Abstract

The thesis examines the process of ethnic identity formation through computer-mediated communication. In so doing, it inquires into the relationship between ethnicity and computer technology. It explores the ways in which ethnicity is expressed and articulated through the writing practice of computer-mediated communication, and investigates how a particular ethnicity is constituted, negotiated, and reified through the practices of computer-mediated communication. The research centres on a specific ethnocultural formation: the Ukrainian diaspora. It analyzes the discursive formation of the InfoUkes mailing lists, a series of Web-based discussion lists accessible through the InfoUkes Web site. The research method, a combination of discourse analysis and ethnography, entailed interpreting and explicating a number of the discussions on the InfoUkes lists. Analysis of these discussions demonstrates that the communicative practice of the InfoUkes mailing lists constitutes an inquiry into ethnic identity. This thesis posits that ethnicity is continually rearticulated and renegotiated through communicative practice. It concludes that the discursive formation of the InfoUkes lists fostered the emergence of an ethnically-based virtual community within which participants were able to negotiate and inscribe their ethnic identities both individually and collectively.