The purpose of this paper is to investigate the portrayal of Ethiopia as a destination in a travel report from the newspaper Vagabond. The method used is critical discourse analysis, based on postcolonial theory formation. The focus of the analysis is to examine how Ethiopia and its population are represented in the text. This is done by finding out what descriptions, formulations and concepts are used to entice the reader to travel there. Since I want to investigate how the text differs from other reports on travel destinations in Africa, a comparison is also made with two other texts. The main conclusion that can be drawn from the results is that the text conveys the image of Ethiopia as a different destination where the locals and their way of life are the focus. The text in the report is characterized by stereotypical notions that people in the "third world" live an uncivilized life that contrasts with the "modern West".

This thesis focus on European construction of Somali identity. Using a discourse analysis in combination with Edward Said’s concept of Orientalism, this study examines the three main European Council Documents that set the foundation for the EU’s military and political intervention in the Horn of Africa in general, and Somalia specifically. The analysis investigates how Somalia is being imagined within these documents and how this European identity construction can be understood as an Orientalist discourse. The outcome of the analysis show that the construction of Somalia within this limited scope, the European discourse can indeed be read as an Orientalist discourse. In the analyzed documents Somalia is generally constructed as a dangerous, possibly threatening physical entity, which is juxtaposed to the EU which is identified as a realm of peace and compliance to universal norms and values. Hence, this discourse is implying a certain hierarchy in which Europe has a more privileged position than Somalia. Furthermore, the analysis concludes that the European response can be also read as based on a liberal peace discourse which carries the risk to perpetuate Orientalist stereotyping and the construction of Orientalist identities.

Belly dance classes have become increasingly popular in recent decades in the United States. Many of the predominantly white, middle-class American women who belly dance proclaim that it is a source of feminist identity and empowerment that brings deeper meaning to their lives. American practitioners of this art form commonly explain that it originated from ritual-based dances of ancient Middle Eastern cultures and regard their participation as a link in a continuous lineage of female dancers. In contrast to the stigmatization and marginalization of public dance performers in the Middle East today, the favorable meaning that American dancers attribute to belly dance may indicate an imagined history of this dance. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted on the West Coast of the United States and Morocco in 2008-2009, I explore American belly dance utilizing theoretical contributions from feminism, Foucauldian discourse analysis, and postmodernism. I argue that an anthropological investigation of American belly dance reveals that its imagery and concepts draw from a larger discourse of Orientalism, connected to a colonial legacy that defines West against East, a process of othering that continues to inform global politics and perpetuates cultural imperialism. But the creative identity construction that American women explore through belly dance is a multi-layered and complex process. I disrupt the binary assumptions of Orientalist thinking, highlighting the heterogeneity and dynamic quality of this dance community and exploring emergent types of American belly dance. Rather than pretending to be the exotic Other, American belly dancers are inventing a new exotic Self. This cultural anthropological study contributes to a greater understanding of identity and society by demonstrating ways that American belly dancers act as agents, creatively and strategically utilizing discursive motifs to accomplish social and personal goals.

This study looks at previous research that studies aspects of religious pedagogy. It also looks at research regarding how film can be used as pedagogical material. One of the theoretical concepts of this paper is therefore the term religious pedagogy. The second concept concept that constitutes the theory is the term world religions, which is present bboth in the m<terial for the study as well as in Skolverkets policy documents for the course Religionskunskap 1. These two theoretical terms are present throughout the whole study. The method consists of a content analysis with both qualitive and quantitative aspects as the study try to examine and review five films in the series Religionskunskap förklarad published by Sveriges utbildingsradio in 2021. The study strives to shed light on which aspects of the basic requirements for the course are represented, which are not and how they are presented. The result of the study shows that there is a dominating occurrence of the first four goals in the central content and then especially goal 1 that handles religious attributes etc, and goal 4 that handels how religion shapes both groups and individuals. In parallel,, goals 5 to 7 will have an extremely limited representation were goal 7 is not present at all.

