Modern and contemporary cultures are increasingly marked by an anxiety over a perceived loss of authentic cultural identity.  In this book, Vincent J. Cheng examines why we still cling to notions of authenticity in an increasingly globalized world that has exploded notions of authentic essences and absolute differences. Who is “authentic” and who is “other” in a given culture? Who can speak for the “other?” What do we mean by authenticity?  These are critical questions that today’s world––brought closer together and yet pulled farther apart by globalism and neocolonialism––has been unable to answer.  Inauthentic compellingly probes these issues through revealing case studies on the pursuit of authenticity and identity.  Each chapter explores the ways in which we construct “authenticity” in order to replace seemingly vacated identities, including: the place of minorities in academia; mixed-race dynamics; the popularity of Irish culture in America; the Good Friday agreement in Northern