http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/keyword/cultural-identity Inquiries Journal provides undergraduate and graduate students around the world a platform for the wide dissemination of academic work over a range of core disciplines. en-us Wed, 09 Sep 2026 06:20:36 -0400 Wed, 09 Sep 2026 06:20:36 -0400 http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1859/cultural-competencies-for-healthcare-providers-working-with-rural-finnish-americans By Abigail K. Carlson - The number of Americans aged 65-years-and-older is projected to increase significantly by 2050. As rural older adults age-in-place, it is imperative to examine the links between cultural competencies, ethnic minority status, and access to care. Rural providers from outside the local culture must recognize the need to practice cultural humility and cultural sensitivity to champion best practices of care. Finnish Americans have a unique subculture in the Upper Midwest, particularly in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where they have historically faced much hardship, as well as significant barriers... Fri, 08 Jan 2021 12:54 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1859/cultural-competencies-for-healthcare-providers-working-with-rural-finnish-americans http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1829/construction-of-asian-identity-in-restaurant-menus-a-case-study By Mika Skibinsky - This paper explores the meaning and implications of “Asian” in the context of American restaurant menus. I determine what kind of language in dish descriptions, specifically ingredients and adjectives, indexes a restaurant or dish as “Asian.” Then, building on Mapes (2018), I observe how “Asianness” is constructed and performed using key discourse strategies, which I divide into two parts: Constructing “The Other” and Constructing “The Comfort Zone.” I then discuss how the construction of “Asianness” indexes the restaurant... Thu, 29 Oct 2020 09:56 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1829/construction-of-asian-identity-in-restaurant-menus-a-case-study http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1816/preserving-cultural-identity-in-english-language-use-by-korean-immigrants By Heajune Lee - This paper argues that the Korean cultural values of humility and social deference directly influence the linguistic choices in Korean immigrants’ English emails. This relationship can be seen in consistent qualification of requests, ambiguous use of power verbs, and excessive use of impersonal statements. To support this argument, I first examine the literature establishing a strong relationship between an individual’s identity and linguistic choices. Given the centrality of humility and respect in Korea’s Confucian society, I explore ways in which these cultural values are... Wed, 14 Oct 2020 08:25 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1816/preserving-cultural-identity-in-english-language-use-by-korean-immigrants http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1790/linguistic-essentialism-and-indigenous-authenticity-the-role-of-indigenous-languages-in-defining-indigeneity By Ella Agoos - Since the European invasion of Latin America in the sixteenth century, the concept of indigeneity has been inherently political. In what can only be described as an ongoing ethnocide, colonial powers did everything they could to stomp out the rich diversity of indigenous cultures throughout the land while imposing their Western Christian values upon colonized groups. After centuries of being denied their own culture, indigenous groups now struggle to preserve their surviving cultural practices. One such element of culture that many indigenous peoples see as tied directly to their identities is... Mon, 07 Sep 2020 10:03 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1790/linguistic-essentialism-and-indigenous-authenticity-the-role-of-indigenous-languages-in-defining-indigeneity http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1651/fighting-for-euskera-the-role-of-language-in-basque-nationalism-and-the-development-of-the-eta By Keely L. Smith - Basque nationalism is a movement that has encompassed myth, mystery, violence, and compromise, all of which have found their justification from the unique language, Euskera. The source of Euskera is uncertain due to its non-Indo-European origin, although there is evidence that it belongs “to the same agglutinative type of speech as do Santali, Mundari, Kurku, and other dialects of the Munda or Kolarian family of Bengal.”