A Companion to Diaspora and Transnationalism

In the past, the two terms of diaspora and transnationalism have often been treated separately; this invaluable collection clearly demonstrates that the many overlaps between the two terms renders it impossible to separate them in any serious discussion of the contemporary world. Taken together, the two concepts provide a broad understanding of the full spectrum of implications that derive from the reality of the vast movements of populations, ideas, technologies, and finance in the world today. A Companion to Diaspora and Transnationalism addresses this complex conceptual tangle through essays by leading scholars in the two fields, which offer a wide range of issues, topics and methodological approaches to the study of the joint subject matter. The two concepts are linked together in new and important ways, and the study demonstrates that while there is no simple resolution to these intersections, there is a need to understand how these concepts and categories articulate with and against each other.

Notes on Contributors ix 1 Introduction – Diaspora and Transnationalism: Scapes, Scales, and Scopes 1 Ato Quayson and Girish Daswani Part I Transnationalism and Diaspora Through the Disciplines 27 2 The Anthropology of Transnationalism and Diaspora 29 Girish Daswani 3 Communication and Media Studies 54 Julian Murphet 4 Diaspora, Transnationalism, and Issues in Contemporary Politics 68 Garrett Wallace Brown 5 Diaspora and Transnationalism in Urban Studies 88 Ayona Datta 6 Migration and Transnational Studies: Between Simultaneity and Rupture 106 Pnina Werbner 7 Religion, Religions, and Diaspora 125 Seán McLoughlin 8 Postcolonialism and the Diasporic Imaginary 139 Ato Quayson Part II Backgrounds and Perspectives 161 9 Slavery, Indentured Labor, and the Making of a Transnational World 163 Emmanuel Akyeampong 10 When the Diaspora Returns Home: Ambivalent Encounters with the Ethnic Homeland 172 Takeyuki Tsuda 11 Interracial Sex and the Making of Empire 190 Carina Ray 12 Istanbul as a Cosmopolitan City: Myths and Realities 212 Edhem Eldem Part III The Aesthetics of Transnationalism and Diaspora 231 13 The Anxieties of “New” Indian Modernity: Globalization, Diaspora, and Bollywood 233 Jigna Desai and Rani Neutill 14 West African Video–Movies and Their Transnational Imaginaries 249 Carmela Garritano 15 The European Salsa Congress: Music and Dance in Transnational Circuits 263 Ananya Jahanara Kabir Part IV Overviews and Case Studies 277 16 Gender and Identity in Oral Histories of Elderly Russian Jewish Migrants in the United States and Canada 279 Anna Shternshis 17 The Transnational Life of Cheese 293 Ken MacDonald 18 Diaspora and Transnational Perspectives on Remittances 316 Anna Lindley 19 A Diaspora Concept That Works: Tibetan Economy and Identity in India and Canada 330 Timm Lau 20 Cell Phones and Transnationalism in Africa 346 Wisdom J. Tettey 21 Home–Making in the Diaspora: Bringing Palestine to London 366 Michelle Obeid 22 Imagining Transnational Futures in Vanuatu 381 Maggie Cummings 23 Global Cities and Transnational Circulations: Singapore and Hong Kong 397 Rajeev S. Patke 24 Diaspora and Discourse: The Contrapuntal Lives of Mexican Non–Migrants 412 Hilary Parsons Dick 25 The Scales of Justice: Refl ections on Representation and Responsibility in a Transnational Frame 428 Kevin Lewis O’Neill 26 Greek Settler Communities in Central and South Asia, 323 bce to 10 ce 443 Rachel Mairs 27 Parts and Labor: The Commodifi cation of the Human Body 455 Monir Moniruzzaman 28 Diaspora Activism and the Politics of Locality: The Armenians of France 473 Hakem Al–Rustom 29 The Muslim Brotherhood and the Transnationalism of Islam 494 Meena Sharify–Funk and Ali Albarghouthi 30 Religions of the African Diaspora 509 Paul Christopher Johnson 31 Diaspora Tourism: The Heritage of Slavery in Ghana 524 Ann Reed 32 The Transnational Politics of the Techno–Class in Bangalore 539 T.T. Sreekumar Index 556

Ato Quayson is Inaugural Director of the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies and Professor of English at the University of Toronto. His publications include Relocating Postcolonialism (with David Theo Goldberg, Blackwell, 2002); Calibrations: Reading for the Social (2003); Aesthetic Nervousness: Disability and the Crisis of Representation (2006); and the 2–volume The Cambridge History of Postcolonial Literature (2012). Girish Daswani is an Assistant Professor in Anthropology at the University of Toronto. He is also affiliated with the Department for the Study of Religion and the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies at the University of Toronto as well as the Centre for Ethnography at University of Toronto Scarborough.