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Immigrant men often appear in discussions about crime and exclusion in the Swedish social debate. The purpose of this study was therefore to illustrate voices from individuals who have experiences of exclusion in relation to immigration to Sweden and establishment in Swedish society. Immigrant men’s experiences of exclusion and in-betweenness have been main issues in this study. The material chosen for this study are five autobiographical works in order to provide us with the authors' own descriptions of their experiences. Thematic analysis has been used as a method to be able to bring out the overall common experiences that appear in the books by presenting them as different themes. Erving Goffman's theories of stigma and self-presentation are used to explain experiences of feeling outside and in-between two countries that are made up of different cultural norms and societal structures. We found that the authors share similar experiences of exclusion and in-betweenness. The authors find themselves in alienation during a period of their lives because they are in a new context and differ in relation to the majority. It is also connected with the in-betweenness that we understand as having one foot in two worlds which is called liminality, a social transition the authors go through when they start to find themselves in a new context. The exclusion takes place on two fronts, in relation to their countrymen and the Swedish where the authors find themselves in an in-between state. / Invandrarmän förekommer ofta i diskussioner om kriminalitet och utanförskap i den svenska samhällsdebatten. Syftet med denna studie var därför att åskådliggöra röster från individer som har erfarenheter av utanförskap i samband med invandring till Sverige och etableringen i det svenska samhället. Invandrarmäns upplevelser av utanförskap och mellanförskap har varit huvudfrågor i denna studie. Empiri som valts för studien är fem självbiografiska verk för att kunna förse oss med författarnas egna beskrivningar av sina upplevelser. Tematisk analys har använts som metod för att kunna få fram de övergripande gemensamma upplevelser som förekommer i böckerna genom att presentera dem som olika teman. Erving Goffmans teorier om stigma och självframställning används för att förklara erfarenheter av att känna sig utanför och mellan två länder som utgörs av olika kulturella normer och samhällsstrukturer. Vi kom fram till att författarna delar liknande upplevelser av utanförskap och mellanförskap. Författarna befinner sig under en period av livet i ett utanförskap eftersom de befinner sig i ett nytt sammanhang och är avvikande i relation till majoriteten. Det hänger även ihop med mellanförskapet som vi förstår som att ha en fot i två världar som benämns som liminalitet, en social övergång författarna genomgår då de börjar att befinna sig i en ny kontext. Utanförskapet sker på två fronter, i relation till sina landsmän och det svenska varvid författarna befinner sig i ett mellanförskap.

In Selu: Seeking the Corn-MotherÆs Wisdom, Awiakta enlists the reader to participate on the path to knowing Selu, Corn-Mother to us all. In particular, the book provides a reader with a text that blends ancient Cherokee teachings of the oral tale of Selu with contemporary Western, Appalachian-American thought and experience. Awiakta adopts and adapts Selu in order to capture and express the essence of the tale within a contemporary American aesthetic. Though Awiakta's approach is didactic, it rises above mere teaching to achieve an aesthetic characterized by accessibility, simultaneity, and liminality. She purposely combines stories, poems, teachings, histories, and cultural reflections to produce art that is dynamically personal and cultural. The purpose of this study is to investigate how Awiakta's construction of art surpasses didacticism to express the liminality of the author's cultural identity.

The late nineteenth century British stage was hopelessly confused. It couldn’t decide whether it was London’s principle source of entertainment—mainstream and respectable enoughfor Queen Victoria herself to patronize—or the seedbed of all corruption and deviance in Victorian society. At the center of this split identity was the actress, a figure both well-beloved (in the case of stars like Ellen Terry) and the literal embodiment of everything a Victorian women shouldn’t be—loose, sexualized, and working (in the case of her contemporary, Olga Nethersole). Because of this liminal position, Victorian actresses thus create a fascinatingmicrocosm in which to study the implications of performativity and performance in late nineteenth century society. I argue that stars like Terry and Nethersole, though they did so by opposite means, deliberately performed multiple roles, both on stage and in society, in order to enjoy the autonomy they craved—one unavailable to the majority of Victorian women.The biographies of both actresses reveal compelling paradoxes. Terry, though respectedenough to be compared to the “ideal” Victorian woman (the proverbial “Angel in the House”), was in reality a fallen woman. Olga Nethersole, on the other hand, built her career on playing fallen woman roles, yet lived an upright and unremarkable private life. Despite these differences, however, both women rose to great heights of fame and earned careers, funds, and power overtheir lives and relationships that most women of the century would never dream of. This thesis investigates the anomaly of autonomous Victorian actresses through the lens of performance theory. Drawing upon the concepts of liminality and social performativity, introduced largely by performance studies scholars like Richard Schechner and Marvin Carlson, I work toward a practical connection between performance on the stage and performativity in society that remainslargely unexplored in the field of Victorian theatrical studies. Ultimately, I am shedding light onthe paradoxical, dual function of performance; as demonstrated in the lives of these two actresses, it has the potential to simultaneously reinforce societal norms and to protest against them.

