Diasporic Ruptures


Book Description

Diasporic Ruptures: Globality, Migrancy, and Expressions of Identity lies at the intersections of various processes emerging from globalization: border-crossings, transnationalism, identity formations. Carefully selected and placed in two volumes, the essays here represent works of both well-seasoned scholars as well as emerging writers, academics and intellectuals. The volumes critically examine various manifestations of the trend now commonly known as globalization—manifestations that many diasporic communities, immigrants, and people from all walks of life experience. They also illuminate recent political, social, economic and technological developments that are taking place in a rapidly changing world. Volume One (see Volume 6 in Transgressions: Cultural Studies and Education)offers sophisticated insights into the nature of contemporary formations of diasporic life, internationalism, and hybrid identities. The volume asks bold questions around what it means to live in constantly shifting boundaries of nationality, identity, and citizenship. The type of methodological, discursive and experiential awareness promoted by this work helps us understand how millions of people face the challenge of living in a globalizing world; it also fosters a consciousness of how globalization itself functions differently in different environments. Volume Two addresses additional and more nuanced questions around culture, race, sexuality, migration, displacement and resistance. It also explores certain epistemological and methodological fallacies regarding conventional articulations of nation-state, nationalism, and the local/global nexus. The volume seeks to answer questions such as: What are the meanings and connotations of ‘displacement’ in a rapidly globalizing world? What are some dilemmas and challenges around notions of cultural hybridity, linguistic diversity, and a sense of belonging? What is the meaning of home in diaspora and the meaning of diaspora at home? Together, the volumes raise many topics that will be of immense interest to scholars across disciplines and general readers. While celebrating the increasing acknowledgment of difference and diversity in recent times, this work reminds us of the ongoing ramifications of dominant structures of inequality, relations of power, and issues of inclusion and exclusion. This work offers different ways of thinking, writing and talking about globalization and the processes that emerge from it.




Diasporic Ruptures


Book Description

Diasporic Ruptures: Globality, Migrancy, and Expressions of Identity lies at the intersections of various processes emerging from globalization: border-crossings, transnationalism, identity formations. Carefully selected and placed in two volumes, the essays here represent works of both well-seasoned scholars as well as emerging writers, academics and intellectuals. The volumes critically examine various manifestations of the trend now commonly known as globalization--manifestations that many diasporic communities, immigrants, and people from all walks of life experience. They also illuminate recent political, social, economic and technological developments that are taking place in a rapidly changing world. Volume One offers sophisticated insights into the nature of contemporary formations of diasporic life, internationalism, and hybrid identities. The volume asks bold questions around what it means to live in constantly shifting boundaries of nationality, identity, and citizenship. The type of methodological, discursive and experiential awareness promoted by this work helps us understand how millions of people face the challenge of living in a globalizing world; it also fosters a consciousness of how globalization itself functions differently in different environments. Volume Two (see Volume 7 in Transgressions: Cultural Studies and Education) addresses additional and more nuanced questions around culture, race, sexuality, migration, displacement and resistance. It also explores certain epistemological and methodological fallacies regarding conventional articulations of nation-state, nationalism, and the local/global nexus. The volume seeks to answer questions such as: What are the meanings and connotations of 'displacement' in a rapidly globalizing world? What are some dilemmas and challenges around notions of cultural hybridity, linguistic diversity, and a sense of belonging? What is the meaning of home in diaspora and the meaning of diaspora at home? Together, the volumes raise many topics that will be of immense interest to scholars across disciplines and general readers. While celebrating the increasing acknowledgment of difference and diversity in recent times, this work reminds us of the ongoing ramifications of dominant structures of inequality, relations of power, and issues of inclusion and exclusion. This work offers different ways of thinking, writing and talking about globalization and the processes that emerge from it.




