Advisor: Brooke Belisle

This autoethnographic paper examines diaspora scholarship through the work of contemporary artist Avijit Halder (he/they), who examines their identity and cultural heritage through photography. In Birth (2018) Halder is informed by his childhood in India, the loss of his mother, and the complexities of his displaced, diasporic identity. Approaching Halder’s work alongside the context of my own life, I investigate my experiences with my Indian-American diasporic identity through the lens of Halder’s exploration of their body, their skin, and the saree. I examine the interplay of three ideas: processing identity through images and self-portraiture, the distinctions, limits, and connectivity of labels, and the negotiation of identity through objects as carriers with multiple associations. Lastly, I contemplate how one artwork can become and take on all of these currents. By studying Halder’s backgrounds and aesthetic choices, I hope to inform my own identity-searching process and gain insight into how artists approach and use their work to mediate cultural identities and assuage a lack of belonging.

Senior Honors Thesis – Threads from the Liminal Space