Understanding Politics of Cultural Differences: Asian Women Faculty in the Canadian Academy

• In Event: Roundtable Session 15
  In Roundtable Session: Postcolonial Analysis on Cultural Tensions and Power in Global Education

Abstract

This paper focuses on Asian women faculty in the Canadian academy through qualitative methodology. It highlights their narratives of “cultural differences” tied to their unsettled feelings in the academy and unfolds the politics of “differences” through the concept of cultural logics. There are three themes: “different” customs and practices, socialization, and navigating both cultures. I argue that Asian women faculty’s self identification through their cultural logics, which imply various aspects of “differences” such as race, gender, and ethnicity, reflects their relationships with and their memories of the national collective. Such analysis of shifting positions allows us to see politics of boundaries played within hegemonic forces such as a nation-state and higher education institutions.

Author

• Kimine Mayuzumi