Indiana University Press Journals Weblog

(In)Visibility in African Cultures

Invisibility/visibility. Looking and then seeing. “Making you see.” The unseen: understated, inexpressible, unrepresentable. Haunting. Heterotopia. Rendering the African invisible visible. Together, the essays gathered in this special issue explore the many different ways in which African cultural forms have raised important questions of what is represented and who represents, of who sees and who is seen, and of how certain institutions and social structures can ensure that what was once unseen in relation to Africa—issues of pain, suffering, discomfort, and humiliation—are brought into greater visibility. Throughout, the contributors recognize the ways in which novels, stories, film, dance, sports, and other cultural forms beat insistently at the limits of the invisible, bringing African concerns into the public sphere, both on the continent and more broadly, and illuminating in radiant ways what was once obscured or neglected.

Excerpted from the introduction

Research in African Literature Volume 44 No. 2, (In)Visibility in African Cultures
Guest Editors: Zoe Norridge, Charlotte Baker, and Elleke Boehmer
RAL 44.2 Introduction: Tracing the Visible and the Invisible through African Literature, Publishing, Film, and Performance Art

Call for Proposals: Feminist Approaches to Bioethics

The International Network on Feminist Approaches to Bioethics is pleased to invite proposals for panels and papers for presentation at the 2014 World Congress in Mexico City, 22-24 June 2014. The Congress theme is Health Care Ethics: Local, Global, Universal. While FAB encourages submissions on this theme, submissions on any topic in feminist bioethics are welcome. Paper abstracts should be 300 words long, prepared for anonymous review, and accompanied by both a descriptive title for the paper proposed and 2-3 keywords. Proposed panels should also be prepared for anonymous review and consist of a 300-word description of the overall topic and objectives of the panel, as well as a panel title and the titles of all the papers to be included in the panel. All submissions should include the names, email addresses, and full affiliations of all authors. In cases of panels and coauthored papers, please identify a corresponding author. One or two submitted papers may be selected for plenary presentations. If you wish your paper to be considered for a plenary, please submit the full paper and indicate that you seek review for a plenary. The conference organizers welcome submissions from a wide range of disciplines, including philosophy, the social sciences, critical cultural studies (gender and sexuality studies, disability studies, race studies, etc.), law, public health, and others. We particularly encourage submissions from early career researchers.

Submissions (in .doc, .docx, or .pdf format) should be emailed to <fab.mexico.2014@gmail.com> by 1 September 2013. This email address should only be used for communications concerning submissions, and not for general conference or FAB inquiries.

Sample topics:

·  Feminist thoughts about universal declarations of rights

·  Feminist thoughts about what moral obligations, if any, are universal

·  How growing economies shape the delivery of health care for women

·  How oppression affects access to health care

·  Informal systems of care

·  International comparisons of health care systems

·  Macro dilemmas and micro solutions to the need for health care

·  Political foundations for access to care

·  Scarce resources, just allocations

·  Local power, global biomedical challenges

·  Neoliberalism’s impact on health care systems

·  Medical research in a global era

·  Feminist bioethics: ghetto or global?

·  A local epistemology for a global feminist bioethics

Papers accepted for the conference will be reviewed for publication in IJFAB. Conferees should plan to submit their final papers to IJFAB no later than 1September 2014.

Application Procedure for Travel and Registration Grants

For more information about International Network on Feminist Approaches to Bioethics, (FAB), visit www.fabnet.org. 

FAB is affiliated with the International Association of Bioethics (IAB). 

The IAB World Congress will be held in Mexico City 24-27 June 2014.