As microcosms of German and Chinese societies, Munich Oktoberfest and Qingdao International Beer Festival are important manifestations of local culture. This study intends to answer the following question: to which extent are beer festivals in Germany and China related to local history and the local sense of place? A historical overview of the beer festivals in Munich and Qingdao is provided, as well as an analysis of how people seeking a sense of belonging creatively combine cognitive schemata of modernity with local cultural systems on a symbolic level. Through textual analysis and interviews, this study attempts to explore the historical development of beer festivals in Germany and China and provide an analysis case of place identity through beer symbols and tourist experience based on a historical and geographical framework regarding uniqueness, authenticity, liminality and local identity. Originating in local history, Oktoberfest has evolved from a folk festivity to a globally known tourist spectacle. Faced with modernisation, "Heimat" helps Germany in smoothing the tension between the traditional sense of place and the modern nation-state identity. As a former German colony, Qingdao celebrates its beer festival emphasising recreation and enjoyment above traditions. The local beer-related customs such as plastic bags and drinking with seafood reflect the cultural hybridity of Qingdao in which consumerism and nostalgia are combined in reaction to the vast tourism generated by globalisation and modernisation. It remains a challenge for beer festivals both in Germany and China facing homogenisation and commercialisation to maintain a genuine connection with people, especially the locals. Future work on beer festivals could explore a variety of beer events in other historical, national and contextual settings, different perspectives as well as genderisation, which will enrich the study on festival tourism and place identity.

In this autoethnographic journey we aim to redefine sustainability by becoming aware of our current dominant thought paradigm which created the current sustainability issues in the first place. This thesis explores the nuances of growth in consciousness and a transformation in our internal capacities through transformative direct-intuitive practices and tools. We argue that the root of the current sustainability challenges can be seen as an amplification created through our dominant perception of reality. Therefore, a need for an intrinsic transformational shift is fundamental in order to fully act toward sustainability. ‘Sustainability’ is not a state of the world, nor only a pathway to a specific state. In this inquiry, sustainability is perceived as the ability to recognize the paradigmatic premises of the pathway that we are creating and to become aware of the implications of these premises in an effort that we may create more inter-relational, regenerative, fair, beautiful worlds. This includes transforming feelings of eco-anxiety, which we not only see as a symptom of the ‘external’ environmental crisis but also of our current relationship with ourselves.

This paper argues that the EU’s enlargement discourse can be understood as a form of political myth wherein a subject must align itself with an fantasmatic ideal type ofEuropean state. It works through positing a past from which the subject must advance, and a mythical horizon towards which the subject strives. The stage in between these temporal phases is understood as liminality, an ontological limbo of sorts. To illustrate how the political myth works, a discourse analysis is conducted by investigating reports by the UN and EU on the status of Kosovo’s alignment with ‘European standards’ and evaluations of the political situation. By applying the political discourse theory of Laclau and Mouffe, it was found that the image of the past in Kosovo was filled with symbols of ethnic conflict, clan affiliation andlingering communism, while the mythical horizon of European integration promised a utopian idea of multi-ethnicity, rule of law and freedom of movement. Kosovo in the process of integration is then stuck in a liminal phase between these temporal points, while the EU through a set of categorical measurements constructs not only Kosovo’s identity but also the ideal image of a European state and how to become one.

