This project seeks to communicate the cultural identity of a specific group of people, a select group of Koreans who were adopted by Western families and brought to this country at an early age. I have combined the language of masquerade with personal stories to help illustrate the complex psychological challenges facing adopted Koreans as they live between cultures.

This text is a record of the preparation and rehearsal of a kabuki-inspired production of Madame de Sade by Yukio Mishima in an English translation by Donald Keene. The goals of this production were both artistic and pedagogical. I applied my knowledge of Japanese theatre and skills in directing skills in a new way to create a work of theatre with a cross-cultural aesthetic appropriate to both the play and the audience. This production also gave the cast of undergraduate acting students the experience of combining truthful and stylized acting and introduced them to both kabuki and Stella Adler acting techniques. This text details the process of preparing the text, the discussions, exercises and techniques used in rehearsal, the impact of design elements on the performance and concludes with some thoughts on future development of this production concept with a fuller realization of the kabuki-inspiration.

Between 1946 and 1948, American photographer Margaret Bourke-White traveled to India while on assignments for Life magazine. Since the late 1940s, a photograph from these assignments that depicts three men sitting in an ornately decorated room has appeared in several publications and exhibitions under variations of the title A Moneylender’s House (1947). Though Bourke-White is traditionally categorized as a documentary photojournalist, her photograph exhibits motifs similar to those seen in European Orientalist paintings from the nineteenth century. Considering recent scholarship that has expanded the temporal and geographical parameters of the Orientalist photography genre, this thesis analyzes the “documentary” photograph, A Moneylender’s House, in its varied exhibition and publication contexts to determine whether they present the photographic subjects from a “nonrepressive and nonmanipulative perspective” (one that Edward Said suggests might provide an “alternative” to Orientalism), or reinforce the “Self/Other” binary at the core of Orientalism.

The aim of the thesis entitled Cross-cultural psychology, culturological contribution to the selected topics, is to present the field of cultural psychology and cross-cultural psychology in the Czech Republic. This thesis focuses on the selected topics from the area of study of cultural psychology and cross-cultural psychology. The thesis is a theoretical and literary overview. Attention is paid to the four thematic areas of psychology: the influence of culture on cognitive processes, individual development in culture, the relationship between personality and culture, and psychological aspects of intercultural interaction. The work focuses on the challenges and limits of studies of the human psyche in a cross-cultural perspective. Cited empirical studies show that cultural context affects many mental functions. From the perspective of culturology as a science, this thesis represents a contribution to the interdisciplinary study of culture at the individual level.

Managers have an important role to companies’ globalization process and success. Leading organizations across national borders is a huge challenge due to different cultures requires different leadership styles. Culture is the most underrated external factor affecting the leadership. A great cultural distance between two countries, such as India and Sweden, can result in greater differences in organizational attributes. The purpose of this paper is to understand from female managers’ perspective how Indian and Swedish cultural aspects affect their leadership style towards their subordinates. To fulfill the purpose the authors have chosen to use and deductive approach in order to do a qualitative study. The authors interviewed eight Swedish female managers in India and two Indian female managers in Sweden. The theoretical framework is structured upon main themes including; leadership, cross-cultural management, culture, cross-cultural between India and Sweden and previous research. The theory chapter is followed with the empirical data and an analysis chapter where the authors analyzed the results based on the theories and previous research. In conclusion, there are common differences and challenges between Indian and Swedish managers. The managers received respect because of their title. Furthermore, the authors can conclude that Indians are more flexible with the time, while Swedes are the opposite, everything has to be planned. All the managers highlighted the importance of giving feedback to subordinates to improve the performance. Finally, preparation and collecting information about the host country's culture can never be too much.

Previous scholarship has highlighted the validity and reliability of a bidimensional acculturation model for migrants, allowing for simultaneous endorsement of one’s heritage and national culture. So far, however, no empirical research has explored whether the bidimensional acculturation model can be extended from migrants to members of the mainstream society (i.e., locals). Thus, the broad aims of this dissertation were threefold: (a) to validate a new framework, termed the Extended Acculturation Model for Locals (EAML), which consists of two dimensions (i.e., national culture maintenance and multicultural adaptation), and (b) to examine the outcomes as well as (c) antecedents of these dimensions. In this dissertation, the General Introduction outlines the growth of multiculturalism across societies, followed by a review of existing acculturation research on migrants and the analogous work on locals. It is noted that migrants’ acculturation process implies individual-level changes, whilst locals’ acculturation process implies attitudes and behaviours which hinder or foster migrants’ individual-level changes. The Study Overview outlines the dimensionality of locals’ acculturation process, their adjustment outcomes and antecedents. Using a modified Vancouver Index of Acculturation (Multi-VIA), Study 1 found support for a bidimensional acculturation model for locals consisting of two reliable and valid subscales indicating national culture maintenance and multicultural adaptation. Study 2 buttresses the validity and reliability of the Multi-VIA across cultures as well as demonstrates the ability of national culture maintenance and multicultural adaptation to predict locals’ sociocultural and psychological adjustment outcomes. Study 3 explains why the correlation between locals’ national culture maintenance and multicultural adaptation is either orthogonal or positive oblique; more specifically, the correlation is moderated by locals’ degree of multicultural exposure, their likeliness to compartmentalize or blend their multicultural identity as well as through high or low self-construal endorsement. Study 4 demonstrates that national culture maintenance and multicultural adaptation predict local employees’ organizational behaviour in multinational corporations. Study 5 revealed that cultural values endorsed at the individual-level predicted locals’ national culture maintenance and multicultural adaptation. Moreover, these individual-level value-outcome associations were moderated by compatible societal-level pro-diversity messages. The General Discussion reviews all of the study findings as well as discusses their implications. The General Limitations and Future Directions describes the theoretical and methodological shortcomings of the Extended Acculturation Model for Locals whilst setting future directions for research. Last, the Final Remarks stresses the overall strengths of the present dissertation – that is, it fills the present research gap on locals’ acculturation towards multiculturalism, and in turn, provides a new route towards harmonious intergroup relations and social cohesion in mixing societies.

