Browsing by Subject "Assimilation"

Now showing 1 - 14 of 14

African diaspora in reverse : the Tabom people in Ghana, 1820s-2009
(2010-05) Essien, Kwame; Falola, Toyin
The early 1800s witnessed the exodus of former slaves from Brazil to Africa. A number of slaves migrated after gaining manumission. Others were deported after they were accused of committing various “crimes” and after slave rebellions. These returnees established various communities and identities along the coastline of West Africa, but Historians often limit the scope to communities that developed in Benin, Togo and Nigeria. My dissertation fills in this gap by highlighting the obscured history of the Tabom people—the descendants of Afro-Brazilian returnees in Ghana. The study examines the history of the Tabom people to show the various ways they are constructing their identities and how their leaders are forging ties with the Brazilian government, the Ghanaian government, and institutions such as UNESCO. The main goal of the Tabom people is to preserve their history, to underscore the significance of sites of memories, and to restore various historical monuments within their communities for tourism. The economic consciousness contributed to the restoration of the “Brazil House” in Accra which was opened for tourism on November 15, 2007, after a year of repairs through the support of the Brazilian Embassy and various institutions in Ghana. This watershed moment not only marked an important historical event and the birth of tourism within the Tabom community, but epitomized decades of attempts to showcase the history of the Afro-Brazilian community which has been obscured in Ghanaian school curriculum and African diaspora history. My central thesis is that the initiatives by the Tabom people are not only influenced by economic interests, but also by the need to express the “dual” identities that underlie what it means to the “Ghanaian-Brazilian.” The efforts by the Tabom leaders to project their dual heritage, led to the visit by Brazilian President Luiz Inácios Lula da Silva “Lula” in April 2005, who also graciously supported the restoration of the “Brazil House.” Through these interactions Lula extended an invitation to the Tabom chief and members of the community to visit Brazil for the first time. This dissertation posits that Lula’s invitation highlight notions that the African Diaspora is an unending journey.
Assimilation, social network sites and Asian stereotype : understanding Chinese-American teenagers in Austin
(2014-08) Huang, Gejun; Straubhaar, Joseph D.
Given the increasing number of younger immigrants from China, we have noticed diversified performances of Chinese-American teenagers based on the age they come to the U.S. This thesis thus examines three specific aspects—assimilation, social network site (SNS) use, and reaction to Asian stereotype—of Chinese-American teenagers living in Austin, regarding intraethnic differences between and among different clusters of this cohort as the second generation immigrant. By employing semi-structured interviews conducted with teenagers who have respective immigrant history and family background, a wide array of patterns about assimilation, SNS use, and reaction to Asian stereotype are traced and analyzed alongside demonstrating outlines and traits in terms of different generation clusters (1.25ers, 1.5ers, 1.75ers and 2.0ers). A total of ten Chinese-American teenagers, aged from 15 to 18, are recruited and interviewed through snowball approach, allowing for the surface of intraethnic variations on the aforementioned aspects. Preliminary discussions are made to tease out how these three aspects are intertwined.
Chanda Parbhoo Interview
(2022-10-17) Institute for Diversity & Civic Life; Department of Religious Studies
This interview is with Chanda Parbhoo, an Indian-American organizer and immigrant from South Africa who lives in Dallas, TX. Chanda compares her early experiences of ethnic integration in Canada with her experiences of apartheid in South Africa. She also shares the challenges and prejudice her family experienced in Canada and the States. She describes the influence of her father’s business ventures and values on her childhood and career. Chanda talks about her activism for representation in her school district and for AAPI voting empowerment.
Daniele Volfe Interview
(2022-09-22) Institute for Diversity & Civic Life; Department of Religious Studies
This interview is with Daniele Volfe, a Brazilian immigrant and immigration attorney in McKinney, Texas. Daniele describes coming to the US with her husband, a pastor, and her family’s process of getting settled in Texas. She talks about her education and her decision to become an immigration attorney. She shares her relationship with her Brazilian culture and compares it with her daughters’ experiences of their heritage.
