filmmaker who not only uses gender to advance these debates, but also enters them into discussion with mainstream cinema. The thesis will apply close textual analysis to each of the directors’ work in order to illustrate how post-nationalist theory can be used to understand the oppositional spaces they create in relation to nations and national cinemas. This will demonstrate not only the relevance of post-nationalist theory to cinema, but also develop current understanding of the strengths and limitations of the conceptual and theoretical work associated with national and transnational cinemas.

The study sought to uncover the constitution of migrant women's agency as they rebuild their lives in Australia, and to explore how contact with any publicly funded services might influence the capacity to be self determining subjects. The thesis used a framework of lifeworld theories (Bourdieu, Schutz, Giddens), materialist, trans-national feminist and post colonial writings, and a methodological approach based on critical hermeneutics (Ricoeur), feminist standpoint and decolonising theories. Thirty in depth interviews were carried out with 6 women migrating from each of 5 regions: Vietnam, Lebanon, the Horn of Africa, the former Soviet Union and the Philippines. Australian based immigration literature constituted the third corner of triangulation. The interviews were carried out through an exploration of themes format, eliciting data about the different ontological and epistemological assumptions of the cultures of origin. The findings revealed not only the women's remarkable tenacity and resilience as creative agents, but also the indispensability of Australia's publicly funded infrastructure or welfare state. The women were mostly privileged in terms of class, education and affirming relationships with males. Nevertheless, their self determination depended on contact with universal public policies, programs and with local community services. The welfare state seems to be modernity's means for re-establishing human connectedness that is the crux of the human condition. Connecting with fellow Australians in friendships and neighbourliness was also important in resettlement. Conclusions include a policy discussion in agreement with Australian and international scholars proposing that there is no alternative but for governments to invest in a welfare state for the civil societies and knowledge based economies of the 21st Century.

This thesis examines the work of two of the twentieth century’s foremost cultural figures, the Palestinian-American literary critic Edward Said (1935-2003) and the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008), and focuses specifically on the formulation and representation in their respective work of the theme of identity. It explores the depictions of this concept in their writing; comparing and contrasting their personal viewpoints on the various facets of their own identity as Palestinian Arabs and cosmopolitan global citizens expressed through their chosen literary medium, prose for Said and poetry for Darwish. At the same time, this analysis of the creative writing of these two authors will serve to shed light on the complex and ongoing process which is involved in identity formation and maintenance, and conceptualization of the self. Said and Darwish’s multi-conceptualisations of self-identity take place in Chapter Three, which is divided into seven zones of self-identity. Their understanding of self-identity is observed through the spaces of their names, language, family relationships, friendships, ethnicities, nationalism, hybrid identities, and cosmopolitanism. The concept of post-Nakba and Naksa literature maps the critical developments in evaluations of Arabic literature and, more particularly, Palestinian literature. The understanding of Palestinian cultural context requires an adequate assimilation regarding the impact of Nakba and Naksa in Palestinian literature, linked strongly with the general impact of Nakba in all Arab literature. The thesis begins by establishing the major socio-political, cultural and historical contexts which shaped the lives and work of Said and Darwish. Then using an innovative theoretical framework which draws on elements of post-colonial theory Said’s own contrapuntal technique and close textual analysis, the thesis explores a number of key facets pertaining to identity construction which it can be argued are of particular relevance to the Palestinian case. These include trauma, collective cultural memories, displacement, the Diasporic experience and the dream of return. At the same time, the thesis reveals how whilst both Said and Darwish remained dedicated to the Palestinian cause they adopted a cosmopolitan identity which was reflected in their respective work and its identification with diverse groups of oppressed peoples.

Following the development of Asian American representation in the United States media in the 21st century, this thesis aims to explore the alternative narratives provided by the AsianBossGirl podcast which started in 2017 to fill the gap in the mainstream media. Intersectional framework has been operationalized to conduct an in-depth reading of their narratives, and complemented by the theory of uses and gratification to investigate the impacts that they have on their audiences. The results demonstrate that their narratives of Asian American experience deviate from both cultural and stereotypical traditions. They contest the norms through relatable, subversive and authentic content that resonate with their listeners. However, through the intersectional lens, this thesis is able to identify the danger of neglecting multidimensionality in the Asian American communities which encompass a diverse history of immigration in the United States.

