Abstract not available

This study investigates Korean-American identity in the postmodern condition. Although there have been several studies on assimilation and ethnic identity, the existing body of literature is largely divided into assimilation and cultural pluralism. It seems that these existing theories of assimilation and ethnicity do not adequately capture the complex and paradoxical nature of the postmodern condition, thus fail to lend a framework in which the issue of ethnic identity is properly examined. The postmodern perspective that this study employs is not a theory of ethnicity per se, but it renders many useful insights into ethnic identity. Postmodernism recognizes the paradoxical co-existence of "surface homogenization" and the search for deeply rooted ethnicity. Using postmodern argument, this study avoids the modernistic accounts of ethnicity which have a tendency to reduce it to mere binary oppositions of assimilation and nativism. This study offers the findings from the narratives of the second and 1.5 generation Korean-Americans as the following: (1) Korean-Americans are aware that they are not fully accepted as American, and they are often viewed together with other Asian-Americans. (2) Their connection to American history is rather weak due to Koreans' short immigration history. (3) They assert that they have both Korean and American elements in their identity neither of which they can deny. This study calls this pastiched identity. (4) However, others (whites, other Koreans) have difficulty accepting pastiched identity. They tend to reduce it to either Korean or American which makes them doubly marginalized. (5) Thus, Korean-Americans need to challenge the governing meta-narratives in America by asserting their difference and sameness simultaneously. (6) But at the same time, they need to invent a collective voice in American cultural politics and to share their stories to establish a "community of memory" for future generations.

This dissertation addresses the problem of how Asian Indian sojourners to the United States discourse the nature of "Indian," "American," and "Indian sojourner" identities in the host setting. The assumption grounding the study is that cultural discourses produce a social reality which then guides the actions and experiences of the sojourner. The ethnographic methods of interviews and participant observation were used to study sojourner discourse. The analyses in the dissertation relied primarily upon transcribed interview data in making claims about patterns in sojourner discourse. The analytic results suggest that sojourner discourses are efficacious in facilitating adaptation to the host setting. Indian sojourners presented codes of identity which created predictable kinds of cultural identities. The reality produced in the talk of the sojourners provided a basis for social relations with members of each of the focal groups. The sojourners symbolically positioned themselves somewhere between the American and Indian identities by appropriating symbols from each in self-reference. The findings suggest that cultural adaptation is not a universally experienced set of phases, but that sojourners groups may creatively develop symbolic resources for dealing with the exigencies of the host setting.

How is place communicated? Places of significance are often contested areas. How do communities talk about these places? Can they talk about them in ways that make their meanings understood to others? In this dissertation, hearings from the Kaho'olawe Island Conveyance Commission hearings are analyzed in an effort to understand the many layers of meaning imbedded in a particular place; the island of Kaho'olawe in the State of Hawai'i. These hearings are unique in many ways, because they are the culmination of a twenty year effort to get the United States government to recognize Native Hawaiian claims to the island. This dissertation looks at metaphors of the land, the social drama which covers the 20 years since the first trespassers landed on the island, and at the stories told by two witnesses about their connection to the land. Each way of looking at what people are saying about the island highlights the differences in the way Hawaiians and the military construct place. In part, these differences are emphasized by their use of the same symbols. Both the military and Hawaiians emphasize the uniqueness of the island and its importance in the maintenance of their culture. Analysis of the testimonies also foregrounds deep tensions in the relationship between the military and Hawaiians that stem, in part, from differing definitions of who are Hawaiians. The conclusion is that the island is a place of cultural significance to both Native Hawaiians and the military. However, each side frames the symbols that they use very differently, and thus, the two sides have difficulty communicating in meaningful ways with each other.