We are facing a crisis in education: there is a vacuum where there once was an exhortation in terms of how teachers serve as moral models for their students. This reality becomes even more complex when the particular educator facing the dilemma has a specific religious perspective herself. The problem confronted in this philosophical study is how does today's educator, working in the public sector and having a particular religious background, best serve her students in her role as a moral agent, given an environment that is either vacuous of or even hostile toward the moral vector implicit in education. The following questions are considered: 1) Does education today have a moral end? 2) What should that moral end be? 3) What should the educator's role be in said education? 4) Has education historically served as a moral endeavor? 5) And finally, how much should a teacher with a specific religious basis for her morals allow that to affect her role as moral agent in a secular setting? In order to respond to these questions, an historical review of how teachers were traditionally expected to serve as moral agents was undertaken, as were a review of contemporary research on moral education and a consideration of numerous philosophers' perspectives. Simone Weil, a French philosopher and teacher, is looked to as an example of a woman who lived her life with a core set of beliefs that led her to both push boundaries and yet remain in a liminal space that allowed her to remain open to others' values and needs. Weil's liminal approach to life is explored in combination with MacIntyre's call to found a morality on virtues based on a teleological view of man. Ultimately it is suggested that the educator with a deep sense of faith must both strive to function in the liminality Weil represented, and to root herself deeply in her own faith, from which she will gain the strength to live within the necessary tension evoked by teaching in a secular institution.

Cartoon Saloon, an Irish animation studio based in Co. Kilkenny, Ireland, explores themes of liminality, urbanization, and coming of age in its trio of Irish folklore-themed films. Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea, and Wolfwalkers each explore Irish identity, folklore, and community through different time periods and spaces to create truly Irish animated films. Each film explores the tension between folklore and Christianity, urban and rural community, and the challenges of coming of age in various ways through the lens of Irish folklore. By communicating these themes in animated films, Cartoon Saloon centers indigenous animation work in a country that has lacked an indigenous industry and uses the flexibility of animation as an art form to address Ireland's history and mythology through the writing, music score, and animation style of the three films. Cartoon Saloon stands at the forefront of a new revitalization of Irish culture reminiscent of the Gaelic and Celtic revivals of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries through their dedication to preserving and exploring Irish mythology, art, history, and language via an emergence of an indigenous Irish animation industry. / Master of Arts / Cartoon Saloon, an Irish animation studio based in Co. Kilkenny, Ireland, has released a trio of films centered on Irish folklore. These films explore Irish history, mythology, and tradition through several time periods and explore themes of liminality and coming of age. Secret of Kells, the first film, explores the Abbey of Kells and the creation of the Book of Kells through the eyes of Brandon, a young monk learning to find his place in the Abbey. He encounters a fairy girl and learns that there is more to his world than the Abbot had taught him. The second film, Song of the Sea, is set in modern times and tells the story of Ben's adventure to save his sister, who is half-selkie. The final film, Wolfwalkers, explores Kilkenny during English occupation through the adventures of Robyn, a young English girl who is turned into a wolfwalker and learns about the magic present in the Irish countryside. Each film explores the tension between folklore and Christianity, urban and rural community, and the challenges of coming of age in various ways through the lens of Irish folklore. Cartoon Saloon stands at the forefront of a new revitalization of Irish culture reminiscent of the Gaelic and Celtic revivals of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries through their dedication to preserving and exploring Irish mythology, art, history, and language via an emergence of an indigenous Irish animation industry.

This essay explores the mysterious disappearance of Olle Högbom from an anthropological perspective. It uses theories of hauntology, ruinology, and simulacra to examine how Olle's absence continues to affect society. The study involves a thematic analysis of online forums and qualitative interviews with Olle’s sister, contrasting public speculation with family narratives, and highlights the enduring presence of Olle in collective memory, illustrating how unresolved disappearances influence society, memory, and everyday life. This anthropological investigation into missing persons provides insights into how spectral presences shape cultural and social dynamics. Employing a blend of ethnographic interviews, content analysis, pictures, and autoethnography, this study paints an intimate portrait of relationships with the absent and examines the liminality of Olle’s existence. Autoethnography in combination with multimodality carries the potential to unearth the unknown and paint an intimate understanding of absence. Olle’s absence is depicted in the first chapter and partially in the third chapter, by presenting an autoethnographic account of the experience of forming relationships with the absent.