Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Including The ‘Invisible Middle’ Of Decoloniality, Su-Ming Khoo, Anique Vered

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article traces a conversation around how to theorise and approach the inclusion of experiences, concepts and bodies situated in the ‘invisible middle’ of decoloniality. If coloniality is an immense, lengthy process resulting in colonial/modern structures (Mignolo 2007) comprising the ‘colonial present’ (Gregory 2004), ‘decoloniality’ requires surfacing, baring and bringing to bear the invisibilities and erasures of bodies that exist and resist with, through and in spite of colonial extraction and appropriation.

We explore and connect different ideas of ‘being in the middle’ of decoloniality, paying particular attention to the notion of ‘the invisible middle’ in embodied practices of solidarity …

Mothers As The Middle-Ground Between The Mountain And The State, Hasret Cetinkaya

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper analyses how the ‘Peace Mothers’ in Turkey and Northern Kurdistan are structurally located in the middle-ground between familial relations and the state, as they strive to come to terms with their children’s interpretation of the politics of decolonisation through the project of Kurdish democratisation and ‘revolution’. Such a politics takes its dominant form in the vehicle of The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a movement who see themselves as a decolonial and left-wing militant group, and whose membership is both young and committed to radical political transformation. At stake for the mothers of these members who have become an …

Decolonizing The Womb: Agency Against Obstetric Violence In Tijuana, Mexico, Ester Espinoza-Reyes, Marlene Solís

Journal of International Women's Studies

Obstetric violence is a human rights violation that consists of actions or omissions of healthcare personnel that harms people during pregnancy, childbirth or puerperium. Some practices through which it is expressed are the mistreatment, unnecessary procedures, denying of medical attention or provoking damage either physically or mentally. In particular, we understand obstetric violence as the result of a colonization of the womb, that is, of the occupation of the concept of motherhood by the dictates of patriarchal ideology (Fineman, 1991; Ehrenreich, 1993) and of the Colonial/Modern Gender System, proposed by Lugones (2007). The objective of this paper is to analyze …

Analysing Contemporary Women’S Movements For Bodily Autonomy, Pluriversalizing The Feminist Scholarship On The Politics Of Respectability, Dyuti Chakravarty, Alice Feldman, Emma Penney

Journal of International Women's Studies

We began this project intending to theorise the respectability politics within the Irish Repeal (pro-choice) movement through the lenses of postcolonial and Black feminism, and through the experiences of members of Pinjra Tod, a movement seeking the right to mobility for Indian women students. Instead, we found ourselves excavating the inextricable links between respectability politics and the representational politics of academic knowledge production (Cruz in Collins-White et al 2015) in relation to Irish Women’s Studies and the racialised politics of representation in the Repeal campaign. Savita Halappanavar, an Indian woman living in Ireland with her husband on a work visa, …

Commoning Molecules: Decolonising Biological Patents By Gender Hacking Protocols, Maddalena Fragnito

Journal of International Women's Studies

By making reference to the political context of “molecular invasion” (Critical Art Ensemble 2002), this article will compare two practices of production and administration of hormones to highlight the consequences at stake when business property extends over bodies and cells of humans, animals and plants.

On the one hand, I will examine DIWO (Do It With Others) biohacking workshops that synthesise pharmaceutical hormones and share the know-how by using open-source protocols and participatory workshop methods. I will refer to these specific practices as exemplary of a growing approach to the topic which represents a new field combining biohacking, activism, art, …

“Valli” At The Border: Adivasi Women De-Link From Settler Colonialism Paving Re-Enchantment Of The Forest Commons, Deepa Kozhisseri

Journal of International Women's Studies

The forests of Attappady Hills part of the Western Ghats in Kerala homeland to Adivasi people is a frontier region where a settler population is now predominant. This paper aims to bring the concept of borders as a heuristic device to interpret gender-ecology-indigeneity in Attappady. The conversations among Adivasis, between Adivasis and settlers, between Adivasi women and their children become in media res dialogues of their border subjectivity. This was an empirical study in Attappady in which life experiences, oral history and myths were studied using narrative analysis. The paper discusses four findings: First how land dispossession disproportionately impacted Adivasi …

Decolonizing The Anti-Extractive Struggle: Amazonian Women’S Practices Of Forest-Making In Ecuador, Andrea Sempértegui

Journal of International Women's Studies

In October 2013, a group of indigenous women from the southeastern Ecuadorian Amazon started the “March of Life”. This 250-km long march – organized and led entirely by female representatives from the Achuar, Shuar, Zapara, Kichwa, Shiwiar, Andoa, and Waorani indigenous organizations – proceeded from the Amazonian city of Puyo to the capital city of Quito and was a response to the 11th oil licensing round in their territories. After this symbolic and arduous march, Amazonian women have continued to organize as a network and as active members of their indigenous organizations against renewed attempts by the government of licensing …

