This dissertation examines the questions: “What are the experiences of Asian women faculty in the Canadian academy?” and “How do they navigate this space?” The study aims to generate new insights into how this understudied and underrepresented population negotiates various aspects of identity, such as gender, race, language and citizenship, as they pursue their academic careers. It provides an original examination of how “Asian” women faculty who have transnational life experience interpret the Canadian academy. Using a qualitative inquiry methodology with a transnational feminist perspective, I conducted in-depth interviews with nine Asian women faculty members in Canadian universities concerning their motivations, desires, contradictions, struggles, and coping strategies within their academic lives. Themes for the analysis arose from the literature, the conceptual framework, my own background and the data. Four major themes organize the analysis: 1) what impact the socially constructed discourse of Canadian citizenry has in the everyday lives of Asian women faculty and how “Asian-woman-ness” operates in the given contexts; 2) what technical difficulties and social barriers emerge from Asian women faculty’s experiences with spoken and written English language; 3) what “cultural logics” Asian women faculty utilize in order to survive/thrive in their social locations as Asian women in the Canadian academy; and 4) how Asian women faculty create their own legitimate space from their marginalized points of view. Through the dual process of their citizenry being de-legitimized in the academy and the nation-state, Asian women faculty strive to become legitimate through creating alternative understandings and definitions of their academic lives. This study was meant to initiate and promote reconfiguration of study on faculty’s lives by foregrounding the transnational feminist framework, which looks at/beyond the institutional, national and temporal borders and at the same time pays close attention to gender and race within the different types of borders. The study suggests that efforts to make higher education more diverse are more complex than some might imagine.

This dissertation examines the questions: “What are the experiences of Asian women faculty in the Canadian academy?” and “How do they navigate this space?” The study aims to generate new insights into how this understudied and underrepresented population negotiates various aspects of identity, such as gender, race, language and citizenship, as they pursue their academic careers. It provides an original examination of how “Asian” women faculty who have transnational life experience interpret the Canadian academy. Using a qualitative inquiry methodology with a transnational feminist perspective, I conducted in-depth interviews with nine Asian women faculty members in Canadian universities concerning their motivations, desires, contradictions, struggles, and coping strategies within their academic lives. Themes for the analysis arose from the literature, the conceptual framework, my own background and the data. Four major themes organize the analysis: 1) what impact the socially constructed discourse of Canadian citizenry has in the everyday lives of Asian women faculty and how “Asian-woman-ness” operates in the given contexts; 2) what technical difficulties and social barriers emerge from Asian women faculty’s experiences with spoken and written English language; 3) what “cultural logics” Asian women faculty utilize in order to survive/thrive in their social locations as Asian women in the Canadian academy; and 4) how Asian women faculty create their own legitimate space from their marginalized points of view. Through the dual process of their citizenry being de-legitimized in the academy and the nation-state, Asian women faculty strive to become legitimate through creating alternative understandings and definitions of their academic lives. This study was meant to initiate and promote reconfiguration of study on faculty’s lives by foregrounding the transnational feminist framework, which looks at/beyond the institutional, national and temporal borders and at the same time pays close attention to gender and race within the different types of borders. The study suggests that efforts to make higher education more diverse are more complex than some might imagine.

Starting from the overall Revitalizing Small Millets in South Asia (RESMISA) project objective and question, how to increase millet production and consumption, I will use the same to enter Chintaguda and understand how that can be accomplished in the village. As millets do not occupy a significant aspect of the lives of people in Chintaguda, I essentially sought to understand the general decision-making logics that operate therein. This objective will help me understand which factors and their interactions influence activities around socio-ecological engagements. I aim to devise a framework to comprehend these logics and the complexities found in Chintaguda by using social theories. These will help me stitch together a narrative for Chintaguda that will contextualize the people’s relationship to millets. This study will show the various ways people can and do relate to millets. / February 2016

Cette thèse entend montrer l’apport d’une prise en compte des repères culturels locaux dans l’analyse des réactions du personnel d’un hôpital public situé la région centrale de la Chine face aux transformations brutales de son organisation au moment où celui-ci est privatisé. Notre approche anthropologique permet d’approfondir l’analyse des (in)satisfactions et des perplexités exprimées librement par les différents acteurs que nous avons interrogés. L’enquête de terrain montre à la fois l’ampleur des transformations survenues et l’écart existant entre les anticipations initiales des acteurs locaux et les réalités observables un peu plus tard, même si les résultats obtenus témoignent de la réussite économique de cette privatisation. Les nouveaux dirigeants de notre hôpital privatisé se sont efforcés d’introduire de nouvelles formes de management, de nouvelles relations inter-organisationnelles tout en évitant autant que possible de trop dévier des valeurs traditionnelles demeurant partagées au sein de l’environnement social de l’hôpital. Ce souci différencie de la plupart des hôpitaux privés qui, faute d’avoir obtenu l’approbation des communautés locales, à se développer commercialement. La thèse apporte ainsi la contribution dans le champ du management. Elle révèle que la continuité culturelle survit aux transformations du système de propriété, créant obligation aux nouvelles directions post privatisation d’en tenir compte. Certes, au cours de la modernisation et de l’évolution sociale, des réformes sont inévitables. Cependant, les repères culturels antérieurs continuent de fournir aux acteurs un cadre d’interprétation leur permettant de s’orienter dans le contexte en transition. La thèse décrit ces logiques enracinées dans la culture chinoise dont la présence pérenne continue d’influencer les fonctionnements des autres entreprises et industries. Nous espérons que la lecture de notre travail pourra aider les gestionnaires et collaborateurs étrangers à mieux comprendre certains comportements inattendus de leurs partenaires chinois. / This thesis expounds, through an analysis of the practitioners’ reactions when privatization drastically transformed their hospital in Central China, the contribution of taking into consideration local cultural factors in the period of organizational reforms. Adopting anthropological approaches, the author interviewed the participants of the reforms and analyzed their various feelings such as disinclination, satisfaction and perplexity. The author also conducted field surveys demonstrating that while the reforms’ observable reality fell short of the expectation of the participants; its outcome was far-reaching and financially successful. The new leadership of the privatized hospital introduced new forms of management and new inter-organizational relationships, meanwhile, considered local cultural factors and strove very hard to avoid departing from traditional values shared within the environment of Chinese hospitals. It is just because of this consideration that the hospital did better than many other private hospitals whose commercial operations failed to obtain the approval of local communities.This thesis is thus expected to make a contribution to the field of the management science. It reveals that the changes in property systems inevitably involve cultural continuity, and this involvement must be taken into account by the new management personnel in post-privatization. During the great change of society, reforms certainly are inevitable. Cultural references, however, continue to provide a framework of interpretation to the actors of reforms, allowing them to orientate themselves in the context of transition.Furthermore, the author discusses some logics rooted in Chinese traditional culture which continues to influence the operations of many companies and institutions. It is hoped that this thesis could help foreign managers and employees to better understand some unfamiliar behavior of their Chinese counterparts.