From Carleton to Amazon: a dissertation becomes a book

Faiza Hirji fulfilled all of the requirements for the doctoral degree in Journalism in 2007, after successfully defending her dissertation, Resistance is futile: Indian cinema and identity construction among young south Asian Canadians of muslim and other backgrounds.

Now, UBC Press has published her dissertation under the title, Dreaming in Canadian: South Asian Youth, Bollywood, and Belonging.

According to UBC Press, Hirji’s book offers “ a thoughtful response to mainstream media studies on diaspora, nationalism, and multiculturalism.  It shows that second-generation immigrants — anchored by the belief that ethnicity and religion can be embraced freely within a pluralist environment — may use media in a variety of ways to assist in the development of their own uniquely hybrid identities.”

It’s been a good year for Hirji: the book’s publication in the Fall of 2010 coincides with her first term as assistant professor in the Department of Communications and Multimedia at McMaster University.