My research focuses on the notion of 'not being at home' in relation to identity issues, post-colonial society and art practice, focusing in particular on Taiwan. I explore Sigmund Freud's theory of the 'uncanny' (unheimlich) and argue that in contemporary society, experiencing the 'uncanny' is common, while it is nearly impossible to obtain the feeling of 'being at home'. This phenomenon is, shown to be present in art, film and literature. My research asks how artists deliver a sense of the 'uncanny' within their artwork, and how they create feelings of unease in the viewer. I will examine work produced by contemporary artists, focusing especially those in Taiwan, such as Chen Chieh-jen and Wu Mah. I will argue that artists living in a post-colonial society such as Taiwan experience the feeling of 'not being at home' to a greater extent, due to their country's unique history and the ongoing contentious political situation. Re-reading Freud's concept of the 'uncanny' in relation to post-colonial theories and the attempt to construct personal identity, notions such as the 'return of the repressed', 'thedouble' and 'death drive' will be applied to explore identity confusions. I base my argument on issues of confusion about personal and cultural identity, which originate in contrasting ideals and beliefs about 'home' (ideas that are formed by the divergent return of repressed memories that evoke the 'uncanny' social experience). I also present a body of art-work that explores these issues. Intertwined with psychoanalytic theory, the work informs and contextualises the earlier arguments, and creates new insights into the theory of the 'uncanny' and its origins. While allowing me to draw new interpretations of my own art practice, it reinforces my earlier conclusions about the sensation of 'not being at home'.

Contemporary Indian sexual identities are constructed out of the multiple effects of tradition, modernity, globalisation and colonialism. The nation as we understand it is constructed on the basis of a commonality which ‘binds’ its citizens, and also banishes and expels those who do not conform to this commonality. Within this logic of disenfranchisement I firmly place the Indian queer male. This thesis examines the online ‘queer’ male community in India that has been formed as a result of the intersection and ruptures caused by the shifting political, media and social landscapes of urban India. Through multi-sited ethnography looking at the role of language, class, intimacy and queer activism, this thesis explores the various ways through which queer men engage with digital culture that has become an integral part of queer lives in India. Through this approach, this thesis makes a significant contribution to knowledge. Widely available scholarship has explored the historical, literary and social debates on queer sexualities in India. To reach a more holistic understanding of contemporary Indian queer sexualities it is necessary to engage with the digital landscape, as India’s global power stems from its digital development. By looking at the multiple ways that the queer male community engages with the digital medium, I illustrate the multifaceted, complex and sometimes contradictory ways in which this community understands, accesses and performs their sexual identities within both the context of the nation and their local space. This thesis combines textual and visual analysis along with ethnographic data collected through field research in India using multiple research sites including online forums and digital spaces such as Planet Romeo, Facebook groups and Grindr as well as engaging with individuals in offline spaces (New Delhi, Kolkata, Barasat). Studying digital queer spaces across several research sites especially a cross-ethnic and cross-social comparison is unusual in this field of study and produces new insights into the subjects explored.

This study investigates the processes through which attendance at a community school affects the development of cultural and academic identities of Greek/Greek-Cypriot and Pakistani ethnic minority young people who live in the United Kingdom. The development of cultural and academic identities by community school students is a relatively underesearched and undertheorized area. The theoretical framework of this study draws on developments in cultural developmental theory (Valsiner, 2000a) and the dialogical self theory (Hermans, 2001 a) to understand the cultural and dialogical nature of the processes through which ethnic minority young people develop their identities in community schools. Both theories are influenced by dynamic perspectives on development and have tried to explain psychological phenomena in relation to the sociocultural context. Episodic interviews, drawings and group work were the tools for data collection and multiple perspectives (students', parents' and teachers') were investigated. This small-scale research took place in a Greek and a Pakistani community school. The pupils, both girls and boys, were adolescents aged 13 to 18 years. The findings suggest that the young people in both groups were moving towards multiple, hybrid identities through a dialogical negotiation of aspects of differences! similarities and belonging within their majority and minority communities as well as living in a multicultural society. This negotiation resulted in a multivoiced hybrid identity which emerged through a constant positioning and re-positioning within their communities and school contexts. For the participants in the Pakistani school this negotiation was a struggle shaped by issues of racism and religious discrimination. In this context, the Pakistani school mainly aimed to increase self-confidence and strengthen the students' sense of minority cultural identity, especially the religious aspect of it, whereas the Greek school mainly aimed to preserve the community's cultural identity which was considered to be threatened by assimilation. In both community schools, a strong academic identity was endorsed which had a double function -to foster the acquisition of both knowledge and skills relevant to community education and those relevant to mainstream and higher education. This study demonstrated the value of examining community schools within contrasting communities, and its findings have implications for Psychology and Education.