Degree Name
Master of Arts
Graduate Program
Speech Communication
Advisor
Toyosaki, Satoshi
Abstract
In this research report, I analyze my diaspora lived experiences to understand how I experience post-colonial diaspora hybridity as a subject position and as a mode of resistance. I use Pathak’s (2013) post-colonial autoethnography as my methodology to present my narratives about my experiences of hybridity. I use memory recollection as my data and analyze specific memories of mine to learn how my border crossings and transnational movements shape the way I experience hybridity. I specifically write about moments in which essentialist cultural identities were imposed upon me. I analyze how I understand my hybridity in relation to such essentialist and categorical discourses. Ultimately, I attend to the theoretical question of how my diaspora hybridity can transform into a mode of resistance. I discuss the potential of hybridity as a mode of post-colonial resistance and discuss the ways I resist in subtle and non-oppositional ways to hegemonic and essentialist discourses about identity.