On the 24th of February Russia invaded Ukraine from multiple directions, causing a sudden influx of Ukrainians fleeing the country to the EU territories to be safe from the war. The reactions from the neighboring countries were uncharacteristically welcoming and humanitarian aid was promptly delivered to the ones in need. This creates a contrast to the refugees coming from outside Europe and their treatment. This thesis utilizes a three-dimensional Critical Discourse Analysis to examine the discourse on Ukrainian refugees in Deutsche Welle and Aljazeera in the days following the start of the invasion. Poststructural theory of power and identity constructions is employed to uncover hidden assumptions and knowledge production in the discourse. I argue that the notions of Eurocentrism and Eurocentric views on identities are prevailing in the discourse and that this emphasis on Europe as the in-group deepens the divide between the out-group.

This essay examines how articles in the Swedish spiritualistic journal Efteråt? – which por- trayed the afterlife – were affected by imperialistic discourse and its associated power structures. The source material for the investigation is articles that were published between 1891- 1919 as channelized messages through mediums, and which depict what throughout the essay is referred to as ’the other side’: realms beyond death.Any inherent magical aspect of the channelling phenomenon has been removed and the essay treats the mediums as authors and the written messages as their textual productions. These have been assessed with a postcolonial perspective focused on eurocentrism, christocentrism, evolutionary theory, otherness and the idea of Western progress. Using Norman Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis, the texts’ actual use of language, its discursive influences and its reflecting of imperialistic ideologies have also been assessed.The result shows that the imperialistic discourse that dominated the Western knowledge productions in the Victorian age, is directly mirrored in the way the articles in Efteråt? portrayed ’the other side’ and its inhabitants. Westernized conceptions are being treated as universal which shows in how ’the other side’ is structured around evolutionary principles that glorifies progress and development. ’Ethnic others’ are held as less developed, barbaric, stupid and in the need of help from Western experts. The texts also reflects the christocentric essence that places Western theology as the ultimate developed spirituality. And they portray hierarchical power structures and imperial dominance in a normalizing and moralizing way.Even if the Spiritualistic movement often is contextualized as a radical, progressive new spirituality and seen as the dawn of ’New Age’, this essay shows that the construction of ’the other side’, as it is narrated in the analyzed articles of Efteråt?, is merely a discursive cultural expression of the imperialistic ideologies that dominated the Western society at the time the articles where written and published.Key words: Spiritualism, Imperialism, Ideology, Postcolonial, Eurocentrism, Evolution, ChannelingNyckelord: Spiritualism, Imperialism, Ideologi, Postkolonialism, Eurocentrism, Evolution, Kanalisering

In this thesis, I investigate how three European citizen aid groups (Collective Aid, Refugee Women’s Centre, and No Name Kitchen) handle the asymmetrical power relationships between Western volunteers and non-Western people on the move. Inspired by postcolonial international relations literature and previous research on power asymmetries in humanitarian aid, I conduct a discourse analysis guided by the four categories “assuming equality through horizontal discourses”, “reconstituting social subjects”, “putting minds into motion”, and “civil disobedience”. I analyze the citizen aid groups’ online content, mostly social media posts, along with semi-structured interviews which I conducted with representatives from all three citizen aid groups. I conclude that two out of three Western citizen aid groups try to mitigate the interactional power inequalities between themselves and non-Western people on the move through their practices of humanitarian aid. Yet, all three groups show awareness of power hierarchies and attempt to mitigate them on a structural level by being openly political and denouncing the injustices facing people on the move in Europe.

