This edited volume focuses on various forms of regionalism and neighborhoods in the Baltic-Black Sea area. In the light of current reshaping of borderlands and new geopolitical and military confrontations in Europe's eastern margins, such as the annexation of Crimea and the war in Donbas, this book analyzes different types and modalities of regional integration and region-making from a comparative perspective. It conceptualizes cooperative and conflictual encounters as a series of networks and patchworks that differently link and relate major actors to each other and thus shape these interconnections as domains of inclusion and exclusion, bordering and debordering, securitization and desecuritization. This peculiar combination of geopolitics, ethnopolitics and biopolitics makes the Baltic-Black Sea trans-national region a source of inspiring policy practices, and, in the light of new security risks, a matter of increased concern all over Europe. The contributors from various disciplines cover topics such as cultural and civilizational spaces of belonging and identity politics, the rise of right-wing populism, region building under the condition of multiple security pressures, and the influence and regional strategies of different external powers, including the EU, Russia, and Turkey, on cross- and trans-regional relations in the area.

Dr. Lonnie Woods, Esq. resides in the Dallas- Fort Worth area. Dr. Woods graduated from Texas Christian University with a B.A. in Political Science with honors and later the University of Texas School of Law, where he obtained his law degree. He later received his Master of Divinity from Brite Divinity located on the campus of Texas Christian University and his Doctorate of Ministry from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. Dr. Woods has provided the Dallas Fort Worth community with over twenty years experience in the areas of ministry and in the practice of law. The Woods Law Firm specializes in handling legal matters related to Real Estate law, personal injury, business law, criminal law and the development of corporate legal and tax infrastructure. Dr. Woods has capitalized on his passion and commitment to spreading the gospel with his skill as a legal expert in developing his ministry. His first ordination was at East Dallas Christian Church where he currently assists in the Education Ministry as a board member and instructor. He is a former Chaplain of the Dallas- Fort Worth Regional Airport. He currently serves as Associate Pastor at Bexar Street Missionary Baptist Church, Dallas Texas under the tutelage of Rev. C.C. Robertson, current president of the National Mission Baptist Convention. Dr. Woods is also a faculty member of Southern Bible Institute in Dallas Texas. Dr. Woods has established the L.E. Woods Ministries where he serves as consultant to Senior Pastors in the Dallas Fort Worth Community and surrounding areas while assisting them with church development. His expertise is in training faith- based organizations in leadership training, foundation development and economic empowerment. He has done extensive research on economic development and empowerment of men. Dr. Woods focus is "Providing Hope, Creating Ministry."

While White parents raising Black children has become increasingly salient in the last 20?30 years, the experience of those who grow up in these cross?racial families is much more complicated. Indeed, much of the adoption studies literature has privileged White parent voices, further silencing crossracially raised Black?identified children. "Is That Your Mom?" challenges the dominant narrative that love trumps race (and racism) in family dynamics, and reasserts the need for critical voices of those most impacted by being cross?racially raised: the very people who face extreme racism that is both similar to, and uniquely different from, that faced by people of color more broadly. "Is That Your Mom?" centers the voices of Cross Racially Raised individuals of the African Diaspora to illustrate that racial socialization is a process in which individuals have agency in their racial development. In this book, Cross Racially Raised adults, both those who were adopted and those who were raised in cross?racial birth families, share their stories regarding experiences with racism in the following three ways: (1) encounters with racism within and beyond educational settings, (2) perceptions of parents or guardians' efforts toward racial socialization, and (3) strategies used to navigate racially hostile environments (which sometimes are the families themselves). The voices of the individuals in this book illuminate a deeper conceptual understanding of how racial socialization practices are linked with one's ability to cope with racism and ways of addressing racism, particularly among those families that contradict monoracial assumptions of racial socialization processes. The book concludes with a discussion of how schools, educators, and parents can help Cross Racially Raised children and youth develop skills necessary to cope and remain resilient in the face of racism, particularly if the immediate family is not offering those supports.

This book compares the Korean diasporic groups in Japan and the United States. It highlights the contrasting adaptation of Koreans in Japan and the United States, and illuminates how the destinies of immigrants who originally belonged to the same ethnic/national collectivity diverge depending upon destinations and how they are received in a certain state and society within particular historical contexts. The author finds that the mode of incorporation (a specific combination of contextual factors), rather than ethnic 'culture' and 'race,' plays a decisive role in determining the fates of these Korean immigrant groups. In other words, what matters most for immigrants' integration is not their particular cultural background or racial similarity to the dominant group, but the way they are received by the host state and other institutions. Thus, this book is not just about Korean immigrants; it is also about how contexts of reception including different conceptualizations of 'race' in relation to nationhood affect the adaptation of immigrants from the same ethnic/national origin.