Diasporic Ruptures


Book Description

Diasporic Ruptures: Globality, Migrancy, and Expressions of Identity lies at the intersections of various processes emerging from globalization: border-crossings, transnationalism, identity formations. Carefully selected and placed in two volumes, the essays here represent works of both well-seasoned scholars as well as emerging writers, academics and intellectuals. The volumes critically examine various manifestations of the trend now commonly known as globalization—manifestations that many diasporic communities, immigrants, and people from all walks of life experience. They also illuminate recent political, social, economic and technological developments that are taking place in a rapidly changing world. Volume One offers sophisticated insights into the nature of contemporary formations of diasporic life, internationalism, and hybrid identities. The volume asks bold questions around what it means to live in constantly shifting boundaries of nationality, identity, and citizenship. The type of methodological, discursive and experiential awareness promoted by this work helps us understand how millions of people face the challenge of living in a globalizing world; it also fosters a consciousness of how globalization itself functions differently in different environments. Volume Two (see Volume 7 in Transgressions: Cultural Studies and Education) addresses additional and more nuanced questions around culture, race, sexuality, migration, displacement and resistance. It also explores certain epistemological and methodological fallacies regarding conventional articulations of nation-state, nationalism, and the local/global nexus. The volume seeks to answer questions such as: What are the meanings and connotations of ‘displacement’ in a rapidly globalizing world? What are some dilemmas and challenges around notions of cultural hybridity, linguistic diversity, and a sense of belonging? What is the meaning of home in diaspora and the meaning of diaspora at home? Together, the volumes raise many topics that will be of immense interest to scholars across disciplines and general readers. While celebrating the increasing acknowledgment of difference and diversity in recent times, this work reminds us of the ongoing ramifications of dominant structures of inequality, relations of power, and issues of inclusion and exclusion. This work offers different ways of thinking, writing and talking about globalization and the processes that emerge from it.




More-Than-Human Diasporas


Book Description

Pugliese’s More‐Than‐Human Diasporas breaks the confines of existing scholarship in its vision of the way that more‐than‐human diasporic entities—such as water, trees, clay, stone and architectural styles—have functioned as agents within the context of empire, settler colonialism and a largely effaced history of Mediterranean enslavement, a history that pre‐existed and then coincided with the Atlantic slave trade. This book traces, for example, the diasporic travels of the eucalyptus from Indigenous Country to Joseph Banks’ botanical collection in London and then onto a grand English‐style garden in Southern Italy which was built on the historically effaced labour of enslaved people. By deploying techniques of historical recovery, this book brings to light otherwise buried histories, thereby demonstrating the pivotal role of Mediterranean enslavement in the shaping of Italian society and culture. This book develops a topological understanding of cultural history to account for the complex spatio‐temporal effects that connect seemingly disparate times, spaces and more‐than‐human entities within networks of relationality. In this innovative scholarly work, more‐than‐human diasporic entities function as conceptual keys to histories which would otherwise remain hidden, thereby revealing desubjugated knowledges which reconfigure anthropocentric histories and further the process of decolonisation. This book will be of interest to readers interested in transnational and local histories of empire, settler colonialism and slavery.




Social Palliation


Book Description

Social Palliation is a pioneering study on living and dying as articulated by first-generation Iranian and Ismaili Muslim communities in Canada. Using ethnographic narratives, Parin Dossa makes a case for a paradigm shift from palliative care to social palliation. Experiences of displacement and resettlement reveal that life and death must be understood as an integrated unit if we are to appreciate what it is like to be awakened to our human existence. In the wake of structural exclusion and systemic suffering, social palliation brings to light displaced persons' endeavours to restore the integrity of life and death. Dossa highlights the point that death conjoined with life is embedded within the socio-cultural and spiritual experience. Here, a caring society is not perceived in fragments, as is the case with traditional institutional care or care offered during end-of-life. Rather, Dossa draws attention to an organic form of caring, illustrated through the trajectories of storied lives. In exemplifying more humane aspects of social palliation, this book foregrounds sacred traditions to illustrate their potential to evoke deep-level conversations across socio-political boundaries on what it is like to live and die in the contemporary world.




