Within a few centuries after the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West, the descendants of Romans who had envisioned the world in terms of moral, civilized Romans and the savage barbarian ‘other’ had come to identify with those very barbarians. This thesis explores this shift from ‘Roman’ to ‘Gothic’ and ‘Frankish’ identities in sixth- and seventh-century Spain and Gaul through an examination of the ways ethnonyms were used in contemporary sources. Within the first section on Visigothic Spain, chapter one discusses the ‘Romans’ of the East—that is, the Byzantines—as portrayed by Isidore of Seville and John of Biclar. Chapter two covers ‘Romans’ of the West—the Hispano-Romans—who appear in John of Biclar’s Chronicle, a hagiographical Life, and civil and canon law. Chapter three discusses the use of ‘Goth’ as an ethnic descriptor, a religious identifier, and a political term. Chapter four begins the Gaul section with an examination of Gregory of Tours’ writings, showing that he wrote with a Roman mindset. Chapter five illustrates that Gregory’s contemporary, Venantius Fortunatus, selected ethnic labels like ‘Roman’ and ‘barbarian’ in his poems as rhetorical tools to allude and flatter. Chapter six shows how Fredegar, in the seventh century, employed ‘Frank’ as a political term more than his predecessors had, suggesting a change in mindset. Chapter seven confirms this change in hagiographical texts across the two centuries. Chapter eight examines the contemporary expectation that separate law codes should be written for each ethnic group and concludes that, while this encouraged ethnic diversity, it did not prevent individuals from identifying with the Franks politically. By distinguishing among different modes of identification these ethnonyms represented, we see that changes in political language facilitated changes in more traditionally ethnic language, and the shift from ‘Roman’ to other ethnic identities.

This thesis attends to the major question ‘how is Jewish identity created and maintained in contemporary Britain?’ To answer this question, I have done one year of ethnographic fieldwork in Britain, which included 121 interviews with Jewish people of various ages and across different religious as well as non-religious denominations. This thesis identifies four major elements informing the creation and perpetuation of Jewish identity: One, a sense of difference from the majority population creates and maintains the identity. Jews can perceive themselves to be different religiously, nationally, ethnically and/or culturally from white Christian British people. Two, trauma memory has an impact on the creation and sustenance of this identity. Vicarious group trauma, meaning trauma experienced by proxy of previous generations, can inform identity through its influence on everyday experiences. Three, community affiliation plays a role in creating and particularly reinforcing the identification. The Jewish community provides resources, social interaction and thus signalled attention, and regard; all of them respond to innate human needs that a person aims to have satisfied. Four, a group norm of continuity is important in the perpetuation of this identity within and across generations. This norm is created and sustained by its members through their focus on endogamy. Wanting to have a partner from one’s own group, have Jewish children and raise them in a Jewish lifestyle can, thereby, reinforce and maintain a sense of Jewishness (inter-) generationally. Without members marrying within the faith and having children that are raised with Judaism, it would be difficult to preserve Jewish identity in a country where the group does not constitute the majority. The thesis concludes that there are two reasons why Jews in diaspora have been able to sustain as a group and maintain their identity over time. Firstly, the multi-dimensionality of the Jewish group and respective affiliation platforms have allowed its members to create a multi-faceted meaning of being Jewish, and, secondly, continuous external challenges to the group’s security together with constant reminders of those challenges; both have prevented the group from assimilating into mainstream society.

Using an expanded and adapted conception of the Bildungsroman (or novel of development or formation), this thesis examines representations of Italian Australian identities through an analysis of selected English-language literary and film narratives produced by individuals of Italian descent in Australia since World War II. It draws upon critiques of the genre of the traditional Bildungsroman to further contribute to the conceptualisation of a related genre, the ethnic bildungsroman. In applying an interdisciplinary approach, the thesis critically analyses the processes of ethnic identity formation in these Italian Australian narratives in various socio-historical and literary contexts, with particular reference to the intersection of gender and ethnicity. It is argued that not only can the development of individual protagonists’ identities be read in each text, but the narratives selected here chart the journeys of ethnic identification made by Italian Australian protagonists and the varying trends in their modes of identification. This study focuses upon a selection of fiction, biography and autobiography that narrates these identities. These narratives both directly and indirectly address experiences of being of Italian heritage in Australia at various times throughout the twentieth century. It argues that the narrative representation and, more importantly, the narrative self-representation of ethnic identities are integral parts of migration and settlement processes, as well as significant steps in opening up dialogues amongst and between various Australian identities. (For complete abstract open document)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Toronto, 2004. / Adviser: Merrill Swain.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 133-142).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 70-79).

