Study of diasporas provides a useful frame for reimagining locations, movements, identities, and social formations. This volume explores diaspora as historical experience and as a category of analysis. Using case studies drawn from African and Asian diasporas and immigration in the U.S., the contributors interrogate ideas of displacement, return, and place of origin as they relate to diasporic identity. They also consider how practices of commensality become grounds for examining identity and difference and how narrative and aesthetic forms emerge through the context of diaspora.

"Offers a welcome addition to the literature on migration by using the springboard of 'diaspora' to address the cross-border movements of people." -Rhacel Parreñas, Brown University

Study of diasporas provides a useful frame for reimagining locations, movements, identities, and social formations. This volume explores diaspora as historical experience and as a category of analysis. Using case studies drawn from African and Asian diasporas and immigration in the United States, the contributors interrogate ideas of displacement, return, and place of origin as they relate to diasporic identity. They also consider how practices of commensality become grounds for examining identity and difference and how narrative and aesthetic forms emerge through the context of diaspora.

Contributions by Crispin Bates, Martin A. Berger, Rachel Ida Buff, Marina Carter, Betty Joseph, Parama Roy, Jenny Sharpe, Todd Shepard, and Lok Siu