Race and Racism in American philosophy

Despite the recent rise of attention to race and racism in American philosophy, there is no current scholarship exploring the philosophy of T.Thomas Fortune and his influence on Ida B. Wells-Barnett. The contemporary mode of thinking in American philosophy seeks to establish a bridge between the thought of turn of the century thinkers and 1960 style integrationism. This integrationist tradition is not only the newest, but the smallest tradition in African American thought. Most Black thinkers, as evidenced by the work of Fortune and Wells-Barnett, conceptualized the world from a radical perspective that was pessimistic about the capacity for whites to be morally persuaded against white supremacy and thought that violence against white racist lynchers was the only hope for Black survival in the South. This paper first explores the philosophy of T.Thomas Fortune which held that Blacks must agitate and create disorder in the South, since it was the white race's order that gave rise to lynch mobs, murder, and rape. Second, this paper considers the effect of agitationist philosophy on the anti-lynching campaign of Wells-Barnett. Ultimately, this paper concludes that with the help of Fortune, Wells-Barnett introduced a political philosophy that shares intellectual kinship with the armed militancy popularized by in the 1960's.

READ FOR FREE: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/trancharpeirsoc.48.4.456

Transition article is a finalist for the Caine Prize

Grandfather on the Porch: Greensboro, Alabama. Digital photograph. ©2011 April Dobbins.

Tope Folarin’s story "Miracle" from Transition 109 has been shortlisted for this year's Caine Prize.

The shortlist for the 2013 Caine Prize for African Writing has been announced today (Wednesday 15 May) – and among the five stories chosen are an unprecedented four Nigerian entries.

The Chair of judges, art historian and broadcaster, Gus Casely-Hayford said, “The shortlist was selected from 96 entries from 16 African countries. They are all outstanding African stories that were drawn from an extraordinary body of high quality submissions.”

Gus described the shortlist saying, “The five contrasting titles interrogate aspects of things that we might feel we know of Africa – violence, religion, corruption, family, community – but these are subjects that are deconstructed and beautifully remade. These are challenging, arresting, provocative stories of a continent and its descendants captured at a time of burgeoning change.”

The winner of the £10,000 prize is to be announced at a celebratory dinner at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, on Monday 8 July. READ MORE.

Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza 2012 Recipient for Martin Marty Public Understanding of Religion Award

Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza was chosen as the 2012 recipient for the Martin Marty Public Understanding of Religion Award. The Marty award seeks to recognize extraordinary contributions to the public understanding of religion. Dr. Schüssler Fiorenza was honored at the American Academy of Religion award ceremony. Dr. Schüssler Fiorenza was also be honored at the Marty Forum at the AAR.

Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza is the Senior Editor of JFSR, the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion. 

VIEW HERE: http://vimeo.com/62718941

 

Activist Scholarship in a Post-Tenure Key

FSR is the sponsoring organization behind JFSR, the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion. Visit their blog for new fascinating discussions on global critical feminist work in religious studies, theology, theology, and spirituality both inside and outside the academy and at the grassroots level.

In the current conversation, Jennifer Harvey writes: 

"I feel aware that “The Academy” often feels like Reality itself to those of us who spend so much time in it. (Every time I hear Mary Hunt speak, she challenges me to remember this.) It’s seductive. Of course, I understand the academy is part of reality: issues of labor, educational access, the ways ideologies impact on structures, all of these and more are reality. But what happens when the academy becomes a thing unto itself? When we believe prophetic speech within its corridors translates easily into social impact?" 

These discomforts have fueled my interest in blogging and my desire to push on the term “activist scholar.”

READ MORE HERE. 

Right to Belong

IJGLS, Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, Vol. 19, No. 1

SYMPOSIUM: Globalization and Migration: Indiana University Maurer School of Law,
Bloomington, Indiana April 7-8, 2011

The Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies hosted its nineteenth annual symposium entitled “Globalization and Migration” at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law in Bloomington, Indiana. The scholars in this symposium consider the relationships between globalization and migration and highlight forms of displacement less frequently considered under the rubric of migration as well as novel approaches to the law. Part I examines how the European Union and the United States (state actors) and hospitals (nonstate actors) have controlled the movement of people. Part II examines human trafficking in Columbia and political activism among the Burmese diaspora. Part III examines past and present deportation regimes and how they have affected migrants in the United States. Part IV examines transnational marriage. Finally, Part V examines the notions of “citizenship” and the “right to belong.”

The Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies wishes to thank the authors and the discussants for their scholarly contributions and the thought-provoking discussions that arose from the conference. 

Alfred C. Aman, Jr., Faculty Editor, Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, Volume 19 Roscoe C. O’Byrne Professor of Law, Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Bloomington, Indiana

Micah J. Nichols, Editor-in-Chief, Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, Volume 19 Juris Doctor Candidate 2012, Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Bloomington, Indiana

Read for Free: Immigration Control in an Era of Globalization: Deflecting Foreigners, Weakening Citizens, and Strengthening the State, Valsamis Mitsilegas

 

Nationalism and Its Discontents

by Paula Giddings

I remember the moment when feminist transnationalism made its first indelible impression on me. I was a participant on a panel during the United Nation’s Women’s Conference (1985) that took place in Nairobi, Kenya, with three other women who were activists in Algeria, Palestine and Israel, respectively. We had come together before the panel to talk informally about our presentations, when, during the conversation, I bemoaned the fact that black women in the U.S., who had been so instrumental to the early civil rights struggle, were now being criticized for their leadership roles by men. By the 1980s, of course, women acting outside of traditional gender roles were being criticized for usurping male authority and thus undermining the movement and racial progress in general. In North America this idea was confirmed by the so-called Moynihan Report, which insisted that the black “problem” was not racism as much as it was the dysfunction of the family brought on by the dominance of women within it.

At the end of my litany, my colleagues looked at me with that lightbulb flash of recognition: “This is happening in the U.S.?,” said the the Israeli woman, “it is happening with us, too.” The Palestinian and Algerian women chimed in that they were experiencing the same thing in their countries. The subsequent conversation we had about the issue became my first lesson in the ironic way that nationalisms—which help to raise political consciousness—also construct gender and gender roles in a particular way. Cultural differences might provide some variability as to how, and by whom, these constructs manifest themselves, but there are also striking similarities in how nationalism challenges activists, and particularly women, who operate outside of traditional roles... READ MORE. 

Excerpted from the Meridians Introduction

Meridians 11.2: Nationalism and Its Discontents

ESSAY

    Practicing Love: Black Feminism, Love-Politics, and Post-Intersectionality, Jennifer C. Nash

POETRY

    Mule, Glenis Redmond

    Four Sisters and the Dance, Hermine Pinson

ESSAY

    Jhumpa Lahiri's Feminist Cosmopolitics and the Transnational Beauty Assemblage, Vanita Reddy

POETRY

    Mitochondrial Eve 12.16, Bettina Judd

    The Love Song of Alice Clifton, DaMaris B. Hill

ESSAY

    Gender, Religious Agency, and the Subject of Al-Huda International, Khanum Shaikh 

INTERVIEW

    Solidarity Across Borders: An Interview with Artist Andrea Arroyo, Vanessa Pérez Rosario

POETRY

    Hey Joe, Bettina Judd

ESSAY

    Vendidas y Devueltas: Queer Times and Color Lines in Chicana/o Performance, Aimee Carrillo Rowe 

POETRY

    Lusts and Gaines, B. Hill

ESSAY

    Covert Wars in the Bedroom and Nation: Motherwork, Transnationalism, and Domestic Violence in Black Widow's Wardrobe and Mother Tongue, Leigh Johnson

POETRY

    Palms, DaMaris B. Hill

ESSAY

    Gendered Casualties: Memoirs in Activism and the Problem of Representing Violence, Sudarat Musikawong

POETRY

    The Caretaker, Phillip B. Williams

FICTION

    Black Wings against Blue Sky, Deyonne Bryant

POETRY 

    I'm Supposed to be the First, Jade Foster

ESSAY

    Sara Baartman and the “Inclusive Exclusions” of Neoliberalism, Sheila Lloyd

POETRY

    The Researcher Discovers Anarcha, Betsey, Lucy, Bettina Judd

     Indigenous to No Land, Bettina Judd

    [if I am of rib marrow, boil me thin], Phillip B. Williams

    On the Politics of Citation, Bettina Judd

Emerging Voices in Comparative Literature from the Middle East

Journal of Middle East Women's Studies, Vol. 9, No. 2

Emerging Voices in Comparative Literature from the Middle East (Spring 2013)