Full participation and equal opportunity in sport in America historically has not been available to a variety of identity groups based on race, gender and disability. Many studies have described the fate of African-Americans and women in sport, but very few have examined a similar relationship with respect to athletes with disabilities. Furthermore, there has been limited examination of issues of vertical integration of these identity groups within the management or executive levels of sport organizations. This work proposes a new theoretical framework (i.e., Critical Change Factors Model - CCFM) based on critical, distributive justice, and open systems theories. Two longitudinal case studies were presented that examine the degrees of integration and inclusion achieved by African-American males in Major League Baseball and women in intercollegiate sport. Basic descriptive statistics and qualitative data analysis techniques were used to present each case. An organizational continuum of workplace diversity and a three-tiered social stratification model were incorporated to help illustrate the historical progression of integration of each group. The conceptual model was designed to allow for the comparative analysis and generalizability of recommendations across identity groups. The model provided key insights and findings in the complexities of organizational change related to identity group integration. A strategic management process approach was used to apply the findings from this comparison to athletes with disabilities as a third identity group, thereby creating a new equity paradigm incorporating disability. This focused on the potential for systems change as an organizational function within the context of both internal and external environments. Recommendations directed at organizations to become more accepting and tolerant institutions focused on strategies that sport managers can employ to improve conditions at each stratification level. Recommendations for removing or diminishing resistance to greater diversity within sport organizations included the identification, development and distribution limited resources in a more equitable manner to newcomer groups. Recommendations also centered on the broader application of the theoretical and practical concepts presented in this study to any particular identity group as it might be related to any organization, regardless of its purpose and enterprise.

Members of racially- and ethnically-diverse societies often associate primarily with those of their own group. Such societies often also experience high levels of social conflict over distributional issues. This dissertation analyzes economic factors that link demographic diversity with these social, economic and political outcomes. Its main contribution is to highlight the role that between-group inequality plays in determining the extent and nature of contact among diverse segments of a society, and how the resulting social structure influences political and economic outcomes. It also argues that the interaction of inequality and social isolation can be a primary cause for the intergenerational perpetuation of intergroup inequality.

Studies of identity in anthropology have recently sought to articulate a growing awareness of the multiplicity and fluidity of human identification and affiliation. This discourse addresses static frameworks that historically mire the concept of identity within an “imagined community” of uniformity, positioning group after group within a model of un-altering, ‘sameness’. Frequently lost in the re-conceptualization is the consistent archetype of the “normative” against which “groups of color” or alterity are compared/contrasted. In this project I develop a theoretical direction from which one may examine notions of identity applied to Deaf populations through ethnographic engagement with Deaf populations in the U.S. and Britain. This theoretical development is ethnographically applied to a study of Black Deaf identity and a new theory of identity that emerges. This theory specifically allows us to identify: (1) current constructions of Deaf identity predicated on White normativity. (2) the importance of Deaf institutions and organizations as collectivities of embodied agency integral in developing models of identity that reflect multiplicity or a static/hegemonic identity within which alterity is marginalized. (3) the utility of an alternate transcultural model which effectively addresses the concept of identity and its embodied complexity.

This dissertation is a narrative self-representation of my professional experiences working as an outsider within two immigrant and refugee communities in Massachusetts. This study represents and illustrates my experience within the world of education and the personal transformation that took place during my encounters. The narrative focuses upon the interactions among the cultural liaisons, project participants and myself, and the profound effect that these experiences had upon my personal and professional research and practice. This study shows how diligent researcher praxis allowed for the alterations in my practice and research through acknowledging and deciphering fine points of the insider/outsider dimension and cultural differences. A variety of themes and issues are articulated after careful analysis of the narrative. Assertions regarding the application of the emic and etic theory are woven throughout the narrative reconstruction of events. The learning contexts are community development projects that I participated in and built relationships with those from other cultures. I use the story telling component to relay messages of importance regarding the cultural assumptions and judgments that possibly cloud or brighten the development of good interpersonal and business relationships with people from cultures other than one's own. The research ascertained a variety of themes and issues were present in my project experiences. These are: personal challenges, insider/outsider dimension, cultural issues, and relational trust building. From these themes I concluded that three main characteristics existed in relation to culture and insider/outsider theory. They are: (1) Insider/outsider relations are vigorous. (2) Insider/outsider relations are versatile. (3) Insider/outsider relations are rooted in context and influenced by politics and economics. Insider/outsider characteristics were identified for research consideration, and to provide more efficient organization. These elements can be considered to be sensitizing concepts, which allow for a bridge of understanding to be created. By identifying these characteristics, people can see clearly where they are in relation to the other(s). Clearly identifying these characteristics allows for multiple levels of understanding to occur both for the insider and the outsider. This appreciation provided me with the preparation necessary to work among others from different cultures, with different beliefs and different practices.

