Advance Access for Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies Vol. 23, No. 1, is now available through the University of Toronto Press website.

Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies is published twice a year by the University of Toronto Press. Diaspora captures a world where borders are transgressed and elastic, boundaries are fractured and permeable, and identities are increasingly fluid and adaptable. By including literature from the social sciences and humanities, this interdisciplinary journal continuously rethinks mobility, mobilization, and transnationalism, and reorients traditional accounts of home, homeland, host state and diaspora in an ever-changing world.

The following papers are now available to read in advance of the upcoming issue:

Imperial Inheritances: A Meditation in Five Parts by Ashvin R. Kini. Read here!

Kini’s article explores the intersection of history, diasporic memory, and empire by examining the stories of D. K. Sharda, a journalist in British East Africa during the struggle for Kenyan independence. Kini utilizes personal family history, including accounts from his mother and grandmother, to challenge conventional academic approaches and highlight the importance of personal narratives. Through archival research, interviews, and analysis of family photographs, Kini investigates how gendered visual, narrative, and emotional elements shape the transmission of imperial migration and diaspora histories and the potential political implications of such transmissions.

Citizenship and Postcolonialism: Interdisciplinary Reflections on Filipino Americans and their Pursuit of the American Dream by Aprilfaye Manalang. Read here!

Manalang’s article explores the themes present in Carlos Bulosan’s autobiographical novel America Is in the Heart within the context of the “American dream.” By examining contemporary interviews and testimonies of Filipino American citizens, Manalang highlights the historical and ongoing challenges faced by Asian American immigrants in their pursuit of citizenship and the American dream, while considering the impact of the Philippines’ colonial relationship with the United States on postcolonial citizenship and identity.

Plotting Democratic Change in Chat Rooms: The Role of PalTalk as an Eritrean Diaspora Forum by Yonatan Tewelde. Read here!

Tewelde’s research examines the use of PalTalk by the Eritrean diaspora between 2000 and 2016 as a means of building solidarity and engaging in long-distance activism against totalitarianism in Eritrea. Specifically focusing on the “Smer” room, one of the popular Eritrean PalTalk groups, his research analyzes its role as a transnational mobilization network and explores how Eritrean migrants utilized chat rooms as safe spaces for solidarity and public opinion formation in a regime that suppresses independent press and government criticism.

A Shoal on a New Shore: Afro-Indigeneity and Multilingualism in M. NourbeSe Philip’s Zong! by Caitlin Simmons. Read here!

Simmons discusses NourbeSe Philip’s book-length poem Zong! and its exploration of the language and history of slavery. It highlights how Philip deconstructs and reimagines an insurance document related to the murder of enslaved individuals, challenging colonialist representation and introducing new methods of reading. Her analysis also emphasizes the inclusion and use of multiple Indigenous African languages in the poem, creating a convergence between the Black Atlantic and Indigeneity, and expanding the scope of the work beyond a solely Americanist perspective.

Co-Editors of Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies

Dr. Sossie Kasbarian is a Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Stirling.

Dr. Talar Chahinian, is a Lecturer in Armenian Studies and History at the University of California.

How to read Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies

Individual online subscriptions provide access to all online content for one year from the purchase date. Individual articles may also be purchased by navigating to the article’s full-text page and selecting a single article access option.

For more information about Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies, please visit our website here.