“I Used To Think You Were Just A Story”: Imagined Violence In Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers’ A Red Girl’S Reasoning, Hannah Barrie

Journal of International Women's Studies

Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers’ 2012 short film A Red Girl’s Reasoning dismantles the narrative of colonial sexualized violence in its representation of the protagonist, Delia, enacting retributive violence against white men. Tailfeathers’ tense eleven-minute film depicts a First Nations woman seeking violent vengeance against white men who have sexually assaulted Indigenous women. This essay explores the political and transformative potential of such stories of revenge, examining A Red Girl’s Reasoning’s fictional representation of violence against the colonial oppressor alongside J. Halberstam’s discussion of imagined violence. I argue that this story of violent revenge is productive in its utopic depiction of a counterreality …

Embodied Liminality And Gendered State Violence: Artivist Expressions In The Mmiw Movement, Rachel Presley

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article examines four multimedia artivist artefacts at the nexus of the missing and murdered Indigenous women’s (MMIW) crisis. I position artivism as a decolonial methodology that radically alters our attunement to embodied aesthetics, contending that feminist artivists employ a radical imagination to liberate the body/body politic. Decoloniality must be an enacted praxis, and for many Indigenous feminists, creative and artistic practices provide a transformative pathway towards “making” and “living out” one’s indigeneity as knowledge and tradition-bearers. Each of the four exhibits illustrate the ways in which settler politics are narrated and resisted through and by the Indigenous body. My …

Ghostly Others: Limiting Constructions Of Deserving Subjects In Asylum Claims And Sanctuary Protection, Maria E. Vargas

Journal of International Women's Studies

In this article, I examine the different constructions of deserving subjects in the new Sanctuary Movement and how sexuality, gender, whiteness, and class create an ostensibly inclusionary agenda that produces ghostly others. Punitive anti-immigrant legislation in the United States has incited mass protests to defend the rights of undocumented migrants. In 2007 this pro-immigrant movement sought to deploy the sanctuary strategy as practiced in the Central American Sanctuary Movement of the 1980s. Using the case of Sulma Franco, a Guatemalan lesbian who was granted Sanctuary by the First Unitarian Universalist Church in Austin, I illuminate the limitations of deservingness under …

A New Genealogy For Critical Oa Publishing: Towards A Politics Of Intersectional Transnationality, Rebekka Kiesewetter

Journal of International Women's Studies

In this article, I suggest opening out from the digital genealogies critical strands within the Open Access (OA) movement usually associate themselves with: I propose a genealogy of OA publishing that takes into consideration feminist and decolonial transnational publishing initiatives that have been active in non-digital realms before, and in parallel to what these critical strands have highlighted as their digital origins. The ways in which these pre-digital initiatives organised and mobilised feminist and decolonial transnational struggle through publishing might offer new insights for contemporary critical OA – specifically, with regards to questions around how to confront uneven hierarchies of …

Designing Research To Dismantle Oppression: Utilizing Critical Narrative Analysis & Critical Participatory Action Research In Research On Mothering And Work And Beyond, Nicole Dillard

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper seeks to explore Critical Narrative Analysis (CNA) and Critical Participatory Action Research (CPAR) as valuable methodologies in research for their potential to challenge the inherent absoluteness of master narratives through the personal and counter-narratives of research participants, while also providing participants an action-oriented emancipatory opportunity to lead the change needed in their organizations, communities and society at large.

Citing a previous study which explored how patriarchal, colonially-structured master narratives have played a significant role in reproducing the limited views which dominate American understanding of working mothers, the author will demonstrate how CNA and CPAR combined can expose how …

Decolonial African Feminism For White Allies, Deirdre Byrne

Journal of International Women's Studies

Feminism is a word, a discourse and a political position that is frequently met with suspicion in African circles. There are various reasons for this distrust. Some (often those in disciplines that have proactively embraced decoloniality) hold that feminism is a western colonizing construct, which has been imposed on the country by imperialists. This response implicitly or explicitly accuses feminism of complicity with a colonizing agenda that desires the subordination of African epistemologies. Others equate a feminist political position with an uncritical anger and aggression towards men. They argue that, far from being antagonistic towards men, women need to make …

The Salon Is Now In Session: A Reflection On Unisa’S Decolonial Reading, Motlatsi Khosi, Lenka Vráblíková

Journal of International Women's Studies

How can we – those who are involved in institutions of higher education as researchers, students, educators and administrators – contribute to the decolonial project? How can we dismantle colonial structures in ways that speak to and from our practices of teaching and learning? And how are we to engage with what has become known as ‘Decolonial Theory’ in our everyday practice inside the university? As follows from the work of thinkers and educators such as bell hooks, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o and Nelson Maldonado-Torres, the control of the means of producing and reproducing knowledge is key for sustaining coloniality but …

