Displaced: An Ethnography of Language and Identity Loss

Through ethnography and personal narrative, I explore the language and identity loss of one person, my father, in order to understand the complex issues surrounding the effects of symbolic and structural violence on language and identity development. Through personal narrative, fieldwork, and interviews, I tell the story of one person, born in wartime during Nazi occupied Serbia, and follow the guiding questions: how does language get lost and what are the effects? Drawing on methodology set forth by empirical ethnographical work as well as more recent theory around epigenetics and trauma, my research synthesizes into focus three pillars of understanding in order to follow the personal narrative of one person in context: the nationalistic beliefs and language policies of the era, beliefs surrounding multilingualism and identity, and heuristics and epistemologies during the era. Results briefly consider theories around 'borderland identities' of the Global East and translanguaging. Conclusions advocate for the need for more personal stories in research in order to develop a picture of the complex frames around language and identity loss.