In flickers and flashes : recovering Jewish loss in three American photographic anthologies
(2013-12) Kohn, Tara Gabrielle; Smith, Cherise, 1969-; Reynolds, Ann; Tejada, Roberto; Rossen, Rebecca; Cvetkovich, Ann
This dissertation explores legacies of Jewish loss in three American photographic anthologies published over the course of the twentieth century. I argue that the images bound within the volumes reveal a fluidity between familial and cultural memory in order to foster ethnic, cultural, and religious togetherness. The photographic books function as sites of community formation, framing a shared painful past around which to construct identity and visualizing migration as a trauma that underlies American Modernism. Reflecting the process of unearthing the ancestral past, my study is structured in reverse chronological order. I begin with an analysis of Behold a Great Image (1978), a collection of photographs submitted to an amateur photography contest and compiled by editors Sharon Strassfeld and Arthur Kurzweil. I suggest that the book functions as a visual conduit into a painful past—one that reveals a continuity between the losses of recent history and present-day efforts to revive and celebrate cultural particularity. The subject of the second chapter is Raphael Abramovitch’s The Vanished World (1947), an album of photographs of rural European villages taken for immigrant audiences in the United States during the interwar period. This section explores the ways in which these images, reframed in the volume as monuments to the victims of Nazi terror, take on new layers of resonance as the entwined histories of cultural displacement and genocide continue to recede. Centering on the journal Camera Work (1903-1917), the final chapter contends that editor Alfred Stieglitz made his own Jewishness visible even as he obscured it, veiling it in the complex relationships he created between image and text. Without relinquishing his hard-earned place as an American cultural leader, he framed unanswerable questions about what it means to live between classes, between racial categories, and between cultures.
Juan Coronado Interview
(2021-08-18) Institute for Diversity & Civic Life; Department of Religious Studies
This interview is with Dr. Juan Coronado, a professor from the Río Grande Valley. Juan reflects on growing up surrounded by Latino culture and on his exposure to migration and the presence of the border. He talks as a historian about his impressions of changes at the border and in the US at large that followed 9/11. Juan also discusses the effects of wars in the Middle East on Middle Eastern populations, American troops, and American culture.
Lily Trieu Interview
(2022-10-13) Institute for Diversity & Civic Life; Department of Religious Studies
This interview is with Lily Trieu, a first-generation Chinese-American and non-profit director in Austin, TX. Lily shares her parents’ stories of coming to the US, living as a low-income family, and struggling with assimilation. She talks about her busy youth and her education. Lily describes her path from working in corporate marketing to working in policy advocacy and founding Asian Texans for Justice. She also shares her perspectives on anti-Asian racism and the needs of communities like hers.
Literature circles : Latina/o students' daily experiences as part of the classroom curriculum
(2013-12) Martínez, Manuel, active 2013; Urrieta, Luis
After the Mexican-American war, the educational experience of Mexican and Mexican -American students was one of segregation, discrimination, and inequalities. Latina/o histories and funds of knowledge have not been historically part of the classroom curriculum. Although scholars, educators, and social movements have challenged such inequalities, they still persist. Students became objects of the educational process. New theories and educational practices, such as critical pedagogy, have helped empowered students to become aware of their situation and encouraged students to become social agents of change. Literature circles, an educational practice of critical pedagogy, enable educators to provide students with an educational experience where they become the Subjects of their own learning; thus, transforming their educational experiences.
Meenal McNary Interview
(2021-04-28) Institute for Diversity & Civic Life; Department of Religious Studies
This interview is with Dr. Meenal McNary, a first-generation Indian-American dentist and local activist in Round Rock, TX. Meenal discusses the contrast between the goal of assimilation when she was growing up and the goal of instilling in her children senses of pride in and connection to Indian culture today. She talks about her racial equity work with the local government and Round Rock ISD, in which she advocates for the safety and dignity of Black and Brown children. Meenal also talks about her time serving as a dentist in the US army and the importance of building trusting relationships with her patients.
