Unravelling Identity

This book describes the ethnic identity construction involved in ‘being’, ‘feeling’ and ‘doing’ Chinese for multi-generation Australian-born Chinese, who were born and raised in a different social environment. It demonstrates how Chineseness is manifested in a multitude of ways and totally debunks any notion that being Chinese is a simple identity marker. The book shows that while there are commonalities with the American-born, the experiences of Australia-born Chinese are distinct in many ways. This book is a timely and critically examination of the inescapability of Chineseness particularly when social and economic stability is threatened and those in power are looking for a scapegoat.

This study analyses the social and symbolic value of the material culture, in particular the pottery production and the architecture, and the social structure of the local communities of a broad area encompassing Eastern Anatolia, the South Caucasus and North-western Iran during the last phase of the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age. This broad area is known from the Assyrian texts as ‘Nairi lands’. The second part of the study, furnishes a reassessment of pottery production characteristics and theories, as well as of the socio-economic structure and issues, tied to the sedentary and mobile local communities of the Nairi lands. The study brings into focus the characteristics, the extension and the distribution of Grooved pottery, along with other pottery typologies, by providing an accompanying online catalogue with detailed descriptions and high-resolution images of the pots and sherds obtained from public and private institutions in Turkey and Armenia. Moreover, the socio-political organisation and subsistence economy issues are addressed in order to advance a possible reconstruction of the social structure of the Nairi lands communities. Particular attention is devoted to the pastoral nomad component and the role played within the Nairi phenomenon. The study includes a very large corpus of text images and high-resolution color images of the pottery of the area under examination, gathered by the author in order to offer a reliable tool and compendium.

Unravelling Research is about the ethics and politics of knowledge production in the social sciences at a time when the academy is pressed to contend with the historical inequities associated with established research practices. Written by an impressive range of scholars whose work is shaped by their commitment to social justice, the chapters grapple with different methodologies, geographical locations and communities and cover a wide range of inquiry, including ethnography in Africa, archival research in South America and research with marginalized, racialized, poor, mad, homeless and Indigenous communities in Canada. Each chapter is written from the perspective of researchers who, due to their race, class, sexual/gender identity, ability and geographical location, labour at the margins of their disciplines. By using their own research projects as sites, contributors probe the ethicality of long-established and cutting-edge methodological frameworks to theorize the indivisible relationship between methodology, ethics and politics, elucidating key challenges and dilemmas confronting marginalized researchers and research subjects alike.

Language is integral to the construction of personal, socio-cultural and socio-political identities. Language, Identity and Symbolic Culture closely investigates the relationship between language and identities, offering a comprehensive yet progressive view of how linguistics relates to development and education, both in theoretical and real world applications. Progressing from a theoretical core examining the connection between language and individual identity, this book moves on to look at the wider socio-political discourse involving the marginalization and resistance of communities in the world. Beginning with the philosophical paradigms of language, Evans questions whether language shapes personal identities in its daily use or whether language is simply a tool for describing, rather than creating, the world. Extrapolating on this, the contributors utilise case studies from across the globe to see how these linguistic perspectives are played out in the real world, considering the role of language in issues surrounding power, colonization, marginalization and education. Language, Identity and Symbolic Culture offers a view of language identity conflicts around the world and an understanding of the opportunities of political and cultural emancipation created through language and open discourse.

This volume is a collection of contributions about the history and practice of travel and travel writing from a variety of academic disciplines including anthropology, history, linguistics and literary criticism. It brings together scholars from over ten different countries and reflects on what travel is and how travel writings function. It traces the history of travel and travel writing and the notion or idea of a European civilisation that permeates performances and perceptions. The notion of Europe appears as a set of quality standards as well as guidelines for experiences against which civilisations are measured. This set of standards and guidelines, however, is far from stable. It is a floating foundation carrying different versions of Europe throughout time. The authors tackle the problem from different angles: travels from Europe across the seven oceans transported the idea of European civilisation just as travels to Europe or within Europe. The volume explores the different meanings attached to the term 'Europe' and 'civilisation' throughout history and shows how different political or cultural contexts affect the notion of what Europe is or should be.

Identity in Animation: A Journey into Self, Difference, Culture and the Body uncovers the meaning behind some of the most influential characters in the history of animation and questions their unique sense of who they are and how they are formed. Jane Batkin explores how identity politics shape the inner psychology of the character and their exterior motivation, often buoyed along by their questioning of ‘place’ and ‘belonging’ and driven by issues of self, difference, gender and the body. Through this, Identity in Animation illustrates and questions the construction of stereotypes as well as unconventional representations within American, European and Eastern animation. It does so with examples such as the strong gender tropes of Japan’s Hayao Miyazaki, the strange relationships created by Australian director Adam Elliot and Nick Park’s depiction of Britishness. In addition, this book discusses Betty Boop’s sexuality and ultimate repression, Warner Bros’ anarchic, self-aware characters and Disney’s fascinating representation of self and society. Identity in Animation is an ideal book for students and researchers of animation studies, as well as any media and film studies students taking modules on animation as part of their course.

Contributed articles.

Acting as titans in global control of the biosphere and colonizing virtually all corners of the earth, algae, extremely diverse and numerous oxygenic, photosynthetic organisms, can be major players in and drivers of environmental change. For hundreds of years, since their evolutionary origins by endosymbiosis, when a protozoan enslaved a cyanobacterium, fascinated scientists strove to uncover the mysteries of their diversity, interactions, taxonomy, and classification. Today, new molecular tools and technologies like chromatography and genetic fingerprinting reveal the innermost secrets of algal ancestry and phylogeny and open new possibilities to answering age-old questions. Unravelling the algae: the past, present, and future of algal systematics brings together the most respected minds in the field to review the state-of-the-science and assess the impact of molecular tools on the taxonomy of algal groups. Emphasizing that a range of traditional and molecular approaches are required, along with other techniques such as transmission electron microscopy, to support full interpretation of the data, the book discusses the extent to which these tools broaden our understanding of the immense diversity of algae and revolutionize ideas of taxonomy and classification. Divided into three parts, the book introduces the very latest ideas on the evolution of algae and the concept of classification and illustrates contrasting viewpoints. The second section addresses systematics and covers virtually all algal groups ranging from microalgae to ultraplankton with individual chapters devoted to each. The final section explores the impact of genomics on algal systematics and concludes with a discussion of future directions for research. As the most up-to-date, authoritative source for classifying algae, this bookprovides unparalleled access to the encyclopedic information revealed by the use of the latest in molecular tools.