Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: The Sikh Diaspora in Australia: Migration, Militancy and the Imagining of Home

匹兹堡大学（University of Pittsburgh）博士生罗里·g·麦卡锡（Rory G. McCarthy）将在约瑟夫·s·阿尔特（Joseph S. Alter）博士的指导下，研究记忆和怀旧在将生活在一个地方、但声称起源于另一个地方的人群之间的联系具体化方面所起的作用。特别令人感兴趣的是，过去的种族-国家政治斗争如何影响目前对祖先家园的概念，以及这些家园概念如何反过来影响文化和宗教认同的概念。这项研究将在澳大利亚新南威尔士州伍尔古尔加的散居锡克教徒中进行。研究人员将通过参与观察、民族志访谈和当地媒体对锡克教社区的话语分析来收集定性数据。他还将收集家庭叙事，或家庭自己理解的家庭迁移历史，以探索政治修辞与暴力历史之间的关系，以及围绕流散人口家园思想的话语场。我们将关注印度和澳大利亚的社会、文化和政治力量，这些力量促成了这种新兴的散居身份的形成。将查阅档案资料，记录锡克教徒迁移到该地区的历史。通过关注政治修辞、暴力和对文化家园的怀旧之情的融合，本研究将有助于理解种族-国家政治斗争如何继续影响流散人口的身份和活动。资助这项研究也支持了社会科学家的教育。

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.