Abstract
This dissertation examines Turkish-American identity formations in the United States. Through a case study based in the New York metropolitan area, this study explores how the contestation and negotiation of Turkish ethnicity and Turkish-American identity is grounded in place and across space. It examines Turkish-Americaness in relation to Westerness, Muslimness, Arabness, Americaness, and Turkishness. The study problematizes ethnic and racial labels such as Muslim Americans in the United States by examining the multiplicity, contextuality, complexity, fluidity, and temporarility of Turkish (and Muslim) identities and the role of different locales (the United States and Turkey) in the construction of Turkishness. The dissertation investigates the role of Turkish and American politics and culture in the construction of Turkish-American identities, and focuses on generational, class and gender differences among Turkish Americans. It suggests that Turkish-American identities are spatially constituted as they represent a ground on which temporary and ever-changing boundaries are marked between inside and outside, the same and the other. These boundaries stress not only distinction or difference but also interconnection. In addition, this dissertation examines the history of Turkish immigration to the United States and provides empirical data about Turkish-American institutions and the distribution of Turkish-American populations throughout the United States.
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