Day 10: Patriotism and Identity & East London

We had our third day of class today and the session was called "Patriotism and Identity." For today we were able to examine the history of American national identity, look at ideas around "Imagined Communities," and ask why is national identity important? Then, we had a debate on whether or not the idea of a "good citizen" should be based around loyalty to a national identity and we examined psychological insights into the nature of identity and belonging. Finally, in the classroom portion, we compared the American "melting pot" with the Canadian "mosaic."

It was an awakening experience to explore what exactly nationalism means. There are three different working theories, or "definitions." One is that nationalism is the decline of religion as a single source of knowledge, organization, and power... which causes for a need for a new, non-religious system of value, meaning, and community. The second theory is that nationalism is not the awakening of nations to self-consciousness, but rather it invents nations where they don't exist. Finally, the third working definition is that the nation is an imagined community because you'll never know most of the fellow members of your nation. I found all of these definitions really interesting because I have never been given the opportunity to actually explore what the idea of nationalism means.

One thing that I found particularly interesting today was Jacques Lacan's Mirror Theory. Essentially, the theory examines what happens when we first see ourselves in a mirror. It is at this point that we begin to take on our human identity. On the subject, Lacan writes that "the mirror stage is a phenomenon to which I assign a twofold value. In the first place, it has historical value as it marks a decisive turning-point in the mental development of the child. In the second place, it typifies an essential libidinal relationship with the body-image." It was very interesting to look back at the very beginnings of creating one's identity, and then exploring how this identity shapes and how values of citizenship and nationalism also play into the whole situation.

Another of the extremely interesting topics we explored today was learning more about the English Defence League (EDL). Basically, the EDL was formed in 2009 as an English far-right single-issue political organization. The aim of the group is to oppose what it considers as the spread of Islamism, Sharia law, and Islamic extremism in England.

In the afternoon, we got to further expand upon our new knowledge of nationalism and apply it to concepts regarding multiculturalism and assimilation. I felt so lucky that we had the unique opportunity to take an afternoon walking tour of multicultural London led by a professor at Roehampton University (John Eade). We took trains and the tube to East London, which has long been shaped by immigration. This immigration includes French Protestants (Huguenots) from the late 17th century, Irish Catholics during the 18th and 19th centuries, East European Jews in the last 19th century and Bangladeshi Muslims from the 1960s. Mr. Eade showed us how this Eastern End of London has gone up and down in terms of prosperity and indeed was not always the slum that Dickens portrayed. Furthermore, on this walking tour, we got to see first-handed the historical traces of all these immigrations, as well as the ways in which the area is being shaped by gentrification as part of the global city.

It absolutely and completely felt like we were in an entirely different country when we stepped out of the train station and into East London. Most of the people walking around were in traditional Muslim dress and the restaurant/shop signs were in Arabic. We walked through a street market area that had an entirely different feel to it than we had experienced in London so far. It was fascinating to witness the exact culture to which the English Defence League so strongly opposes. Additionally, during this walk I truly felt so lucky to be having this experience. If I were to come tour London outside of this trip, I wouldn't have known what a rich cultural exhibition lies in Eastern London because it isn't a typical tourist stop. Instead, though, we were able to see a part of London that you would never imagine was there. It was absolutely amazing!


After a long afternoon of walking, we took a break from walking and spent an hour or so hanging out in a pub in East London. The man in the pink polo is John Eade, who led us around today, to his right is Alex Hensby (one of our principal lecturers), and to Alex's right is Dave Tinham (another of our principal lecturers).

Afterwards, we had a group dinner at Tayyabs, a curry restaurant on Brick Lane. We learned that the official dish of England is curry, which I think surprised us all! Regardless, dinner was delicious and it was a great way to top off our day exploring multiculturalism.

On the way back to Roehampton, we experienced our first delay on the tube! They had to stop our underground train and shut off the power for it for at least 15-20 minutes because apparently there was a person on the tracks. We didn't get to find out exactly why or what the story was, but that was what the conductor announced over the intercom system.

When we returned to Bede, my video group (Nadia, Jason, Alex, and I) had a short meeting to begin planning out what we wanted to do with our culminating video project so that we can most effectively research and film what we want to focus on.