Richard and Lillian Ives Graduate Fellow
About
"Negotiating Boundaries: Exploring Insecurity, Identity, and Media Influence among Northern Nigerian Diasporic Communities"
Negotiating Boundaries (abbr.). examines how Northern Nigerians in Chicago sustain attachments to homeland and hostland across distance, conflict, and migration. Drawing on ethnographic and archival research, the dissertation explores how ideas of belonging are shaped by colonial histories, racialized representations, memories of loss, and continuing obligations to family and community. It considers diaspora not simply as a movement away from home, but as a space in which older social and political divisions are renegotiated, new solidarities emerge, and migrants continually reassess their relationship to Nigeria. At the same time, representations of Nigeria—from earlier forms of Black internationalist solidarity to contemporary narratives of illiteracy, corruption and insecurity—shape how migrants are seen and how they understand themselves. The dissertation examines diasporic belonging as an ongoing negotiation between attachment and estrangement, loss and repair, and responsibility.
Talitha Pam is a PhD candidate in Anthropology and History.