[1] This differentiation, though it gives little explanation as to the location of its foundations, does suggest that the Basques “are the descendants of indigenous... Fri, 09 Jun 2017 09:23 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1651/fighting-for-euskera-the-role-of-language-in-basque-nationalism-and-the-development-of-the-eta http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1522/linguistic-hegemony-in-academia-and-the-devaluation-of-minority-identity-in-higher-education By Joe Henao - A commonly observed trend among American universities is the relative underperformance of minorities in the academic arena. The usual, often lazily regurgitated explanation for this phenomenon revolves around socioeconomic situations that minority groups find themselves in, contributing to their academic plight. While this deserves some credit, this fails to tell the entire story. Apart from the general socioeconomic status of many social groups, minorities often engage in academic communities that do not even remotely mirror their cultural upbringing, values, or habitus. Institutions of higher... Mon, 30 Jan 2017 06:01 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1522/linguistic-hegemony-in-academia-and-the-devaluation-of-minority-identity-in-higher-education http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1506/preserving-cantonese-television-and-film-in-guangdong-language-as-cultural-heritage-in-south-chinas-bidialectal-landscape By Rona Y. Ji - The sheer number of distinct dialects present within the country has long complicated Chinese language standardization and language policy. Furthermore, China’s history with colonial powers throughout the past three centuries has led to a distinct divide between language standardization in Northern China and Southern China. Despite the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts to promote Mandarin as the primary language of the People’s Republic of China, Cantonese has been one of several dialects that has experienced special allowances from the Chinese government due to the colonial... Mon, 12 Dec 2016 06:20 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1506/preserving-cantonese-television-and-film-in-guangdong-language-as-cultural-heritage-in-south-chinas-bidialectal-landscape http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1467/intersections-of-gender-race-and-nation-in-cloud-nine-and-m-butterfly By Miriam Cummins - This article contributes to the debate as to whether Cloud Nine by Caryl Churchill and M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang are ultimately essentialist or anti-essentialist, accentuating or disavowing difference. It argues that both plays are successfully anti-essentialist by examining the discursive relationship between categories of gendered, racial and national identity. For both Churchill and Hwang, categories of gender, race and nation can be mutually deconstructed in the same way that they are mutually constructed because their foundation in discourse is fundamentally unstable. Thus, when fluid... Tue, 25 Oct 2016 09:56 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1467/intersections-of-gender-race-and-nation-in-cloud-nine-and-m-butterfly http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1461/interpreting-political-unrest-in-hong-kong-through-the-midnight-after-2014 By Justin Wong Jun-sheng - Hong Kong is standing at a crucial social and political juncture in its history. A former British colony, it has retained its unique legal system, electoral system, and political democracy. These systems have worked together to create a society in which residents are entitled to their rights with a strong and equal rule of law that governs the society. The 1st of July 1997 marked the handover of Hong Kong from Britain to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the PRC (HKSAR). Many fear that as time progresses, the PRC... Mon, 17 Oct 2016 08:43 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1461/interpreting-political-unrest-in-hong-kong-through-the-midnight-after-2014 http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/179/exploring-the-american-immigrant-experience-through-literature By Brian Richards - In “Amor de lejos: Latino (Im)migration Literatures,” B.V. Olguin writes, “Latino/a (im)migration narratives…often illustrate the traumatic aspects of displacement by focusing in part on how immigration, migration, exile, and colonization place people in a state of national limbo” (333). Similarly, in “The New Immigration and the Literature of Asian America,” Hye Suh and Robert Ji-Song Ku write, “Asian American literature bears the traces of global capitalism, technology, migration from south to north, new possibilities for national identity in... Tue, 23 Feb 2010 08:48 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/179/exploring-the-american-immigrant-experience-through-literature http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1681/understanding-the-implications-of-a-global-village By Violet K. Dixon - The individually unique music is now a raucous cacophony. The individually savory flavors are a muddled sludge. All the countries in the world are united under one government and one religion. Communists follow the same rules as those previously under a democracy. Muslims and Christians live by the same religious standards. How would we deal with that? In light of rapidly accelerating globalization and expansion of technology, it becomes relevant to discuss the implications of a potential overarching culture with respect to the potential clashing of cultures.The late Marshall McLuhan, a media... Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:51 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1681/understanding-the-implications-of-a-global-village