Networked and disconnected : Latino/Hispanic immigrant youths, digital media, and assimilation into the U.S
(2015-08) Lombana Bermudez, Andres Alberto; Watkins, S. Craig (Samuel Craig); Kearney, Mary Celeste; Jenkins, Henry; Straubhaar, Joseph; Kathleen, Tyner
This study examines how a group of second- and 1.5-generation Latino/Hispanic immigrant youths (14-18) navigate the uneven process of assimilation into the United States by using digital tools and networks. Understanding Latino/Hispanic immigrant youth as social actors and creative agents, I investigate how their new media practices and skills help them assimilate into multiple dimensions of the host country. For this purpose, I use a transdisciplinary framework that combines sociocultural theories of media practice, critical theories of digital inequality, and sociological theories of assimilation. Through a series of case studies of five immigrant youths with Mexican origins (two girls and three boys, ages 14-18) and working class socioeconomic backgrounds, I analyze the mediated activities they have developed in the contexts of their homes, an after-school program, and social media networked spaces. I draw on qualitative data that I helped collect as a member of the Digital Edge project during a longitudinal ethnography (2011-2012) conducted at Freeway High School, a large, ethnically diverse, low-performing, and economically disadvantaged public school in the Austin Metropolitan Area. By revealing the local conditions and structural forces that shape how these Latino/Hispanic immigrant youths use technology in their everyday life, my analysis provides: new insights into digital divides and participation gaps; a grounded understanding of the role of new media practices and skills in the process of assimilation; and a nuanced description of the diverse media environments accessed by minority youth. My findings suggest that Latino/Hispanic immigrant youth use digital media technology to assimilate into cultural, linguistic, and social dimensions of U.S. society. Particularly, as the five youths developed new media practices and gained new media skills, their process of adaptation to the culture and language of the host country accelerated. However, although they obtained skills that helped them to advance in their process of assimilation, their abilities were not developed to high levels of expertise and their participation in new media cultures often remained peripheral. Evidence reveals that digital inequalities and participation gaps persist and continue to evolve in complex ways.
Nura Bawab Interview
(2022-01-18) Institute for Diversity & Civic Life; Department of Religious Studies
This interview is with Nura Bawab, a Palestinian solidarity activist and student in Austin, TX. Nura describes growing up in a multicultural and multireligious household. She talks about experiencing the urge to assimilate as the daughter of immigrants and gradually getting in touch with her Palestinian heritage. She discusses her activism with Palestine Solidarity Committee, becoming a student leader within the organization, as well as the challenges and goals of organizing for PSC in Texas.
Organizational exit dynamics in times of turbulence : let me tell you the story of how my high hopes were let down
(2015-05) Pastorek, Angela E.; Browning, Larry D.; Stephens, Keri K.; Cloud, Dana L.; Berkelaar, Brenda L.; Keating, Elizabeth L.
Employees face many challenges as they attempt to fulfill the often intense and conflicting expectations of their professional roles within the culture of an organization for which they perform paid work. These demands include traversing a consistent stream of organizational change (Lewis, 2011), navigating complex coworker relationships (Sias, 2009), and meeting the often intense and even abusive demands of organizational managers and leaders (Caldwell & Canuto-Carranco, 2010). As a result of this cultural intensity, organizational members can begin considering exit (Jablin, 1987, 2001) very early in their tenure. This study explores Jablin’s Model of Assimilation (1987, 2001) as a framework for identifying the types of events, observations and concerns that facilitate exit-related sensemaking (Weick, 1995) and, ultimately, a decision to leave an organization. Findings indicate that organizational exit (Jablin, 1987, 2001) is not simply a response to a single “straw that broke the camel’s back” event. Rather, organizational exit is a complex, evolving process resulting from a web of observations and experiences occurring over time within the organization. Based on interviews with 61 people who voluntarily left an organization in a post-recession economy (2010—2014), findings indicate surprising similarities and differences across industries in both the organizational factors leading up to exit and individuals’ exit experiences. By tracing the origins of exit back through the socialization processes experienced by exiting organizational members, this study fills a gap in organizational exit research, defining exit not as a discrete end-stage event, but rather as an ongoing, highly communicative and personalized process based on recursive loops of sensemaking (Weick, 1995) that build over the course of a member’s tenure, resulting in a choice to leave the organization.
Suleiman "Sal" Masoud Interview
(2022-09-28) Institute for Diversity & Civic Life; Department of Religious Studies
This interview is with Suleiman Masoud, an engineer and Palestinian immigrant living in El Paso, TX. Suleiman describes growing up in Palestine and Kuwait with details about his early education and village life. He talks about his decision to come to the States for college and his experience of embracing American culture. He shares details about his family growing up and compares his life as a child to what his children have been able to experience. Suleiman also talks about the power of names when it comes to assimilation and othering.
Yerba Mate
(2022-02) Armendariz, Sara