Diasporas

Diaspora ouïghoure et identité diasporique

by Dilnur Reyhan

La migration ouïghoure contemporaine commence à la fin de 19ème siècle lorsque l’Empire Chinois de la dynastie Qing... more La migration ouïghoure contemporaine commence à la fin de 19ème siècle lorsque l’Empire Chinois de la dynastie Qing envahit la province jusque-là autonome. Mais la migration vers l’occident commence dans les années 50 après la main mise de la Chine communiste sur le Turkestan. Aujourd’hui, il n’y a pas un chiffre officiel du nombre des Ouïghours à l’extérieur. Les pays turcophones de l’Asie centrale comprennent le plus grand nombre de migrants ouïghours par la proximité géographique, linguistique et culturelle. La Turquie, l’Australie, le Canada accueillent un nombre assez important de cette population grâce à la politique migratoire de ces pays. Un autre pôle américano-nippon comprend essentiellement les intellectuels et scientifiques ouïghours qui y sont installés souvent pour des raisons professionnelles. Un dernier pôle migratoire est les pays d’Europe occidental et scandinaves, dont la particularité se trouve sur la migration politique.

Depuis ces quelques dernières années, si certains, que ce soit les médias ou les chercheurs, n’hésitent pas à dénommer la communauté ouïghoure dispersée comme diaspora, d’autres chercheurs de la diaspora restent sceptiques sur la pertinence de cette nomination en raison de la montée récente des réseaux ouïghours. Depuis les années 90, les Ouïghours à l’étranger ont non seulement réussi à se regrouper en institution internationale en créant dans chaque pays d’installation des organisations interconnectées, mais ont également retrouvé la connexion avec leur pays d’origine. Le rôle des nouvelles technologies dans ce développement est primordial, notamment l’arrivée de l’Internet qui a très largement contribué à la mondialisation des réseaux ouïghours.

Η διαμόρφωση της ‘κοινής γνώμης’ στα εθνικά θέματα: Η ‘ομογένεια’ και τα διάφορα πρόσωπα του ‘ελληνισμού’ στον σύγχρονο ελληνικό Τύπο [Greek Public Opinion and National Issues: The Homogeneis and the ‘Different Faces’ of Hellenism in Modern Greek Newspapers]

by Elpida Vogli

δημοσιεύτηκε στο Χρήστος Α. Φραγκονικολόπουλος (επιμ. και εισαγ.), ΜΜΕ, Κοινωνία και Πολιτική. Ρόλος και Λειτουργία στη Σύγχρονη Ελλάδα, Αθήνα, εκδ. Ι. Σιδέρη (στη σειρά Δημοσιογραφία και ΜΜΕ), 2005, σ. 381-396. [published in Christos A. Fragonikolopoulos (ed.), Mass Media, Society and Politics in Modern Greece, Athens, publ. Ι. Sideri (Journalism and Mass Media), pp. 381-396 (in Greek)

Museum building in colonies

by Suresh Pillai

it is the second part of my essay on Museumisatiom

Narratives of identity, home, and return of Kosovarian refugees: Steps toward a postmodern sense of agency

by Marco Gemignani

The Decline of Pan-Indian Identity and the Development of Tamil Cultural Separatism in Singapore, 1856-1965

by John Solomon

Published in South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 35:2, 257-281

This paper explores the rise and fall of pan-Indianism as the dominant identity narrative amongst the Indian diaspora... more This paper explores the rise and fall of pan-Indianism as the dominant identity narrative amongst the Indian diaspora in Singapore in the mid twentieth century, and its replacement with a normative Indian identity based primarily on Tamil culture. It will analyse some of the reasons why a Tamil cultural separatism came to dominate negotiations of ethnic identity in early post-war Singapore. This will include an examination of colonial ethnographic representations, the effects of demographic trends in Indian migration to Malaya during the colonial period, transnational political linkages between Singapore and India, and the effects of the Japanese occupation on Indian identity during World War II. The paper will also focus on the growth of the Tamil reform movement and the ways in which it came to shape the framing of Tamil ethnic identity in Singapore.

Return of the native: Swades and the re-thinking of diaspora

by Suvadip Sinha

Building New Transnational Networks Online: the Case of Ulster Unionists

by Niall O Dochartaigh

Slavery and Colonialism: The Worst Terrorism on Africa

by Mohamed Eno

Co-authored with Omar A. Eno, Mohamed H. Ingiriis, and Jamal M. Haji; Published in African Renaissance, Vol. 9, No. 1, 2012.

