How do you feel about your name?

Names and how we feel about them are linked to our sense of self-identity. For people with non-Western names in Western English-speaking contexts, this relationship can be complicated. My Name Is explores verbatim narratives from research participants who have non-Western names, examining how individuals view their relationships with their names, how names impact self-identity, and how names can correlate to the pressure to conform with westernized English norms.

An extension of the My Name Is® research project and award-winning documentary, this book shares valuable lived experience as well as looking at the importance of getting names right.

Javeria K. Shah PhD is an interdisciplinary academic specialising in sociology, media education, and policy. She holds roles at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London; the Carnegie School of Education, Leeds Beckett University; the University of Winchester; and the University of Arts London. She is Founder of the Social Performance Network, a member of the Post-14 Education and Work think tank based at the Institute of Education, University College London, and a document reviewer for Parliament’s Knowledge Exchange Unit.