[pt] Esta dissertação traz propostas de atividades para aulas de História no Ensino Fundamental II, formuladas para ampliar as possibilidades de inserção dos povos originários indígenas nos conteúdos programáticos de História no Brasil, contribuindo com os objetivos da lei 11645/08. As atividades foram elaboradas em consonância com a Base Nacional Curricular Comum e as Orientações Curriculares da Secretaria Municipal de Educação do Rio de Janeiro. Analisando as condições históricas do pensamento eurocêntrico e seus desdobramentos sobre o conhecimento histórico e o ensino de História, conceitos como História Pública e Consciência Histórica, e as críticas formuladas a partir de um ponto de vista decolonial, buscou entender o lugar dos indígenas na Cultura Histórica da população brasileira. Dialoga com autores que abordaram os processos históricos dos povos originários de uma maneira não etnocêntrica, e autores que trouxeram sua perspectiva histórica indígena. Analisa também o currículo sob uma perspectiva histórica e social, e traça um breve histórico da disciplina História e do ensino de História no Brasil, e também as leis que surgiram após a Constituição de 1988, que apontam na direção da construção da BNCC. / [en] This dissertation presents proposals for activities for History classes in Elementary Education II, formulated to expand the possibilities of insertion of indigenous native peoples in the syllabus of History in Brazil, contributing to the objectives of Law 11645/08. The activities were prepared in accordance with the Common National Curriculum Base and the Curricular Guidelines of the Municipal Education Secretariat of Rio de Janeiro. Analyzing the historical conditions of Eurocentric thought and its consequences on historical knowledge and the teaching of History, concepts such as Public History and Historical Consciousness, and the criticisms formulated from a decolonial point of view, sought to understand the place of in the Historical Culture of the Brazilian population. It dialogues with authors who approached the historical processes of indigenous peoples in a nonethnocentric way, and authors who brought their indigenous historical perspective. It also analyzes the curriculum from a historical and social perspective, and outlines a brief history of the History subject and the teaching of History in Brazil, as well as the laws that emerged after the 1988 Constitution, point in the direction of the construction of the BNCC.

En diskursanalys på två av de mest frekvent använda historieböckerna på den svenska gymnasieskolan "Epos" och "Alla tiders historia A". Dessa läses med hjälp av en diskursanlys framtagen av Lennart Hellspong "Metoder för brukstextanalys". För att se om där finns spår av eurocentrism och om de motsvarar Lpf11s kursplan för ämnet historia. Resultatet visar på att de båda böckerna är allt för vinklade till Europas fördel och att de på egenhand inte motsvarar kursplanen. / A discourse analysis of two of the most frequently used history books on the Swedish upper secondary school "Epos" and "All-time history A". These are read using a discourse analysis developed by Lennart Hellspong. "Methods for using textual analysis". To see if there are traces of Eurocentrism and if they are corresponding to the Lpf11s syllabus for the subject of history. The result shows that the two books are all too inclined to Europe's advantage, and that they alone do not meet the syllabus.

Saudi Arabia has been accused of sportswashing, which involves attempting to enhance its reputation by acquiring the English football club, Newcastle United. This study aims to conduct a framing analysis to explore how Saudi Arabia’s acquisition of Newcastle United can be perceived as an exercise of soft power and how the portrayed images in media construct and reinforce orientalist and eurocentric perspectives about Saudi Arabia and the region. This study analyzes the coverage from the media outlets The Guardian, Dagens Nyheter and the Saudi-based Al Arabiya. It focuses on how the media shapes and presents the image of Saudi Arabia in connection with the acquisition of Newcastle United and to what extent orientalist representations are reflected. Furthermore, the study’s findings indicate that orientalist depictions are identified to a certain extent, particularly in the coverage from The Guardian and Dagens Nyheter. The acquisition of Newcastle United has also resulted in increased soft power effects for Saudi Arabia, where the Saudi-newspaper Al Arabiya constructs a more positive narrative around acquisition of the football club, which can impact both local and global perceptions of the event.