Humans need not justify terrorism of any kind, regardless of whether one is Muslim, Christian or Jew, because it is... more Humans need not justify terrorism of any kind, regardless of whether one is Muslim, Christian or Jew, because it is the axis of evil and devastation of mankind. However, the deliberate use of the term terrorism in recent decades was carefully selected, mainly, against a certain religion (Islam). The idea was then globally politicized by the Western world. Leaving that scholarly view in its own right, we disagree with the opinion raising terrorism as the devil’s just-born child of evil, when in reality Africans had been terrorized for centuries as slaves and human chattel. Hence the basis for the concept of this thesis: conceptualizing the episode of ‘terrorism’ and ‘terrorist’ from the broader perspective of its practice from the Middle Passage or the Atlantic Slave Trade. To portray that argument and broaden the scope of the debate over this critically sensitive subject, we divided the discussion into three sections: an examination of what constitutes terrorism and terrorist; history of terrorism and terrorists from an Africa perspective; and the ideological constraints within the subject of terrorism as practiced by the US and its Western allies.

Visuality in a Minor Key: The Photographic Work of Anna Sherbany (2006)

by Janice Cheddie

Catalogue Essay for the photographic Exhibition Beyond Spoken Word. Solo Exhibition by Artist Anna Sherbany. Robert Phillips Gallery, Kingston University, UK, 2006. Artist Website: www.annasherbany.com

The essay discusses the work of the British photographer Anna Sherbany through the work of the French philosophers... more The essay discusses the work of the British photographer Anna Sherbany through the work of the French philosophers Deleuze and Felix Guattari using their text ‘Kafka: Towards a Minor Literature’ (1986), to discuss the concepts of 'deterrotialisation'. Sherbany is located at the margins of many discourses, as an Iraqi Jew living in a Britain within a European Jewish diaspora, a minority within contemporary Britain. These varying displacements and multiple diasporic experiences have formed part of the raw materials of her practice and have been transformed into visual acts of deterritorialisation of dominant languages. Her work references and challenges these multiple perspectives and like Deleuze and Guattari's notion of a minor literature, this deterroritalisation of dominant modes of visuality is not a mode of practice concerned with personal quest for cultural or political identity. Rather Sherbany articulates the interconnections between the social, aesthetic and the discursive.
Key Words: Anna Sherbany; Philosophy, Vision and Visuality Research; Iraqi-Jewish Diaspora; Art Theory; Photography; British Photographers, Diaspora

“Traditions, Trajectories and Transformative Migrations: The Multifarious Diasporic Contextualities of Nair, Nazareth and Vassanji’s Fictions.” Journal of the African Literature Association 6.2 (Winter 2011/Spring 2012): 61-82.

by Aaron L. Rosenberg

The fictions of Moyez G.Vassanji, Mira Nair and Peter Nazareth
represent a crucial commodity. These two writers... more The fictions of Moyez G.Vassanji, Mira Nair and Peter Nazareth
represent a crucial commodity. These two writers and one filmmaker’s works are manifestly utilitarian in our attempt as literary scholars and citizens of the world to understand what is meant by the ‘African Diaspora.’ Their narratives interrogate the racialized and divisive accounts of East Africans that consciously
and chauvinistically self – define as African or Asian. While all of the texts make clear that there is a certain risk involved in attempting to construct systems of identity formation along syncretic lines, they also make explicit the dangers of the formation and defense of exclusive communities based on skin color. These artists are attempting, and succeeding in exploding the myth of a monolithic racial imperative for African cultural citizenship. This myth of racial uniformity as a prerequisite for African authenticity has been constructed and exploited by
members of numerous ethnic communities throughout East Africa at one time or another in order to further their political or economical goals (Gregory: 161).What the artists dealt with in this paper are seeking to do is to counteract such immutable inscriptions of identity and concomitant allegiance and, in their own cases to reinscribe their self – identificatory auras with an identity which can best be described as “Afro-Asian.’ The immediate importance of this endeavor is illustrated by the historical atrocities and terrorism visited upon Afro –Asians
by their fellow countrymen. The seemingly unquestioning or ambivalent attitude of the academic community toward these questions represents, albeit through an absence of discursive activity rather than an excess of aggression, a serious
impediment to an understanding of the realities of cultural diversity in East African contexts. These Afro-Asian diasporic narratives can illuminate such situations and broaden our understanding of what it means to be ‘African’ in East Africa.

Sojourners, Gangxi and Clan Associations: Social Capital and Overseas Chinese Tourism to China

by Alan A. Lew

With Alan Wong. Published in D. Timothy and T. Coles, eds., (2004) Tourism, Diasporas and Space, pp. 202-214. London: Routledge.

Unlike traditional forms of economic capital, human capital, or cultural capital (all of which relate to attributes of... more Unlike traditional forms of economic capital, human capital, or cultural capital (all of which relate to attributes of individuals), social capital is situated in the quality of relationships and is not easily quantifiable or measured (Mohan and Mohan 2002). Friendship and goodwill are examples of this. They are best created through face-to-face interactions and they become resources when “mobilized to facilitate action” (Adler and Kwon 2002). Tourism can be used to enhance social capital by bringing people together in face-to-face interactions that can, in properly structured circumstances, lead to mutually beneficial relationships. Belief in this aspect of tourism underlies support for sustainable tourism approaches and ecotourism product developments, as well as broader assertions of tourism as a force for intercultural understanding and global peace-making . Unfortunately, few tourist experiences actually achieve the goal of creating social capital, even if the capital is as amorphous as understanding and peace.