On Witches, Shrooms, And Sourdough: A Critical Reimagining Of The White Settler Relationship To Land, Abby Maxwell

Journal of International Women's Studies

Through an exploration of witches, mycelium, and fermentation, this research seeks to forward a critically anti-colonial project of reimagining the white settler relationship to land. The centuries-old socio-ecological crises being unveiled today are secondary only to the reigning logic-project of whiteness, which operates through gendered and racialized erasure, displacement, and subjugation, always toward the further spreading of whiteness. To unlearn this logic, white settlers must attune to the pulse of another substrate; unearth other stories as a means of unlearning and reorienting ourselves. In my position as a white settler and cis queer woman living and learning on the territories …

In Medias Res: Decolonial Interventions Editorial Introduction, Su-Ming Khoo, Anique Vered, Sayan Dey

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Folding : A Parametric Model To Support The Creative Stage Of Architectural Project, Chadi El Khoury

Architecture and Planning Journal (APJ)

The use of architectural concepts in the designing of a project requires a combination of efforts; theoretical models are lacking in both substance and flexibility. This paper focuses on a parametric model, which has its foundation in contemporary society of information systems. This process gives structure to the decision making which then allows the creative stage of the project to occur. The process of architectural concept is subject of many studies in the field of science of drawing, or in cognitive science or informatics. Its wealth is based on its complexity and the variety of operating conditions that include during …

Architecture - Crisis And Modernity. From Walter Gropius To Ben Van Berkel, Chadi El Khoury

Architecture and Planning Journal (APJ)

The transition from the industrial society to the information society has brought profound changes, even for what concerns the architecture and the way of operating of the architects. Just think of the emergence of big events and themes of recent years, such as the abandoned areas, or to the new conception of the metropolitan landscape, or even the development of an ecological conscience, not to mention the technical potential linked to electronics also in the construction industry. The book illustrates the path that goes from Walter Gropius to Ben Van Berkel, stressing the moments of crisis and the catalysts of …

Influential Pedagogies Using Digital Fabrication Laboratories Onarchitectural Education, Marwan Halabi

Architecture and Planning Journal (APJ)

Innovation in advanced architectural design is imposing a revolution in ways to materialize contemporary buildings of geometrical complexities. In the professional field, such trend is demanding a constant update on the tools required to execute jobs. At the academic level, digital fabrication laboratories are becoming a place to fuse ideas with rationalized principles of construction in addition to helping students visualise the future challenges in the architectural practice. This paper tries to argue the influences on architectural education by the leading function of digital fabrication laboratories, with the prospect of presenting practical assessments of transforming digital information into analogue materiality, …

Interfaces Expanding Boundaries Of Architectural Design Education Withindustrial Robots, Marwan Halabi

Architecture and Planning Journal (APJ)

Throughout an extensive period of time, advanced mechanical tools such as robotic arms have been a common prospect in many production industries. Today, and as the potentials in digital design and fabrication technologies are seen to enhance complex tridimensional construction processes, robots are rapidly being integrated within the architectural education curriculum. In a relatively short amount of time, many architectural faculties around the globe have set up experimental digital fabrication laboratories with 3D printers, CNC machines, and robotic arms. This paper will argue the use of robots in education beyond the opportunities provided by the already traditional automated modes of …

An Investigation Into Using Digital Games-Based Learning In Architecture Education, Eslam Mohamed Elsamahy

Architecture and Planning Journal (APJ)

Through the evolution of human life, the changes that happen in all fields, such as transportation, industry, communication, etc., are recognized, however the classroom and its education facilities are still as they have been for a long time, based on the concept of transforming information or knowledge from the mind of the instructor to the minds of students. Students, as a new generation, have evolving skills in dealing with digital technologies, having begun the process in their childhood; therefore, they cannot be educated via conventional methods. This study introduces digital gaming in education as a new, futuristic learning technique to …

Parametric Design Optimization And Robotic Fabrication Of Joints Forirregular Grid-Based Structure, Mostafa R.A Khalifa

Architecture and Planning Journal (APJ)

This paper describes the abilities of parametric iterative design with collaboration of robotic fabrication workflow in structural optimization of the nodes (joints) of special grid-based structure. Experimental structure built in robotic fabrication workshop – (the Dynamo-BUILD workshop at the 2016 International Conference on Robotic Fabrication in Architecture, Art, and Design Conference in Sydney, Australia) - is taken as a case study. In this study, the complexity of structure form combined of joints and members is resolved and developed through parametric design algorithms. Focusing on joints, the case gives workflow structure methods of design and fabrication that transfer the level of …

Applied Studies In Digital Fabrication And Parametricism, Rasha Sukkarieh

Architecture and Planning Journal (APJ)