Career development and career planning are important for the transition of college students to the workforce. College students with disabilities encounter more challenges regardless of the education and career processes. These career development challenges include societal attitudes toward persons with disabilities, inaccessible accommodations, lack of social support, and ambivalent identities. These attributions may cause college students with disabilities to have lower career self-efficacy and outcome expectations, which in turn may lessen one’s motivation to engage in academia and career development (Gibbons, Justina, Cihak, Wright, & Mynatt, 2015). Hence, this study examined the influences of disability identity, ethnic identity, perceptions of career barriers, and social supports in career decision self-efficacy and outcome expectations of college students with disabilities. This study utilized a cross-sectional survey design and included a valid sample of 312 college students with disabilities at two universities, one Midwestern and one Southeastern. The most important predictor was social support, which uniquely explained 8.5% of the variation in career decision self-efficacy, β = .327, t(302) = 5.730, p < .001, controlling for other variables in the same regression model. The other significant predictors were ethnicity identity (β = .232, t(302) = 4.162, p < .001), disability identity (β = .158, t(302) = 2.897, p = .004), and male gender (β = -.098, t(302) = -1.994, p = .047). Accounting for 57.2% of the variance, career outcome expectation was explained by all seven predictor variables, disability identity, ethnicity identity, social support, perceived career barriers, career self-efficacy, ethnicity and gender. The most important predictor was career decision self-efficacy which uniquely explained 24.1% of the variation in career outcome expectation, β = .595, t(302) = 13.054, p < .001, controlling for other variables in the same regression model. The other significant predictors were ethnicity identity (β = .167, t(302) = 3.721, p < .001), and perceived career barriers (β = -.104, t(302) = -2.411, p = .017), controlling for other variables respectively. A significant relationship was found between career decision self-efficacy, ethnicity identity, and perceived career barriers with career outcome expectation of college students with disabilities. Moreover, Hispanic college students with disabilities reported positive ethnicity identity compared to European students. African and Asian college students with disabilities perceived more career barriers than their European counterparts. Finally, college students with acquired disabilities reported higher career outcome expectations than those with congenital disabilities. The results of this study provide faculty, administrators, disability support specialists, and career counselors in postsecondary institutions with the ability to recognize the needs and expectations of college students with disabilities. Also, constructing effective career services, fostering multicultural competencies, and promoting an inclusive campus climate would benefit college students with disabilities’ academic retention and career transitions to competitive employment.

Yes / This article explores the implications for identity through presenting a detailed analysis of how three British Pakistani women narrated their involvement in higher education. The increased participation of British South Asian women in higher education has been hailed a major success story and is said to have enabled them to forge alternative, more empowering gender identities in comparison to previous generations. Drawing on generative narrative interviews conducted with three young women, we explore the under-researched area of Pakistani Muslim women in higher education. The central plotlines for their stories are respectively higher education as an escape from conforming to the ‘good Muslim woman’; becoming an educated mother; and Muslim women can ‘have it all’. Although the women narrated freedom to choose, their stories were complex. Through analysis of personal ‘I’ and social ‘We’ self-narration, we discuss the different ways in which they drew on agency and fashioned it within social and structural constraints of gender, class and religion. Thus higher education is a context that both enables and constrains negotiations of identity.

Between the 1890s and the 1960s, sport had a distinctive and varied impact on the social, cultural, political and economic life of the British Jewish community. During this period, Anglo-Jewry developed a clear sporting tradition, in both a direct and indirect sense, and their participation in the world of British sport had a significant impact on processes and discourses surrounding integration, ethnicity and anti-Semitism. Through a broad analysis of archival materials, newspaper sources and oral history, this thesis seeks to examine the influence that sport exerted on the Jewish community – paying particular attention to the ways in which physical recreation affected the internal dynamics of the community and influenced Jewish relations and interactions with the wider non-Jewish population. As will be shown, whilst sport is a useful lens through which to view socio-cultural development within Anglo-Jewish history, evidence suggests that physical recreation also had a notable and noticeable direct impact on Jewish life within Britain. Although Jewish sport history is an expanding field in an international context, it has been largely ignored within British academic research. Within the historiography of Anglo-Jewry, little attention has been paid to the socio-cultural impact of sporting participation. Similarly, within research concerning British sport history, race and immigration are themes that have been generally overlooked. As well as redressing important historiographical gaps, this thesis will also help expand our knowledge of the process behind minority integration and will further demonstrate the wider social importance, and the extensive and varied applications, of the historical study of sport. This thesis demonstrates that sport has been a key area for the creation, maintenance and erosion of Anglo-Jewish identity and has been an arena for the development, reinforcement and undermining of Jewish stereotypes. Sport, effectively, assumed a central role in Jewish life throughout this time period and was a pivotal factor in many social, cultural and political changes affecting the Jewish community of Britain.

This volume discusses the phenomenon of ethnicity in East Africa under German colonial rule, using five case studies: the Swahili, Nyamwezi, Maasai, Shambaa and Bondei. Besides offering a brief overview of the debate concerning ethnicity in Africa and of the history of German colonial rule in East Africa the study examines the role played by missions in the development of ethnic consciousness. It also compares German and British colonial rule in this field. / Dieser Band setzt sich mit dem Phänomen der Ethnizität in Ostafrika unter deutscher Kolonialherrschaft auseinander, wobei fünf Fallstudien genutzt werden: die Swahili, Nyamwezi, Maasai, Shambaa und Bondei. Neben einem kurzen Überblick über die Debate bezüglich der Ethnizität in Afrika und der Geschichte der deutschen Kolonialherrschaft in Ostafrika, untersucht die Studie die Rolle der Missionen für die Entwicklung eines ethnischen Bewusstseins. Zu diesem Thema wird die deutsche Kolonialherrschaft auch mit der britischen verglichen.