Existential Tourism and the Homeland: The Overseas Chinese Experience

by Alan A. Lew

Published with Alan Wong (2005) In Cartier, C. and Lew, A.A., eds., Seductions of Place: Geographical perspectives on globalization and touristed landscapes, pp. 286-300 (Chapter 18), Abingdon, UK: Routledge. (pre-publication version)

This chapter explores conditions of existential tourism among overseas Chinese, focusing on relations with their... more This chapter explores conditions of existential tourism among overseas Chinese, focusing on relations with their ancestral homeland areas in China. Like other disaporic ethnic groups, overseas Chinese migrants, in both historic and contemporary times, have followed long established paths, bound by ‘networks of ethnicity’, which “extend the group’s identity spatially, and are an important facet of social and economic organization, particularly within migrant communities” (Mitchell 2000: 392). Highly structured ethnic networks support existential tourism to China and several major fields of influence shape this structuration process, overlapping in different ways. Overseas Chinese institutional structures support ideas about traditional Chinese values, thereby working to enable and maintain a sense of ‘Chineseness’. ‘Traditional values’, however, have also adapted to meet the special conditions of the migrant/diasporic community, as migration creates both ‘outsider’ and ‘home out there’ experiences, the evolution of multiple homes, and the need for mechanisms to overcome geographic spaces between old, new and transitory homes (Leung 2003). The influence of space-shrinking technologies and globalizing modernity provide further realms of influence, shaping the form and experience of both migration and ‘Chineseness, by, for example, enabling closer relationships and easing the strain of return visits.

Migrants and Citizens: The Shifting Ground of Struggle in Canadian Literary Representation

by Naava Smolash

Co-authored with Myka Tucker-Abramson, published in Studies in Canadian Literature

"Imperium in Imperio: Irish Episcopal Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century"

by Colin Barr

What hybridity stammers to say: Becoming other than oneself in Hanif Kureshi's 'My Son the Fanatic'

by Aparna Mishra Tarc

The intensification of cultural global flows and contacts has precipitated the acknowledgment, and to some degree the... more The intensification of cultural global flows and contacts has precipitated the acknowledgment, and to some degree the acceptance, of hybridity as a social fact. Acknowledging hybridity’s possibilities for new social and cultural formations we insert our analysis in the potentially destructive psychosocial process of becoming hybrid constitutive of cultural productions and human relations. Turning to Hanif Kureishi’s “My Son the Fanatic”, we read the inner conflicts confronting diasporic communities struggling to negotiate hybrid identities. The insights arising from our micro literary analysis are set upon the present global social scene where we suggest that literature and practices of close reading can possibly support various collectives coming to terms with the unspoken and potentia

Diasporas on the Web: New Networks, New Methodologies

by Cassandra Eberhardt

Jonathan Crush, Cassandra Eberhardt, Wade Pendleton, Mary Caesar, Abel Chikanda and Ashley Hill. (2011). "Diasporas on the Web: New Networks, New Methodologies" In C. Vargas-Silva, ed., Handbook of Research Methods on Migration (Edward Elgar).

The recent focus on diasporas by migration researchers has highlighted the rich potential of migrants as a force for... more The recent focus on diasporas by migration researchers has highlighted the rich potential of migrants as a force for shaping development activities in their countries of origin. However, the study of diasporas in development has also presented researchers with a number of significant conceptual and methodological challenges. It has been argued that since the nature of global diasporas are constantly in flux, so too should be the methodologies we use to study them (Cohen 2008). Using the Southern African diaspora in Canada as a case study, this paper argues for the supplementing of conventional approaches to studying diasporas with new methodologies that embrace the connectivity of diasporas, the emergence of social media, and the potential of online surveys. Online communication has become particularly valuable to transnational and diasporic communities. In the context of today’s electronic media there are opportunities for individuals using the internet to communicate in unprecedented ways (Weaver and Morrison 2008). The recent explosion of social media is likely to provide significant opportunities for diaspora connectivity, engagement, debate, and identity formation. It also provides researchers with innovative ways to locate and study diasporas. The paper illustrates the potential of this new methodology through the discussion of methods adopted in our current research on the Southern African diaspora in Canada. In this context, the potential of web-based methodologies in development and diaspora research appears promising.

THE CONVERSION NARRATIVE OF SAMIRA: FROM SHI'A ISLAM TO MARY, HER CHURCH, AND HER SON

by Duane Alexander Miller

IRANIAN DIASPORA CHRISTIANS IN THE AMERICAN MIDWEST & SCOTLAND: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND, PRESENT REALITIES, & FUTURE CHALLENGES

by Duane Alexander Miller

The Renaissance of the Bantu Languages in Literature

by Susanna Iacona Salafia

Language and Superdiversity (Blommaert & Rampton 2012)

by Jan Blommaert