Language policies in Southeast Asia have been shaped by the process of nation-building on the one hand and by political and economic considerations on the other. The early years of nation-building in Southeast Asia generated intensive language conflicts precisely because state policies privileged the idea of a monolingual nation and thus endeavoured to co-opt or even do away with troublesome ethnic identities. In recent years, language policies are increasingly influenced by pragmatic considerations, especially globalization and the awareness of a linkage between language and economic development, such that Southeast Asian states in varying degrees have become less insistent on promoting monolingual nationalism. This book evaluates the successes and drawbacks of language policies in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar, especially the ways in which these policies have often been resisted or contested. It is an invaluable primer on this linguistically complex region and a resource for scholars, policy-makers, civil society activists and NGOs in various parts of the world facing equally challenging ethnic/language issues.

In this groundbreaking study, Ana Hernandez offers an in-depth analysis of the social and cultural influences in the Latino community and its effect on the development of Latino racial identity from clinical and therapeutic perspectives. Her book addresses what it means to be a "Latino" in the United States, including the origins of the term and its use to describe individuals from Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. It makes distinctions among race, ethnicity, and culture and describes common terminologies used to denote individuals whose origins lie in the south of the Western Hemisphere. An Evolving Racial Identity discusses mental health consequences that can result from varying racial identities and examines the sociocultural contexts that explain the prevalence of diverse racial identities and the racial experiences in the United States. The study employs a research lens from data collected on 206 self-identified Latino young adults to evaluate experiences of racial discrimination and parental racial socialization in addition to what happens when individuals from Central, South America, and the Caribbean are confronted with the harsh realities of race in the United States. Hernandez deftly describes the ways in which individuals cope with North American racial discourse while simultaneously grappling with their own countries' racial socialization and colonization histories, which are often unacknowledged and unaddressed in the U.S. mental health field. This sociocultural context has important implications for mental health. This book offers strategies for mental health practitioners from the perspective of couples and family therapists. It also offers a Racialized Identity Framework to guide researchers and clinicians on how to best understand and alleviate the phenomenon of racial identity within the Latino population.

"N=omai" dance drama, an artistic expression combining sacred, communal, economic, and cultural spheres of community life in the district of Higashidorimura, is a performing tradition that provides an identity to agriculturally based villages. It has retained features characteristic of the music, drama, and sacred practices of medieval Japan. "N=omai" singing exhibits traits linked to Buddhist chanting. The instrumental music originates from folk Shinto. This study highlights the social and cultural value "n=omaii" has for the residents in villages that perform it by providing the historical context in which it is examined, as well as its current performance practices.

As this work explores the aspects of agricultural Japanese society, revealed through a dance drama, it will appeal to music and drama scholars as well as students of Japanese culture and history. After establishing the historical lens from which to view "n DEGREESD=omai" drama, the theatrical and musical aspects are discussed in detail. Photographs and musical examples enhance this thorough, well-organized study.

In the wake of the Mexican-American War, competing narratives of religious conquest and re-conquest were employed by Anglo American and ethnic Mexican Californians to make sense of their place in North America. These "invented traditions" had a profound impact on North American religious and ethnic relations, serving to bring elements of Catholic history within the Protestant fold of the United States' national history as well as playing an integral role in the emergence of the early Chicano/a movement. Many Protestant Anglo Americans understood their settlement in the far Southwest as following in the footsteps of the colonial project begun by Catholic Spanish missionaries. In contrast, Californios--Mexican-Americans and Chicana/os--stressed deep connections to a pre-Columbian past over to their own Spanish heritage. Thus, as Anglo Americans fashioned themselves as the spiritual heirs to the Spanish frontier, many ethnic Mexicans came to see themselves as the spiritual heirs to a southwestern Aztec homeland.

This book is a study of the centrality of racism in the construction and maintenance of class-based societies in Britain, the United States, and Western Europe. It combines analysis of historical and contemporary material to provide the reader with a better understanding of contemporary forms of racism.

The essays challenge assumptions of both racial superiority and inferiority and of "natural" racial antagonism. The book is intended for those readers concerned with understanding and changing our increasingly unequal and unjust societies as well as for those studying the issues of race relations, social structure, and equality in an academic setting.

The coal fields of West Virginia would seem an unlikely market for big band jazz during the Great Depression. That a prosperous African American audience dominated by those involved with the coal industry was there for jazz tours would seem equally improbable. "Big Band Jazz in Black West Virginia, 1930-1942" shows that, contrary to expectations, black Mountaineers flocked to dances by the hundreds, in many instances traveling considerable distances to hear bands led by Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Andy Kirk, Jimmie Lunceford, and Chick Webb, among numerous others. Indeed, as one musician who toured the state would recall, "All the bands were goin' to West Virginia."