My dissertation combines a critical history of the Indian diaspora’s political and intellectual impact on the development of African nationalism in South Africa with an analysis of African/Indian racial dynamics in Natal. Beginning in the 1940s, tumultuous debates among black intellectuals over the place of the Indian diaspora in Africa played a central role in the emergence of new and antagonistic conceptualizations of a South African nation. The writings of Indian political figures (particularly Gandhi and Nehru) and the Indian independence struggle had enormous influence on a generation of African nationalists, but this impact was mediated in complex ways by the race and class dynamics of Natal. During the 1930s and 40s, rapid and large-scale urbanization generated a series of racially-mixed shantytowns surrounding Durban in which a largely Gujarati and Hindi merchant and landlord class provided the ersatz urban infrastructure utilized by both Tamil-speaking workers and Zulu migrants. In Indian-owned buses, stores, and movie theatres, a racial hierarchy of Indian over African developed based on the social grammars of property, relationship with land, family structure, and different gender roles. In such circumstances, practices integral to maintaining diasporic identities—such as religious festivals, marriage, caste (jati), language, and even dress and food—became signifiers of ranked status and perceived exclusion. Despite the destruction of this urban landscape by forced removals beginning in the late 1950s, these social relationships powerfully shaped African and Indian identities in Natal, the popular memory of different communities, and the later politics of the anti-apartheid struggle. Although a few recent publications have attempted to break down the bifurcation that characterizes Natal’s historiography, the majority of academic writing on the province employs a race-based framework that focuses on either Indians or Zulu-speaking Africans. As a result, Natal’s African/Indian racial dynamic plays, at most, a secondary role in most scholarship on the region. In turn, Natal itself generally appears in histories of the anti-apartheid struggle as either an exception or a momentary interruption to a “national” narrative overwhelmingly centered on events, organizations, and individuals in the Transvaal. Rejecting a “race relations” approach that hypostatizes coherent racial groups, my dissertation examines how segregationist policies, African and Indian political organizations, and everyday social practices continuously reproduced an “African/Indian divide” despite both the enormous heterogeneity of each group and the quotidian intimacies of urban life. At the same time, it explores the ways in which this division shaped the development of the anti-apartheid struggle in Natal and the consequences of Natal’s politics for South Africa as a whole.

Noticeably, there is little to no cross-cultural analysis of Black queer women artists of the African diaspora in Diaspora, Literary and Theatre and Performance studies. These disciplines tend to focus on geographic locations with an emphasis on the United States, the Caribbean islands and Europe in relation to the African continent. In addition, the work of Black men artists holds precedence in discussions of blackness, diaspora, and performance. Overwhelmingly, the contributions of Black women artists in the diaspora pales in comparison to their male counterparts, especially in number. More drastically, the voices of Black queer women artists actually published are few. Because of these discrepancies within scholarship and practice, I follow the footsteps of the late scholar Gay Wilentz to advocate a diaspora literacy of Black women writers across the diaspora. I employ a transnational feminist approach to survey the work of Sharon Bridgforth and Trey Anthony, two Black queer women artists who explore intersectionality in regards to race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and nationality. I also curated and produced Black/Queer/Diaspora/Womyn Festival, a festival of staged readings and panel discussions that placed both artists at the center. This thesis fully details the planning and execution of the festival, an evaluation of the successes and pitfalls of the festival, and then draws conclusions on how both scholars and practitioners can further engage in a diaspora literacy for Black queer women artists.

