This thesis investigates why British Asians are under-represented as professional footballers proportionally to their numbers in the overall population. Fundamentally, it is both an account of how young, male, British Asian footballers interpret and explain their under-representation in the professional game, and a critical analysis of the strategies and policies employed by the anti-racist football movement to overcome this phenomenon. The central problematic is that anti-racist football organisations are often out of touch with contemporary manifestations of "Asianness" and so the ideologies that underpin their schemes and initiatives are often in direct conflict with the attitudes and aspirations of young, male, British Asian footballers themselves. Using ethnographic research methods - namely semi- structured interviews with large numbers of professional and amateur British Asian footballers, professional football coaches and members of anti-racist football organisations, together with observations of matches, training sessions and social occasions involving British Asian players - this thesis seeks to overcome the previous "silencing" of British Asian footballers. It places their oral testimonies at the centre of the analysis of exclusion. Theoretically, this thesis examines how football interacts with issues of `race', ethnicity, nation, class, locality, family, generation, religion, style and consumption to construct new articulations and experiences of "Asianness". Consequently, the analysis calls for sociological frameworks that no longer essentialise and dichotomise "South Asian" and "British" cultures but that, instead, appreciate how, in the twenty-first century, these elements are actively fused to create specifically British Asian identities and lifestyles. In this regard, this thesis provides a sensitive and timely contribution to the fields of ethnic and racial studies, football and young people.

This dissertation examines the questions: “What are the experiences of Asian women faculty in the Canadian academy?” and “How do they navigate this space?” The study aims to generate new insights into how this understudied and underrepresented population negotiates various aspects of identity, such as gender, race, language and citizenship, as they pursue their academic careers. It provides an original examination of how “Asian” women faculty who have transnational life experience interpret the Canadian academy. Using a qualitative inquiry methodology with a transnational feminist perspective, I conducted in-depth interviews with nine Asian women faculty members in Canadian universities concerning their motivations, desires, contradictions, struggles, and coping strategies within their academic lives. Themes for the analysis arose from the literature, the conceptual framework, my own background and the data. Four major themes organize the analysis: 1) what impact the socially constructed discourse of Canadian citizenry has in the everyday lives of Asian women faculty and how “Asian-woman-ness” operates in the given contexts; 2) what technical difficulties and social barriers emerge from Asian women faculty’s experiences with spoken and written English language; 3) what “cultural logics” Asian women faculty utilize in order to survive/thrive in their social locations as Asian women in the Canadian academy; and 4) how Asian women faculty create their own legitimate space from their marginalized points of view. Through the dual process of their citizenry being de-legitimized in the academy and the nation-state, Asian women faculty strive to become legitimate through creating alternative understandings and definitions of their academic lives. This study was meant to initiate and promote reconfiguration of study on faculty’s lives by foregrounding the transnational feminist framework, which looks at/beyond the institutional, national and temporal borders and at the same time pays close attention to gender and race within the different types of borders. The study suggests that efforts to make higher education more diverse are more complex than some might imagine.

This dissertation examines the questions: “What are the experiences of Asian women faculty in the Canadian academy?” and “How do they navigate this space?” The study aims to generate new insights into how this understudied and underrepresented population negotiates various aspects of identity, such as gender, race, language and citizenship, as they pursue their academic careers. It provides an original examination of how “Asian” women faculty who have transnational life experience interpret the Canadian academy. Using a qualitative inquiry methodology with a transnational feminist perspective, I conducted in-depth interviews with nine Asian women faculty members in Canadian universities concerning their motivations, desires, contradictions, struggles, and coping strategies within their academic lives. Themes for the analysis arose from the literature, the conceptual framework, my own background and the data. Four major themes organize the analysis: 1) what impact the socially constructed discourse of Canadian citizenry has in the everyday lives of Asian women faculty and how “Asian-woman-ness” operates in the given contexts; 2) what technical difficulties and social barriers emerge from Asian women faculty’s experiences with spoken and written English language; 3) what “cultural logics” Asian women faculty utilize in order to survive/thrive in their social locations as Asian women in the Canadian academy; and 4) how Asian women faculty create their own legitimate space from their marginalized points of view. Through the dual process of their citizenry being de-legitimized in the academy and the nation-state, Asian women faculty strive to become legitimate through creating alternative understandings and definitions of their academic lives. This study was meant to initiate and promote reconfiguration of study on faculty’s lives by foregrounding the transnational feminist framework, which looks at/beyond the institutional, national and temporal borders and at the same time pays close attention to gender and race within the different types of borders. The study suggests that efforts to make higher education more diverse are more complex than some might imagine.

This thesis is a study of representations of Pacific Asia in exhibitions in Stockholm. In the Swedish culture and art sphere, a public discussion surrounding Asia is conspicuously absent even though there are significant amounts of residents in Sweden with an Asian background. The thesis analyses three selected exhibitions: Korea Gallery at the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Dreamers’ Quay, Dreamers’ Key at Bonniers Konsthall, and From dying to living at Moderna Museet. The material consists of field observations, exhibition catalogs, handouts, wall texts, and interviews with the involved curators alongside with the exhibitions themselves. The thesis aims to initiate a critical discussion around the representations of the so-called “Other” and the implications of curatorial approaches in these exhibitions that primarily revolve around Asian themes with the help of the following research questions: 1) How is Asia portrayed and represented in each exhibition?; 2) What perception of Asia and Asianness is conveyed through the exhibitions as well as by the way of other related material?; and 3) How is the curatorial approach to the exhibitions with ethnographic themes revolving around Asianness? The qualitative case studies assess both the content and visuals of the exhibitions and the preparation processes of the exhibitions, and theoretically, they are informed by Stuart Hall’s theory of representation as well as Hal Foster’s and Miwon Kwon’s writings on the artist as ethnographer. Through an examination of the three case exhibitions, the thesis finds that representations of Asia are varied and have benefited from extensive curatorial efforts but show occasional weaknesses in terms of displaying the Other. The thesis contributes to a better understanding of representations of Asia in exhibitions in Sweden and hopefully paves the way for future research of this kind.