The comparative prosperity of the coal miners, thanks to New Deal industrial policies, was what attracted the bands to the state. This study discusses that prosperity as well as the larger political environment that provided black Mountaineers with a degree of autonomy not experienced further south. Author Christopher Wilkinson demonstrates the importance of radio and the black press both in introducing this music and in keeping black West Virginians up to date with its latest developments. The book explores connections between local entrepreneurs who staged the dances and the national management of the bands that played those engagements. In analyzing black audiences' aesthetic preferences, the author reveals that many black West Virginians preferred dancing to a variety of music, not just jazz. Finally, the book shows bands now associated almost exclusively with jazz were more than willing to satisfy those audience preferences with arrangements in other styles of dance music.

A volume in The Hispanic Population in the United States Series Editor Richard R. Verdugo, Visiting Scholar, UAB - Centre for Demographic Studies, Barcelona, Spain The Hispanic population has emerged at the largest ethnic/racial minority in the United States, and has also become a major political constituency. Consequently, it is important to gauge the extent to which they have been integrated into various societal institutions. One important institution is the US labor market. The research contained in the present volume assess a number of issues about how well Hispanics are integrated into the US labor market, a major factor in the group's economic status. The research makes important contributions to the existing body of research on the Hispanic population, and may be used by scholars and policy makers in better understanding the status of this important ethnic/racial group.

At its core, the Civil War was a conflict over the meaning of citizenship. Most famously, it became a struggle over whether or not to grant rights to a group that stood outside the pale of civil-society: African Americans. But other groups--namely Jews, Germans, the Irish, and Native Americans--also became part of this struggle to exercise rights stripped from them by legislation, court rulings, and the prejudices that defined the age. Grounded in extensive research by experts in their respective fields, Civil War Citizens is the first volume to collectively analyze the wartime experiences of those who lived outside the dominant white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant citizenry of nineteenth-century America. The essays examine the momentous decisions made by these communities in the face of war, their desire for full citizenship, the complex loyalties that shaped their actions, and the inspiring and heartbreaking results of their choices-- choices that still echo through the United States today. Contributors: Stephen D. Engle, William McKee Evans, David T. Gleeson, Andrea Mehrlander, Joseph P. Reidy, Robert N. Rosen, and Susannah J. Ural.

Julia Alvarez made her mark on the American literary horizon with the 1991 publication of her debut novel "How the Garc DEGREESD'ia Girls Lost Their Accents," a story based on her own family's bicultural experiences. Readers and critics alike quickly discovered the writer's penchant for extracting humor from hardship, and weaving personal history into vivid prose. Within a decade, Alvarez had published three more highly acclaimed novels, including " Yo " (1997), a delightful sequel to her first novel. This Critical Companion introduces readers to the life and works of Dominican American writer Alvarez and examines the thematic and cultural concerns that run through her novels. Full literary analysis is provided for each, including historical context for the factually based works, "In the Time of the Butterflies "(1994) and "In the Name of Salome" (2000). A brief biography and a chapter on the Latino novel help students to understand the personal and literary influences in Alvarez's writing.

This first full-length treatment of Julia Alvarez discusses her entire canon of writings including her poetry, short stories, children's fiction and nonfiction. The four novels are analyzed fully, each discussed in its own chapter with sections on plot, character development, literary device, thematic issues and narrative structure. Cultural and historical contexts of the work are also considered, and alternate critical perspectives are given for each novel. A select bibliography makes this volume a valuable research tool for students, educators and anyone interested in Latino literature.

Multiracial students have unique needs that are not being met in schools, because teachers and school personnel assume that those needs are the same as those of monoracial minority children. Children of multiple races are, in fact, "invisible" in the schools. On school and federal forms, they are racially categorized based on "one race only," and such categorizations are not limited to documents. Schools and teachers may unknowingly transmit monoracial identity messages to multiracial students, which is problematic for some students who may want to identify with more than one race. Our racial categorization process reflects the deficiencies of the concept of race in American culture and needs to be renegotiated. The multiracial child is a microcosm of the American cultural identity. Current racial categorization of multiracial children reflects a society that is still renegotiating its own racial and ethnic identities, and these children bear the burdens of the difficulties. As America continues to become increasingly populated by diverse peoples, what it means to be American is in transition. Americans are moving away from a fixed notion of the American cultural identity toward an expanded, more inclusive resolution.