Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

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Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction Programs / Kay Ann Taylor / It has been 50 years since the notion of the model minority was first used to describe Asian Americans in the United States (Petersen, 1966). In the past decade, there has been substantial scholarly growth in the model minority research, and researchers have identified racism hidden behind the notion. However, previous research has mainly addressed the model minority stereotype in the regional context with similar research topics that produce similar findings, which requires a new research paradigm to be established. To meet this theoretical and contextual need, this study locates the model minority discourse in postcolonialism, especially in the context of Empire as global sovereign power with no concrete form, viewing the model minority stereotype as Empire’s controlling strategy that ethnicizes all Asians on the globe into its “global capitalist hierarchy” (Hardt & Negri, 2000). Empirically, this study examines how the model minority stereotype is shaped, developed, and ingrained in the transnational experience of Asian international graduate students who pursue careers in the United States after their degree completion as a bridge to their future. Findings from participants’ narratives show that they became aware of their Asianness through their transnational experience and gradually embraced the hardworking image of Asians through repeated environmental and interactional input of the image. Participants also expected higher economic and social status in their home countries as a result of their degrees and work experience obtained in the United States, with Orientalist values people in their home countries attach to their U.S.-earned credentials. Asian intellectuals educated in the West, represented by the United States, serve Empire’s capitalist maintenance and expansion as a transnational workforce while seeking their self-interest and transnational competitiveness. This raises an interdisciplinary and intersectional need to empower higher education to be critically aware of the current context of Empire and globalization.

M.Comm. / Marketers have historically found it convenient to bundle the Asian consumer market together with the black consumer market or the white consumer market depending on the product or event under consideration. As we move toward an era of customised products and individualised service, minority markets become more difficult to overlook. Their unique characteristics demand that they be targeted as separate and unique market segments distinct from the mass markets that dominate the marketing environment.

A second generation South Asian can be faced with contrasting and conflicting cultures which can impact the formation of a healthy ethnic identity. The present study investigated what facilitated and hindered a South Asian's adolescent experience of becoming bicultural. Flanagan's (1954) Critical Incident Technique was used in interviewing 8 adult participants, including 5 females and 3 males, aged 20 to 26 years of age. The results identified 88 critical incidents, forming 10 helping categories and 4 hindering categories. The 10 Helping categories were: (1) Cross Cultural Friendships, (2) Speaking both Punjabi and English, (3) Personal Attributes, (4) Shared Experiences with Peers in the 'Same Boat', (5) Family Support and Influence, (6) Involvement in Recreational, Cultural and Religious Community Activities, (7) Visiting India, (8) High School Experience, (9) University Education and (10) Acceptance of Parent's and / or Grandparent's Views. The Hindering Categories were: (1) Parental and / or Familial Expectations, (2) Media Influence / Societal Expectations, (3) Personal Conflict of Cultural Values and (4) Experiencing Racism. The categories were found to be reliable and valid through procedures such as exhaustiveness, independent raters, co-researcher's cross checking, participation rate and theoretical agreement. The resulting categories provide a list of comprehensive factors that can facilitate and hinder an individual's process towards developing a bicultural identity. The findings are discussed in relation to implications for counselling theory and practice, and future research. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

There have been numerous studies on the economic, social, and emotional lives of the Southeast Asian refugees (Adelman, 1982; Beiser, Johnson, & Roshi, 1994; Haines, 1989; Neuwirth, 1984; Nutter, 1984; Whitmore, Trautmann, & Caplan, 1989), yet the lack o f focus on Southeast Asian women refugees is prevalent. Human capital theory explored Southeast Asian women refugees' unique settlement experience as workers in Canada. Data from the Refugee Resettlement Study, " A Ten Year Study of Southeast Asian Refugees in Canada" (Beiser et al., 1994) was used to examine the employment experiences of women from Vietnam and Laos who came to Canada as refugees. The majority of the women were employed and were in jobs with low occupational status. Logistic regression was used to analyse variables associated with employment and occupational status. High English language proficiency was associated with being employed and having high occupational status. In addition, being younger increased employability. When the individual items within the English language proficiency scale were assessed, ability to read English and low ethnic concentration promoted employability. Ability to write English and low ethnic concentration increased the likelihood of having higher occupational status. This study contributes to the limited literature on refugee women's human capital accumulation and employment experiences during settlement in the host country. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