Indigenous Experience Today


Book Description

A century ago, the idea of indigenous people as an active force in the contemporary world was unthinkable. It was assumed that native societies everywhere would be swept away by the forward march of the West and its own peculiar brand of progress and civilization. Nothing could be further from the truth. Indigenous social movements wield new power, and groups as diverse as Australian Aborigines, Ecuadorian Quichuas, and New Zealand Maoris, have found their own distinctive and assertive ways of living in the present world. Indigenous Experience Today draws together essays by prominent scholars in anthropology and other fields examining the varied face of indigenous politics in Bolivia, Botswana, Canada, Chile, China, Indonesia, and the United States, amongst others. The book challenges accepted notions of indigeneity as it examines the transnational dynamics of contemporary native culture and politics around the world.




The New American West in Literature and the Arts


Book Description

The story of the American West is that of a journey. It is the story of a movement, of a geographical and human transition, of the delineation of a route that would soon become a rooted myth. The story of the American West has similarly journeyed across boundaries, in a two-way movement, sometimes feeding the idea of that myth, sometimes challenging it. This collection of essays relates to the notion of the traveling essence of the myth of the American West from different geographical and disciplinary standpoints. The volume originates in Europe, in Spain, where the myth traveled, was received, assimilated, and re-presented. It intends to travel back to the West, in a two-way cross-cultural journey, which will hopefully contribute to the delineation of the New—always self-renewing—American West. It includes the work of authors of both sides of the Atlantic ocean who propose a cross-cultural, transdisciplinary dialogue upon the idea, the geography and the representation of the American West.




The Politics of Education


Book Description

The subject of education is a contentious issue in our world. The Politics of Education: An Introduction, critically examines the overt and covert political issues suffusing education. Questions of What is education?, What do we teach?, and How do we teach? are all political questions, the answers to which empower certain individuals, groups and viewpoints over others. This book explores the political contexts that shape our conceptions of education and guides our pedagogical practice. Contemporary educational theory and practice are taken to task for attempting to instill democratic values and a love of freedom anti-democratically with little to no freedom. For example, The Politics of Education considers the effects of standardized examinations on the individual and her ability to function in a democratic society. Critiques of contemporary educational theory and practice by Dewey, Foucault, Bourdeau, classical conservative thinkers and others are considered. This book examines education through historical and international lenses where appropriate. Alternative meanings and modes of education grounded in critical pedagogy are offered as steps in revolutionizing education. Tony Monchinski, a special education and social studies teacher in New York, has taught in the West Indies and Asia. He is a PhD candidate in Political Science at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where he studies the relationships between political ideologies and the uses of standardized exams. A freelance writer, Tony writes widely for a variety of publications, including a monthly column for MuscleMag International and frequent contributions to Cultural Logic, an online journal of Marxist theory and practice.




The Great White North?


Book Description

This landmark book represents the first text to pay critical and sustained attention to Whiteness in Canada from an impressive line-up of leading scholars and activists. The burgeoning scholarship on Whiteness will benefit richly from this book’s timely inclusion of the insights of Canadian scholars, educators, activists and others working for social justice within and through the educational system, with implications far beyond national borders. Over 20 leading scholars and activists have contributed a diversity of chapters offering a concerted scholarly analysis of how the complex problematic of Whiteness affects the structure, culture, content and achievement within education in Canada. Contributors include James Frideres, Carl James, Cynthia Levine-Rasky, and Patrick Solomon. The book critically examines diverse perspectives, contexts, and the construction and application of societal and institutional practices, both formal and informal, that underpin inequitable power relations and disenfranchisement. Its relevance extends beyond the Canadian context, as those in other global settings will find abundant and poignant lessons for their own transformative work in education with a particular focus on social justice. Awards for The Great White North: The publication Award Canadian Association for Foundations in Education (2009) Canadian Race Relations Foundation Award of Distinction (2008)




Leonardo's Vision


Book Description

“In this rich treasure trove of historical inspiration, contemporary ideas, and future-oriented how-to’s, Valerie Brown has brought together a lifetime of work synthesizing science, participatory processes, and action for sustainability. A seasoned explorer, she moves effortlessly between disciplines as she describes a comprehensive approach to tackling the great challenges of our time—together. Because together is the only way they can be tackled. Read, learn, and act.” - Alan AtKisson, author, Believing Cassandra, and Executive Director, Earth Charter International.