Interest in the Australian diaspora has emerged in response to the growing number of Australians living overseas and the recognition that diaspora populations have the potential to be a positive asset to countries of origin. A contemporary global situation that fuels international mobility, particularly of individuals with highly-skilled characteristics, and technological advancements that allow transnational connections to be maintained across distance, contribute to this interest. A dearth of information about emigration and diasporas, especially from countries of immigration, makes it difficult to apply conventional migration theories to explain the mobility and experiences of these populations, and thereby understand how to effectively engage with these communities. This thesis builds on the base of knowledge about the Australian diaspora from Hugo (2003, 2006a, 2001) and others by examining the Australian diaspora in a particular country of destination, the United States of America (US). The major aims of the thesis are to better understand how the drivers of movement and the experiences of the Australian diaspora in the US relate to the wider global situation, national level policies and circumstances and contemporary migration theory. The thesis adds to the body of knowledge about the Australian diaspora in order to inform theory, policy and future research. A migration systems approach (Fawcett, 1989, Kritz et al., 1992, Massey, 2003), whereby global, national and individual level factors all contribute to explaining migration, is the theoretical framework of the thesis. The primary research in the thesis comprises of data collected in an online survey of 1,581 Australians living in the US. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted in the US with 17 survey respondents. Motivations for migration, progression of the migrant experience, patterns of international mobility and the maintenance of transnational linkages with Australia are the broad themes explored in the survey. Analysis of secondary data, including immigration statistics and information from previous surveys of Australians living overseas, provide context for the research. The activities of the Australian diaspora in the US support the view that the Australian diaspora should be seen as a distinct part of Australia’s population and a potential resource for Australia; they are often high achievers, visit Australia frequently, and usually retain a strong sense of connection and identification with Australia. Implications for theory and policy relating to Australian emigration and diaspora as well as future research are suggested based on the research findings.
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Social Sciences, 2010

This project, titled “Crossing Over: Theorising Mehta’s Film Trilogy, Practising Diasporic Creativity” articulates a critical-creative research discourse. It crosses over in terms of traversing critical scholarship on genre and audience, assuming multiplie cultural positions, as well as in bridging the theory/practice divide. The most critical theoretical intervention made by this project is to insist on a more nuanced (rather than homogeneously “transnational”) account of situated diasporic practice. The thesis comprises the critical component, and consists of a preface and five chapters on the theory, location, genre, audience and remixing of diasporic creative practice. In addition to the critical component, the project consists of a 20-minute visual essay and a web-log of production notes that constitute the creative component. The aim of the critical section is to theorise the intertwining of personal, political, and poetic attributes of diasporic creative practice through the conception, development and distribution stages. Such a theorisation demonstrates the situated nature of diasporic production and reception, and its crossover potential is exemplified through the study of Indo-Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta and her well known “elements” film trilogy. The critical approach is an epistemological and methodological convergence of the auteur, genre, and audience/cultural studies approaches, and hence a theoretical crossover. The visual essay, titled I Journey Like a Paisley is itself a crossover of various textual genres, as well as creatively manifesting the multiple cultural positions of diasporic practice laid out in the critical component. It documents the lives of a group of young Indian-Australians residing in Adelaide through the personal-political-poetic specificities of my diasporic lens. Production choices and screening responses are discussed briefly at the end of the critical component. For a more comprehensive understanding of the production of the theoretical and visual components and their cross overs, entries from the web-log maintained throughout the project (http://over-exposed-image.blogspot.com) have been included in the appendix. Significantly, the research discourse is established as a remixed, theoretically informed practice that crosses cultural and genre/audience boundaries.
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Humanities, 2010

In an attempt to close the gaps between diaspora and regional studies an Afro-Asian comparative perspective on African and Indian identity will be explored in the countries of Guyana and South Africa. The overlying aim of the ethnographic research will be to see whether blackness can be used as a unifier to those belonging to enslaved and indentured diasporas. Comparisons will be made between the two race models of the Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean worlds. A substantial portion will be set aside for a critique of the concept of Coolitude including commentary on V.S. Naipaul. Further, mixing, creolization, spirituality and the cultural politics of Black Consciousness, multiculturalism, and dreadlocks will be exemplified as AfroAsian encounters.