Presented is a research investigating the ability of digital fabrication tools to provide an alternative method for creating complex forms as part of an ongoing PhD research. The digital tool provides a comprehensive digital basis for construction that, since the beginning of building industrialization, has been an illusion rather than a reality. Beyond catching up on technology, the digital fabrication tool hereby provokes fundamental changes in the architectural discipline: the mere relation of the digital reality of computers with the physical reality of architecture. As opposed to the experiments in the early days of digitization, the focus is no longer …

Curriculum Toolkit For A New Generation Of Public Interest Designers: Haitijacmel Clinic Case Study, Grace Aaraj, Annie Ledbury

Architecture and Planning Journal (APJ)

Students collaborate with professionals on an interdisciplinary competition where the winning student-led design would be fund and build as a new healthcare clinic in Jacmel, Haiti. Summer of 2013 witnessed the launch of REvive Jacmel, an interdisciplinary student-led project to create a new healthcare clinic in Haiti. Students and professionals held a competition and one team won the 1st prize. Through a unique opportunity, a professional firm adopted the students into a practicum and developed the project. After months of extensive work and several grants to send students for site visits in Haiti, the project developed into collaboration from a …

Architectural Design Process Management, Nesreen Alkassabany, Magdy Mousa

Architecture and Planning Journal (APJ)

Creating a new building can be seen as an unequivocal process which requires input from a variety of resources, using a range of abilities and skills to arrange and manage factors as well as resolving combative and quarrelsome issues. The performance of the design process in the building industry has a great influence on the success of subsequent processes in construction projects and also on the outcome of the quality of the final product. Despite its importance, relatively little significance has been given to the management of the design process. The research will dissect and analyze the process of building …

Architectural Education In Egypt: Towards A Gender Sensitive Studio, Yasmine Samak, Ahmed El-Kholei, Mohamed Ibrahim

Architecture and Planning Journal (APJ)

Architecture is a profession that men have dominated for centuries, while the transmission model of education has been the common basis for architectural education. In Egypt, architectural education continues to be masculine despite the increase in the number of female students enrolled in architectural programs. In such a type of education, the studio is the venue where concepts and building competencies are transformed. Therefore, this research paper investigates the impact of gender inequality on architectural education by surveying the educational process in the studio among male and female students at Egyptian universities. By exploring the actual difficulties related to gender …

Spaces As Reconcilation-Architecture And Urban Design Versus Culturalchanges, Rana Dubeissy

Architecture and Planning Journal (APJ)

As cities become increasingly dense and social communities become more diverse and fragmented, Modern approaches fail to submit an elucidation, nor a valid response to the metropolitan density. The architect has a significant role in understanding the needs of social communities; he has to be sensitive to the bits and parts of the metropolis to decipher and comprehend the multitude of layers superimposed upon each other. Postmodernism has provided the architect with wider scopes to include vernacular traditions, particular wants and needs that can produce more quenching customized architecture. This research is a qualitative research with an Interpretive strategy, derived …

Compatability Between Architectural Education And Professional Practicein Egypt, Sahar Attia, Mohammed Zayed, Aya Elkhouly

Architecture and Planning Journal (APJ)

The impact of education on countries urbanism is clear as much as culture, economy, and politics are. In Egypt, although urban education is usually appended by architectural education; the current educational methods, and content in architecture schools do not grant the needed convergence between educational institutions and the needs of professional practice regulations. This paper focuses on curricula of architectural education for under graduate engineering programs in Egypt. It analyzes various programs of architecture in higher education referring to the practice regulations. As well as investigating if they are reflected clearly on the architecture education or not. Case studies will …

Architect's Role In Enhancing Socially Sustainabile Communities And Itsreflection On Architectural Education, Mohamed Elshafei, Kareem Hammouda

Architecture and Planning Journal (APJ)

As the world these days is moving steadily towards sustainability and creating a better global community and this vision is what exactly the new communities need to become distinct and attract residents, so to achieve this vision, there are a set of sustainable design principles, which must be dealt with to reach the desired goal creating a Sustainable Society depends on environmental, economic, social and urban principles in which this research discusses the role of the architects in creating a successful society by enhancing the social sustainability within the built environment. The Professional role of architects is a process of …

Digital Tools And Robotics In Architecture: Envisioning The Future Ineducation And Practice, Marwan Halabi

Architecture and Planning Journal (APJ)

In a world advancing at a vertiginous speed, technology is directly affecting almost every single aspect of contemporary human life. It is therefore crucial nowadays for both the professional and the educational sectors to constantly update themselves with the latest trends in their fields. Once students graduate, they should first be familiar with the needs of the highly competitive market, and at the same time to be prepared for challenges facing the practice in order to improve it and stand at a higher level from competitors. For such reason, students need to be aware that high tech tools are vital …