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The Nath sampradāy, a community whose early Hindavi literature propagates a selfhood which is deeply enmeshed in both Hindu and Islamic traditions, has been at the forefront of Hindu right-wing agitations in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Examining an extensive vernacular corpus of texts–– from seventeenth-century manuscripts to twentieth-century printed books–– this dissertation investigates the changes that took place in the Nath community over the longue dureé. Analyzing this oeuvre, along with historical records, I explore both how the yogis portrayed themselves in their literature and how they were viewed by others. Specifically, this dissertation addresses how modern technologies and ideologies–– such as print, nationalism, and democracy–– merged to help create a more rigidly Hindu identity for the sampradāy in the twentieth century: a novel selfhood unlike the one previously propagated. In particular, it examines how the influential twentieth-century leader of the Goraknath temple in Gorakhpur, Mahant Digvijaynath, reimagined his Nath identity to make his community a center of Hindutvā politics in modern India.

Cette thèse propose une contribution originale aux réflexions portant sur les dynamiques de construction identitaires, en analysant les différentes identifications des People of Indian Origin en Tanzanie et en Ouganda comme des exercices de navigation de la frontière sociale, entraînant des transformations des relations de pouvoir à l’oeuvre dans les sociétés tanzanienne et ougandaise. À partir de récits de vie récoltés auprès des populations concernées, de l'observation des processus de construction identitaire internes aux communautés, et de la tenue de discussions informelles, la thèse dépasse les approches trop englobantes de ces populations, et fait ressortir l'hétérogénéité et les contradictions qui forment le socle de la construction d'une identité collective. Ces méthodes ont été mises en place durant huit mois à Dar es-Salaam et un an à Kampala. Construite sur la base des théories de l'hybridité et de la fluidité identitaire, la thèse prend la forme d'une analyse menée « par le bas » des processus identitaires, et des relations de pouvoir qui les sous-tendent et les conditionnent. L'idée de « navigation identitaire », qui forme la trame de l'analyse, permet de mettre de côté les processus d'identification exogènes, et de déconstruire des catégorisations parfois trop rigides en ce qui concerne la construction des frontières sociales et les différents positionnements des agents par rapport à ces frontières. La thèse propose l'analyse de ces différents positionnements comme des processus de gatekeeping partagés par l'ensemble des participants à différent degré, D'autre part, ces navigations prenant place au sein du groupe s'inscrivent dans une dynamique collective, c'est-à-dire dans les relations de pouvoir entretenues avec le reste des sociétés ougandaises et tanzaniennes, elles invitent alors à dépasser le paradoxe de populations socialement marginalisées mais économiquement dominantes en en apportant une compréhension plus fluide, par l'analyse des navigation identitaires qui caractérisent les investissements faits par ces populations des catégorisations qui leurs sont assignées.

This dissertation draws inspiration from one of most iconic exchanges across the Indian Ocean in antiquity: that of Indian spices for Roman gold coins on the Periyar River in Malabar. While previous scholarship has outlined how these goods arrived at various entrepots like that on the Periyar, the larger impacts of Indian Ocean imports within new socio-cultural environments have yet to be explored. "Beyond the Periyar" articulates these impacts from a new perspective, the commodities themselves and the rippling patterns of consumption and industries that contribute to or arise from their importation. Roman coins changed functions as they changed hands, and surviving specimens often show the multiple stages of their long lives as objects through physical adaptations by Indian consumers. Their superficial design further held aesthetic value, provided useful idioms for Indian die-cutters, and inspired an industry of high-quality imitations. Indian spices like black pepper, cinnamon leaf, and ginger contributed to Roman culinary and cosmetic practices, as attested by Roman authors and associated utensils. These products have been discussed in the context of notions of “luxury” in reactionary texts—however, such critiques must be balanced against larger considerations of literary genre and known economic factors like prices vis-à-vis real wages. A hive of human activity throughout the Indian Ocean world underpinned these acts of consumption, which often stands behind the veil of consumer apathy. Human agents range from the investors financing transoceanic ventures and the traders manning oceangoing vessels, to state interests and regional security personnel, to the processors, craftsmen, and vendors who marketed these products to consumers. When we look beyond the Periyar, the consumption of long-distance imports appears not as a marginal force, but as a transformative component of ancient economies and societies with a far wider reach than previously assumed.