The monograph Ripped from the land, shipped away, and reborn introduces the concept Destierro-which translates as uprooting, deracination, exile, exodus, and banishment- to unthink the intellectual, political, and legal categories used by prevailing intellectual models to narrate/explain the 2002 massacre, occurred at the community of Bellavista-Bojayá-Chocó-Colombia. This thesis offers a critical prospect of the event. It highlights ethno-historical analytics to deconstruct the concepts of forced displacement, and forced migration. I study the racial, class, gender, generational, and regional dimensions undergirding this phenomenon to propose an Afrodiasporic Decolonial Critique of the field of Forced Migration. Single-axis explanations of this event and phenomenon have failed to move forward a complex analytical framework to fully explain the joint effect of multiple systems of oppression at play in events of land dispossession. Variables such as race, place, gender, and class; historical processes such as colonialism, the development of capitalism, contemporary place-based ethno-territorial social mobilization, and neoliberal multiculturalism intersect in this massacre. Accordingly, it is an imperative for critical historical sociological research to craft theories, and concepts to understand these crossroads. The basic argument I develop is that the concepts of forced displacement, and forced migration are formulas for historical erasure, and therefore limited to contribute to the demands for reparation of the affected populations. Territories are socio-geo-historical formations that can only be understood within the context in which they are conceived, produced, re-produced, and unproduced. Likewise, the categories used to name and study land dispossession need to be contextually and historically grounded to capture both complex local specificities, and global linkages. I advocate for concepts that can be used as categories of analysis, social mobilization, and reparation; to unveil the historical roots of the current constellation of processes, which are generating a new cycle of Diaspora of the Afrocolombian population, and similar contexts in the world-system in which this phenomenon is observable. In this vein, unthinking/deconstructing the concepts of forced displacement, and forced migration, as well as the massacre of Bellavista as an event of forced displacement, is an attempt to write stories that can repair the broken dignity of those that have been, and still are continually exploited.

Reading this dissertation means joining me on an 8-year journey that began with my desire to understand the lives and decisions of African immigrants in relation to retention and transmission of our native languages and cultures. The Akan say that ntontom pe n'ase fi ako, na nframa ebo no. Wherefore, like the mosquito propelled by the wind blowing me towards my desired direction, I sat under the shade of the heritage tree as I pondered how to get there. The journey became a quest to find an approach or methodology that will not just talk about African languages and cultural retention and transmission, but also center histories, worldviews, and philosophies while actively encouraging these values. Thus, approaching storytelling from the African oral tradition, I arrived at the development of the African Oral Traditional Storytelling (AOTS) Framework as an ethical and culturally centered approach to studying with African peoples. Because I wanted to go far and not fast, two heads (African families in the Midwest) collaborated with me by sharing through our African oral traditions and storytelling, our lived experiences of how we (as parents) navigate usage, retention and transmission of our living native languages and cultures while in the U.S. Emergent in this approach to storying, was the AOTS Framework. Now, what was needed was a description of the framework retrospective of the shared stories; what does it look like? What did/will she do, and how will she birth a transformative and relevant approach to satisfy that hunger for African histories, worldviews, indigenous knowledges and philosophies in research? The AOTS Framework, through African oral traditional storytelling, brings to the fore the relevant and essential role that African philosophies, worldviews, languages, and cultures play in understanding African peoples' experiences. Our stories reveal how our African worldviews and languages (embedded with our indigenous knowledge) inform how we navigate decision on 1) building a community of like-minded people from the continent, same country and ethnic group; 2) decolonizing our minds about the value of African languages, cultures, and worldviews: building a sense of pride in our indigenous ways and teaching them to our children as a resistance to neocolonialism and global erasure; 3) cultural, linguistic, and identity reconceptualization, revitalization, redefinition, and resistance; 4) conscious effort to use native language in the home; and 5) racialized experiences that influence decisions about heritage language retention and transmission. With that, we stand on the shoulders of postcolonial and decolonial theory, as we move through postcolonial indigenous methodologies in resisting imperialism and coloniality in education, research and language in relation to African peoples. Additionally, the AOTS Framework is the arable land that is not selective in growing varied linguistic, cultural, and philosophical perspectives of African peoples in research albeit challenges in relation to transitioning oral techniques into writing. As a framework, our desire and interests in learning with African peoples is not a question-and-answer approach. Instead, it is a collaborative, communal approach where the privileged gatherer shares in co-creating stories, meanings, and understandings with African peoples.

In Australia people of African heritage are subjected to racialised structural exclusion grounded in ideologies of white supremacy. However, resistance can be enacted through the creation of alternative settings that through self-determination foster greater control over symbolic and material resources and to imagine more just ways of knowing, being and doing. Next in Colour (NiC) is a self-determined initiative in Naarm (Melbourne) led by Colour Between the Lines, a collective of creative artists of African heritage. The initiative developed networks of support, opportunities and vocational pathways to the creative industries for people of African heritage; and engaged community arts approaches to foster critical conversations about identity, belonging and community and surface counter- narratives about the African diaspora in Australia. This study documented how self- determination came to be understood and enacted through the alternative setting of the NiC initiative and how self-determined outcomes were constrained and facilitated through the organisations CBTL sought support from. Informed by decolonial and critical race frameworks data from semi-structured interviews, participant observation and archival research was collected drawing on community-engaged approaches and analysed through a frame of critical narrative analysis. The findings show that NiC served as a homeplace for healing and deconstruction, and a site to reimagine relationships and ways of working that supported decolonial actions of counter-storytelling, authentic visibility and building of solidarities. However, whilst CBTL looked to key organisations to support the initiative and build capacity, forms of racialised structural exclusion NiC was responding to were reproduced in these organisational relationships, constraining self-determination and contributing to hidden labour as CBTL navigated and resisted these dynamics of control and exclusion. The findings of this study show the importance of self-determination and community arts practice within the creation of alternative settings towards liberation and structural inclusion for racialised communities. Further, it highlights the necessity of a contextualised analysis of power and ideology to understand how such settings can best be supported.