Middle Eastern women have been involved in their countries’ wars since the end of the nineteenth century, but their participation was rarely noted. At best, condescending acknowledgement emphasized the anomaly so that the transgression on male terrain should not pro- vide a precedent. Whatever women wrote about their experiences during times of national violence was quietly ignored. During the 1980s, however, scholars began to consider women’s writings on wars in the region, and it became apparent how significant their roles had been and how familiar women were with violence at both national and individual levels.

An important volume of essays on gender and violence in Middle Eastern literature of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, “Emerging Voices in Comparative Literature from the Middle East” throws light onto the strategies women use to resist silencing and to assert their in- dividual, religious, and national rights.

FROM THE INTRODUCTION BY MIRIAM COOKE 

READ FOR FREE

Sentimental Terror Narratives: Gendering Violence, Dividing Sympathy (pp. 80-107)  by Anne-Marie McManus

Interoceanic Diasporas and The Panama Canal’s Centennial

  The Global South 6.2: Interoceanic Diasporas and The Panama Canal’s Centennial

Guest Editors: Claudia Milian and Ifeoma Kiddoe Nwankwo

On the occasion of the Panama Canal’s centennial, this special issue excavates the waterway’s multiple maps, reconsidering it as a reference and site for lived critical practices from a Global South perspective. This timely collection, framed under the rubric of “Interoceanic Diasporas and The Panama Canal’s Centennial,” probes the U.S. construction of Panama’s waterway (1904–1914) as a key moment of ordering and disordering a locale from the global south, one that created “splits” between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and within the isthmus. Panama was not only sliced off Colombia. This Central American nation also faced an internal North-South split, as the identifiable North within Panama became the 10-square mile territory recognized as American Canal Zone. Panama became a conduit for hemispheric migrations resulting in conflicts and alliances, cross-cultural skills, and settlements that forged a new racial frontier––a dexterously drawn “global color line” that included West Indians, Africans, Puerto Ricans, Italians, Spaniards, and among others, “Chilians.” This special volume of The Global South submits another way of “worlding” the isthmus, featuring new and insightful articles on the Canal’s completion and Colombia’s efforts to assert greater control over their only Caribbean insular territories; labor mobilization and Garveyism; Central American whitening ideologies; community-building efforts and notions of citizenship; performance traffics and cultural exchanges between West Indian Panamanians and U.S. African Americans; and the institutionalization of official history and the role of museums for diasporic groups. This issue highlights the manifold linkages that the Panama Canal and the American Canal Zone yield to such academic fields as African American Studies, American Studies, Caribbean Studies, Latin American Studies, Latino Studies, and Romance Studies.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Claudia Milian and Ifeoma Kiddoe Nwankwo, Introduction: Interoceanic Diasporas and The Panama Canal’s Centennial

Sharika Crawford, “Panama Fever: Colombian Fears of Secession on San Andrés and Providencia Islands, 1903–1913”

Carla Burnett, “‘Unity Is Strength’:  Labor, Race, Garveyism, and the 1920 Panama Canal Strike”

Marzia Milazzo, “White Supremacy, White Knowledge, and Anti-West Indian Discourse in Panama: Olmedo Alfaro’s El peligro antillano en la América Central”

Kaysha L. Corinealdi, “Envisioning Multiple Citizenships: West Indian Panamanians and Creating Community in the Canal Zone Neocolony”

Katherine Zien, “Race and Politics in Concert: Paul Robeson and William Warfield in Panama, 1947–1953”

Emily Davidson, “Among Spectators and Agents of History: Navigating through the Memory Sites of the Panama Canal”