Many researchers attest to the emergence of gender differences in depression rates during adolescence, and have discussed how gender-linked risk factors and challenges faced in early adolescence might explain increased vulnerability in adolescent girls. However, many have not included immigrant and minority populations and on this basis the relations among acculturation related stress, race related stress, coping behaviors, and depression symptoms in late adolescent and young adult West Indian females were examined in this study. A sociodemographically diverse group of 130 first and second-generation immigrant females (aged 17–26) with ethnic roots in 12 Caribbean islands were recruited from colleges and community organizations in Massachusetts and New York. Participants completed a packet containing a demographics form and measures assessing acculturation, stressful life events, frequency and stressfulness of racist events, coping styles, and depression symptoms. Independent t-test analyses comparing the two generations showed that first generation respondents were more immersed in their ethnic society and second generation respondents were more immersed in dominant society. Paired t-tests showed that respondents from both generations perceived their parents to be more immersed in ethnic society, while they rated themselves as more immersed in dominant society. Contrary to prediction, there were no generational differences in depression symptoms, perception of racist events, or the use of different coping behaviors. Hierarchical regression analyses in which the level of depressive symptoms was regressed on the generation status, risk factor score, coping behavior, risk factor x coping behavior interaction term, and generation x risk factor x coping behavior, revealed that coping behaviors moderated the relationship between psychosocial stressors and depressive symptoms for second generation respondents but not first generation respondents. These findings illustrate the importance of integrating cross-cultural considerations in developmental models of depression. In addition, the impact of cultural socialization on the respondents' expectations and beliefs, and implications for therapy and research are discussed.

This project explores the relationship between literacy and immigration. It claims that the ideological imbrication between literacy and immigration is problematic because it articulates literacy with raceless, American citizenship and illiteracy with a raced, immigrant/outsider subject position. As a result, the notion of “becoming literate” serves as a racializing force in our culture. It supports an “ethnicity-based paradigm of race” that suggests that if an individual is not a “raceless,” middle-class American citizen, (if s/he does not see him/herself this way or if others do not see him/her this way), then s/he does not belong in the world and culture of the “literate.” Chapter 1 explains the rationale for this study both theoretically and in terms of the work in the field of composition. It demonstrates the ways that literacy narratives prominent in the field of composition are bound up with tropes, metaphors, and images of US immigration in the 20th century and contends that reliance on these tropes and images ultimately works to perpetuate static, homogeneous, hierarchized images of identities and cultures. Chapters 2 and 3 examine Mary Antin's The Promised Land. Together, they demonstrate that in order to argue against the biologically based ideologies of race underlying the arguments for immigration restriction, Antin needed to represent race as something that was “assimilable.” Therefore, her immigration narrative constructs literacy as a means of cultural assimilation. Chapters 4 and 5 address Richard Rodriguez' autobiography, The Hunger of Memory. Chapter 4 explores how the dominant image of immigration is embedded in the educational debates on desegregation, bilingual education, and affirmative action in ways that maintain the link between literacy and raceless, American citizenship and illiteracy and racialized immigrant others. Chapter 5 demonstrates that an intertextual reading of Rodriguez' narrative problematizes these articulations in promising ways. The concluding chapter points to teaching practices that might begin to deconstruct the racialized literate/illiterate binary that has prevented us from making literacy, in Linda Brodkey's words, “an offer that people cannot refuse.”