This creative writing dissertation interrogates the author’s corpus of fictocritical writing within the ambit of four contemporary sociocultural landscapes: journeys; family; education; and technology or living in an increasingly digital age. Within four separate discursive investigations, the author questions the nature and form of fictocriticism through the production and (psycho)analysis of a variety of creative literary structures ranging across various writing forms from prose poetry and autoethnography to flash fiction and narcissistic critique. A broad array of techniques are examined as fictocriticism has become a revolutionary “genre-crossing, genre-subverting, and genre-defying” form (Haas 17). Evaluating fictocriticism as both an artform and as a vehicle for higher theory and criticism, this dissertation contends that the genre warrants further academic attention, not only in literary and creative writing studies, but potentially across a plethora of social, artistic, scientific, educational, political and historical fields. The ultimate goal of this research project is to provide new and expanded reading tools that both explain the subjectivity and context of fictocritical writings and simultaneously innovate the form of fictocriticism. The central subject of the author’s experimental fictocritical stories is a young male Polish-Australian, who offers perspectives of his personal experience in four separate areas of his life. Each of these areas is examined and analysed in one of four distinct sections. The creative writings are considered ‘experimental’ because they test and play with the format of fictocritical writings while dissecting the fictocritical form. This study has been conducted in order to address the following research questions: What is fictocriticism, and what can it do? Is there a universal definition of fictocriticism? Can fictocriticism function within both academic and creative writing practices? Can it be merged with other mediums and fields? Is it a methodology that can still evolve? Has fictocriticism changed over the years to become more dynamic, or has it become more ambiguous? Can fictocriticism be better categorised and synthesised? What boundaries are necessary to sustain it as a legitimate methodology in academia? Each of the four individual exegetical theses in this dissertation use a broad variety of writers and their texts to explore a different sociocultural area, revealing an unexplored gap in the research on fictocriticism. This is a critical issue when considering what fictocriticism can contribute to literature and academic understanding. There is also an essential paradox between the theory surrounding fictocriticism suggesting how ‘freeform’ it is, and how non-freeform it still seems to be due to its lack of theoretical ‘rules’. A detailed literature review explains the nature of fictocriticism, considering texts from fictocriticism’s predecessors as well as looking at creative contemporary works that engage with the four primary sociocultural issues. Finally, this dissertation provides a new understanding of fictocriticism through the interrogation of original creative pieces devoted to the issue of the contemporary self, offering a reinvigoration of fictocriticism as a writing strategy.

This dissertation aims to create a scholarly space where a seventy-five-year-old “special relationship” (1945-2020) between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States is examined from an interdisciplinary comparativist perspective. I posit that a comparative study of Saudi and American fiction goes beyond the limitedness of global geopolitics and proves to uncover some new literary, sociocultural, and historical dimensions of this long history, while shedding some light on others. Saudi writers creatively challenge the inherently static and monolithic image of Saudi Arabia, its culture and people in the West. They also simultaneously unsettle the notion of homogeneity and enable us to gain new insight into self-perception within the local Saudi context by offering a wide scope of genuine engagements with distinctive themes ranging from spatiality, identity, ethnicity, and gender to slavery, religiosity and (post)modernity. On the other side, American authors still show some signs of ambivalence towards the depiction of the Saudi (Muslim/Arab) Other, but they nonetheless also demonstrate serious effort to emancipate their representations from the confining legacy of (neo)Orientalist discourse and oil politics by tackling the concepts of race, alterity, hegemony, radicalism, nomadism and (un)belonging.