The purpose of this study is to explore the media reporting of the Ukrainian refugees in Denmark, in order to analyse what hegemonic underpinnings are present. The thesis employs a constructivist approach and analyses the material by using critical discourse analysis (CDA) as a method. The empirical material is limited to 20 articles from the Danish newspaper Politiken. The analysis of the material discusses that the Ukrainian refugees are described as being part of the in-group. By using the theories of orientalism and eurocentrism, and the concept of sameness as theoretical framework, the study is able to explore what role skin colour and religion play in media representations of refugees. Moreover, also how the wish for sameness plays a role in the inclusion and exclusion of human beings. The thesis contributes to the academic field of racialization and media representations, as it enables an exploration of a timely and new refugee group.

I denna studie undersöker vi hur lärare i årskurs 7- 9 förhåller sig till historieundervisningen i relation till elevsammansättningen i klassrummet och om lärarna använder elevernas bakgrund i undervisningen. Dessutom undersöker vi vilka konflikter som kan uppstå i relation till elevernas bakgrund och hur lärarna möter dessa. Därefter har vi försökt analysera om hur lärarnas val och resonemang kan tyda på interkulturell kompetens. Vi har använt oss av en kvalitativ metod med semistrukturerade intervjuer och fenomenologi som vetenskapsteori. I syfte att analysera vårt samlade empiri har vi tagit del av Jörn Rusens teoretiska analysredskap “Narrativa kompetenser” som framförs i Johanssons (2012) licentiatuppsats. Detta analysredskap innefattar innefattar information om den orienterande, tolkande och erfarande kompetensen. Den narrativa kompetensen används i studien för att analysera hur lärare använder sig av interkulturell kompetens i historieundervisningen.  I detta examensarbete undersöker vi tre skolor vilket vi benämner som: en homogen, en heterogen samt en skola där majoriteten av eleverna har en migrationsbakgrund. Syftet är att få en uppfattning om vilka likheter och skillnader som går att urskilja mellan historielärarnas interkulturella kompetenser i förbindelse med den elevsammansättningen klassrummet består av. Studien har visat att elevsammansättningen har en avgörande roll för hur lärarna förhåller sig till att inkludera flera perspektiv för att nyansera olika historiska skeenden bortsett från det som skolans läromedel framför som genomsyras av ett eurocentriskt perspektiv. Resultaten visar dessutom att utmaningar som tidsbrist och brist på grundkunskaper hos eleverna försvårar främjandet av en interkulturell undervisning.

This master thesis' main topic is fashion and lifestyle blogs and the impact of the brands and the ideal of beauty that is widely promoted in the media on them. The aim of this thesis is to find out which type of the brands can be mostly found in the blog posts with personal style of the successful bloggers and if there is a type of physical appearance that prevails among them. I am using the quantitative image analysis of Gillian Rose to test these hypotheses on photographs of bloggers. I was inspired by the work of Catherine Lutz and Jane Collins. My hypotheses are tested on photographs from three websites (Lookbook, Chictopia, Bloglovin') where bloggers are hierarchized. Bloggers are opinion leaders. This means it is advantageous for the marketing departments of brands to collaborate with them because bloggers can effectively influence their readers. Brands play an important role in life of people that believe brands can non-verbally tell the character of the brand consumer. In these days the Eurocentric ideal of beauty and the ideal of thin bodies are forced especially on women by media. The thinness is in the advertisements connected with attractiveness and successfulness, which is transferred also in the real life of people. The conclusion of this thesis indicates that there are most often...

In 2010, Ai Weiwei's Sunflower Seeds made its debut in Tate Modern, which promoted Ai to be one of the most famous and respected contemporary Chinese artists. This Conceptual art work has multiple layers of meanings, which all corresponds to the Western expectations for a successful contemporary Chinese artist. In fact, the Western art world has long held bias and stereotypes towards international artists. Ai chose to perform his personality to conform to the expectations and Western ideologies, which brought him international fame. On the other hand, other Chinese artists, including Cai Guo-Qiang and Zhou Chunya, don't totally agree with these Western ideologies, and therefore their fame in the society are less distinguished than Ai.