THE PROJECT
Building a New France in New York is a collection of personal narratives from French “immigrants” who have lived/currently live in New York City. The aim is to understand the meaning of French identity specifically in a Francophile city.
The research is in the form of accounts of personal experiences to grasp the meaning of identity on an intimate and individual level as opposed to generalizing through statistical data. The goal of this project is not to make a conclusion on the sociology of living abroad. Rather, it is to provide an archive of case studies that brings attention to how identity and place are connected.
Some major questions that this project hopes to answer are:
- How is identity influenced by where one lives and how does it change depending on where one moves?
- What is it like to be French and live in a city that is enamored with one’s culture, yet still feel like a foreigner?
- Why is NYC such a popular location for the French?
- What are some common themes amongst the French living in NYC?
- How is identity linked to specific places? What meaning do places hold for us?
- What is the cultural exchange between the French community and the city?
This project can hopefully serve as a resource for those seeking to understand “otherness” and how “foreign” can become an unshakeable part of one’s identity. It is also a platform on which people can share their own stories with the public.
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ME
My name is Victoria Tang. I graduated from Macaulay Honors College at the City University of New York at Brooklyn College in June 2015. I majored in Art History and French. I studied abroad in Paris, France from August 2013 – June 2014 through the CUNY Paris Exchange Program. This project started as my senior honors thesis/capstone/”springboard,” combining my love of both the NYC and the French culture with my curiosity to learn about the different experiences of living abroad.
