University of Pittsburgh doctoral student Rory G. McCarthy, with guidance from Dr. Joseph S. Alter, will undertake research on the role of memory and nostalgia in concretizing connections between groups of people living in one place, but claiming origination in another. Of particular interest will be how ethno-national political struggles of the past affect current conceptions of ancestral homelands, and how those conceptions of homeland in turn affect notions of cultural and religious identity.
The research will be conducted among diasporic Sikhs in Woolgoolga, New South Wales, Australia. The researcher will collect qualitative data through participant observation, ethnographic interviews, and discourse analysis of local media about the Sikh community. He also will gather family narratives, or histories of family migration as they are understood by the families themselves, to explore the relationship between political rhetoric and a history of violence, and the discursive field surrounding ideas of homeland for diasporic populations. Attention will be paid to the social, cultural and political forces in India and Australia that have contributed to shaping this emerging diasporic identity. Archival materials will be consulted to document the history of Sikh migration to the area.
By focusing on the confluence of political rhetoric, violence, and nostalgia for a cultural homeland, this research will contribute to understanding how ethno-national political struggles continue to affect the identities and activities of diasporic populations. Funding this research also supports the education of a social scientist.
