Crossroads in Cultural Studies Conference 14-17th December 2016 Program Index

about their cultural identity in intercultural settings? In this panel, we propose not to leave the concept of identity
behind completely, but to take it as something highly relational and contextual. In other words, we do believe that
cultural identity does exist as imagined and performed by individuals. However, we do also believe that we need
more than identity to understand sensual experiences in intercultural settings. After all, as Hannah Arendt says,
“identity is not everything” and “identity is not nothing.”
Defne Karaosmanoglu Fading National Identity: Absence and Presence of Turkishness in Restaurant Businesses
In this paper, I examine where and when cultural identity is strategically constructed and abandoned in
specific contexts. Taking identity as always contextual and relational, I look at the Turkish-speaking
restaurants in London and their emphasis on “Turkishness”. In other words, I try to understand the
significance of “Turkishness” in the minds and hearts of the restaurateurs in London, the role of the agency,
individual decisions and sensual experiences that go beyond macro concepts and processes. In conclusion, I
argue that an emphasis on identity can be a drawback to business and most of the restaurateurs do not
really care about and emphasize their national identities, instead they strategically use regional identities
and/or global identities to claim business success.
Irem Inceoglu
Performing Identity through Cultural Encounter
This paper focuses on diversified identities in Turkey driving data from a long term NGO project that could be
defined as an organised cultural encounter. The proposed paper analyses and challenges the notion of
ethnic/cultural/regional identity in relation to the critical ethnographic data collection process. Looking at
the communication process, this paper scrutinises the way in which individuals diverge from particular
cultural frames and re-construct the discourses of a particular frame through their performances of identity.
The case study that this work is based provides an opportunity to observe how an organised cultural
encounter could not only function as an opportunity for breaking up the hegemonic narratives of cultural
frames an individual bound to but also itself functions as a questionable setting in regards to culture and
identity.
Anastassia Zabrodskaja Perception of Russia and Russians among mixed couples in Estonia
The formation of the image of a country is a complex process influenced by geographical, political, cultural,
social and psychological factors. In my paper, I will approach the topic at the micro level (life stories of
members of Estonian-Russian mixed families, their cultural and historical memory, and personal experiences
of living/visiting the USSR and Russia). My methodological approach focuses on culturally shared knowledge,
practices and symbols, and different forms of their representation using discourse analysis, content analysis
and qualitative sociology methods. I conducted individual semi-structured in-depth interviews with 30
couples from Russian-Estonian mixed families. The couples were chosen to reflect the sociolinguistic
diversity of Estonian regions. There were also three different age groups (25-39, 40-59 and over 60 years
old). I will show the relationship between individual personal experiences and the portrayed image of Russia
(and the Russians), as well as the factors influencing the formation of these particular stereotypes.
10U
Institutions and cultural change (Chair, Robert Willim)
Maureen Engel* & Heather Zwicker*
Op. Cit: The Indian Hospital in a Context of Reconciliation
This paper analyses a derelict hospital, the modes of its visual mediation, and the urban and national
fantasies it engenders. Edmonton’s Charles Camsell Hospital was opened as a tuberculosis treatment centre
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