The aim of this study is to analyze how buddhism and hinduism has been portrayed in textbooks for high school in the subject of religious studies. The textbooks are scrutinized with a content analysis. I will therefore scrutinized and compare the contents of three different textbooks from 1968, 1997 and 2015 with each other. The study of how Hinduism and Buddhism has been presented takes place from a perspective that makes a difference between "us" and "them". Furthermore, I use Edward Said's postcolonial theory of orientalism. This theory is used as an approach to investigate the extent to which orientalism occurs in the textbooks. The analysis shows that orientalist tendencies can be found in all books. It’s common to make a difference between "we" and "them" in different respects. As one might have previously thought, some changes has taken place over the years, but no drastic change has been made. Orientalism still occurs, albeit to a lesser extent.

I den här studien undersöks språklig diskriminering av muslimer i tre dagstidningstexter.  Syftet är att undersöka om och hur diskriminering realiseras i texten på olika nivåer. Stu diens frågeställningar är: Förekommer exempel på språklig diskriminering gentemot mus  limer vid en granskning av epitet? Vilka grundantaganden om islam och muslimer blir  synliga vid en granskning av texternas referensbindning, propositioner och presuppositio ner? Vilka föreställningar om islam och muslimer reproduceras genom texternas språk handlingar?   Materialet utgörs av tre ledartexter i svenska dagstidningar samt texter som kom menterar eller kommenteras av de tre ledartexterna. Det teoretiska och metodologiska  ramverket är kritisk diskursanalys. Resultatet visar att språklig diskriminering framför allt  förekommer i texternas propositioner, presuppositioner och språkhandlingar. Ett ”vi och  dem” framträder där ”våra” dåliga sidor tonas ned eller döljs och ”deras” förstärks och  framhävs. Västerländska ideal och värderingar utgör en måttstock enligt vilken muslimer  hierarkiseras. På samma gång antas muslimer utgöra en homogen grupp utan inbördes  skillnader.

It is important that the authors of textbooks for religious studies think about how they express themselves. They could easily be misunderstood, or they could unknowingly create truths they themselves may not stand for. This study focuses on how authors express themselves when they write about Muslims, what is expected of them, the authors, when they are governed by the syllabus. Several previous studies show tendencies of othering/second-rate of Muslims in teaching materials for religious studies. These previous studies point to a problem, that the authors should avoid othering of Muslims. What my study shows is that there are traces of othering of Muslims as practitioners of Islam, if you do not include other aspects, like for whom is “this” textbook produced for. I highlighted the requirements of the syllabus and placed the textbooks for religious studies in a larger context, which led to the othering being erased. The study shows that the authors do not second-rate Muslims in the teaching materials. Instead of second-rate Muslims, the authors problematize different traditions and rituals within Islam in the material. Admittedly, some traditions and rituals violate the norms we have in Sweden and the western Christian world, but most Muslims do not agree with the conservative and sometimes violent interpretations that we hear through the media, among other things. The teaching materials meet the requirements of the syllabus Religious Knowledge by pointing to a diversity within the religions. And creates understanding that Muslims are not a homogeneous group that act and think alike.

Dissertation｜2460442M Abstract The discourses structuring news coverage of terrorist attacks influence our understanding of the nature, drivers and severity of the threat emanating from a specific extremist actor category. Therefore, they are a powerful tool to further socio-political goals. Acknowledging the role of language in shaping reality, this dissertation project uses Critical Discourse Analysis/Critical Discourse Studies to reveal current discursive trends in the understudied coverage of Islamist and right-wing extremist attacks in the Swiss press. With the dominant social factor distinguishing the two extremist categories being ethnicity, it hypothesises that Western media discourses reflect the presuppositions of Orientalism and Critical Race Theory. Both theories expect texts to express, enact and legitimise social hierarchies based on racial affinity to solidify the supremacy of the white elite. The exemplarily analysis of the reporting of two recent extremist incidents by three newspapers representing political perspectives from the right-wing to the left-wing shows that while the Swiss press is indeed influenced by and reproduces racial inequalities, publications do so to a varying degree.

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