El Santuario de Chimayo is a small community shrine that combines both native Tewa Indian and Christian traditions. This study focuses on the interaction between traditions through analysis of the shrine's two major artworks: a crucifix devoted to El Senor de Esquipulas (Christ of Esquipulas) and a statue of the Santo Nino (Holy Child). The shrine and its two primary artworks are expressions of the dynamic interaction between native and European cultures in New Mexico at the beginning of the nineteenth century. They frame the discussion of native and Christian cultural exchange about the relationships between religious images, how they function, and how they are interpreted.

Problem: While the multinational teams consisting of members from different nationalities,backgrounds and cultures have advantages of diversity in the workplace, the differencesbetween team members can also pose the challenges. Our study focuses on InformationTechnology (IT) project teams in organizations located in Sweden. The rapid growth oftechnology and IT sector, increasing demand in IT professionals, and the knowledge ofwriting universal code allow people to work internationally regardless of citizenship.Therefore, the workforce in the IT sector is rapidly growing and diversifying — it ischaracterized by teams consisting of different nationalities. However, these differences incultures, languages and nationalities can complicate the communication processes betweenthe team members. Therefore, efficient cross-cultural communication within a team isessential for team collaboration and performance. Purpose: The study aims to find the significant issues in the process of adaptation to the newculturally diverse environment faced by immigrant professionals in IT project teams. Thestudy mainly focuses on an individual level, consequently expanding it to a collective level,as the related challenges refer to collaboration among the team members. Method: The study was conducted by interviewing immigrant professionals who have beenworking in IT project teams in the companies, located in Sweden. The participants belong tosix different nationalities and have worked in Sweden for approximately 2-8 years. They areall male aged between 30-33 years old. After the interviews, we can present findings, whichdemonstrate the points of similarity and difference. Conclusion: Technology, which is a significant factor in IT projects, constantly changes, andtherefore, IT project teams that work with innovation require high adaptability to explore newopportunities. That makes effective coordination and communication essential. In theculturally diverse team, managers should manage global mindset and cultural intelligence forindividuals to help team members in adaptation process. Cross-cultural training should beprovided to the migrant professionals in the team to avoid miscommunication based oncultural differences, hence overcoming challenges.

This narrative-based qualitative research investigated the distinct journeys of eight cross-cultural artists (four artists from South Korea and four artists from China). Utilizing a variety of theoretical frameworks surrounding cross-cultural research, this dissertation examined current discussions on cross-cultural challenges and their implications in the field of art education. Methods of data collection focused primarily on interviews and were examined through the lens of Bandura’s (1997) self-efficacy theory. Evaluating the lived experiences of artists illuminated nuances in cross-cultural environments, specifically, how socio-cultural transitions influenced their artwork and professional lives. The findings of this research correlate with previous literature surrounding current challenges in the lives of cross-cultural students. These challenges were discussed in the context of how art educators can best confront issues that emerge in the classroom. The analysis and discussion presented in this thesis seeks to provide insights into the experiences of cross-cultural artists, while highlighting the educational implications for both artists and educators.

Among researchers within the design area, role play is often spoken about in a positive manner. This study aims to discover the limitations with role play as a tool for experiential learning. This is done by evaluating a prototype of an early-stage concept of a role play-tool. The tool is aimed for Swedish SMEs to raise awareness and create curiosity of guanxi, which is a vital part of Chinese business culture. The tool is compared to another experiential-based tool, Experience Map, with the same purpose but based on real scenarios rather than simulated scenarios. Prototype testing with intended users identified the difficulty of giving instructions on cultural behaviour as one limitation. This limitation is especially difficult in settings where the participants have no previous knowledge within the area, which is the case for this study. Another limitation is the challenge of giving enough instructions for the players to act on, without interrupting the exploration aspect of the tool. Besides, the target group seem to prefer more hands-on tools that are more relevant for their specific business and less time-consuming. The main difference between the tools is that the experience map which is based on real scenarios, creates a greater interest among participants and a higher level of the participants’ willingness to use it.