Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons^™

Creole Carnival: Unwrapping The Pleasures And Paradoxes Of The Gift Of Creolization, Kevin Frank

Publications and Research

In this essay Kevin Frank goes against the current in questioning the social and intellectual embrace of the poetics of creolization, in terms of its the efficacy in subverting biases that underpinned colonial subordination and exploitation.

Two Kinds Of Utility: England’S ‘Supremacy’ And The Quest For Completion In David Dabydeen’S The Intended, Kevin Frank

Publications and Research

This essay concerns the Caribbean writer’s crucial confrontation with colonial literary models. In it, Kevin Frank argues that the central protagonist of David Dabydeen’s The Intended, the unnamed narrator, resembles the author in that he is torn between cultures (English, East Indian, and West Indian), and torn between two kinds of utility: one base, mechanical, and calculating, and the other, romantic. The latter predicament, Frank demonstrates, is a natural consequence of the convergence of romantic and utilitarian ideology underpinning British colonialism. Moreover, Dabydeen’s ambivalence about his allegiances and literary heritage is similar to that of one of his literary …

Report From The National Lgbtq Students Of Color Summit, Shawn(Ta) Smith-Cruz

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

I've always imagined finding a space where gender is not assumed, where women are undeniably and understandably attracted to each other, and where men embrace without fear. I found this space at the National Summit for LGBTQ Students of Color on the day of my 22nd birthday, January 15th, 2005. Over two nights and three days, the United States Student Association hosted a national summit filled with grassroots organizing workshops, "how-tos" for your campus, methods on how to challenge homophobia from other student groups while still building alliances, and late night dialogues on art and freedom of expression.

Female Iconography In Invisible Man, Shelly J. Eversley

Publications and Research

Argument concerning female visuality in Ralph Ellison's novel, Invisible Man.

Lenguas, Naciones Y Multinacionales: Las Políticas De Promoción Del Español En Brasil, José Del Valle, Laura Villa

Publications and Research

Este artigo descreve as políticas espanholas para promover o status do espanhol como uma língua valiosa, com especial atenção à sua promoção no Brasil. Salienta-se a conexão entre essas políticas lingüísticas e os interesses geoestratégicos da Espanha, e analisam-se algumas das falhas nos argumentos que legitimam o valor do espanhol.

This article describes Spain's policies designed to promote the status of Spanish as a valuable language with special attention to its promotion in Brazil. The connection between these language policies and Spain's geostrategic interests is highlighted and some of the inconsistencies in the arguments that legitimize the value of Spanish …

Re-Inventing Sicily In Italian-American Writing And Film, Fred L. Gardaphé

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Race For Globalization: Modernity, Resistance And The Unspeakable In Three African Francophone Texts, Francesca Sautman

Publications and Research

The "global village" that media pundits and politicians evoke as general currency might well be visualized, in this onset of the twenty-first century, as a village beset by fires, riot, and rampage, where hunger reigns unopposed. The paradox of the term poorly conceals the untold violence that the violence of rhetoric seeks to erase. Yet, contemporary African Francophone texts have been tearing off this mask for decades, locating themselves less often in idyllic villages, and more frequently, on the cable lines of suffering between dying villages and indigent cities. In the literature of the 1980s, the focus of this essay, …

Review Of Raíces: The Roots Of Latin Music In New York City, Antoni Pizà

Publications and Research

When I was in school – and that was, obviously, a long time ago – the word Latin, whether as a noun or as an adjective, referred to the world of ancient Rome, its language, culture, and civilization. Needless to say, this definition has now been replaced by another, whose connotations refer to the culture of the countries south of the border of the United States. When a term alters its meaning, it is undoubtedly indicative of larger issues. In recent decades, for example, the popular music of the Spanish-speaking world, not only has attained by appropriation a distinct …

The Lunatic's Fancy And The Work Of Art, Shelly J. Eversley

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Hip-Hop/Scotch: "Sounding Francophone" In French And United States Cultures, Francesca Sautman

Publications and Research

This essay adresses the relationship between "being/speaking Francophone" and forms of ethnic-cultural dissent in France and the U.S. In both countries, terms such as Francophone and Francophonie are often captured by specific political agendas and practicies. What it means to be "Francophone" involves complex interfacings between various langages, including English and French, between competing discursive claims made on the basis of linguistic home and the particular forms of cultural and linguistic hybridity, such as French hip-hop culture and world music.

Remembering Beyond The Self: Crossing Borders 2001, Jill Dolan

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

In a passionate keynote address at the third in CLAGS's series of "Crossing Borders" conferences, Cherríe Moraga called on conference participants to "hold the pussy in public," to join otherwise isolated Latina/o artists in bringing racialized queerness into public debate. Presented at the University of Texas at Austin in February, "Crossing Borders 2001: U.S. Latina/o Queer Performance" was linked by its coalitional politics around race and ethnicity—broadly figured as latinidad—and gender and sexuality. This three-day gathering was sponsored by CLAGS through a generous gift from the Michael C.P. Ryan Estate and co-sponsored by the Center for Dramatic and Performance Studies …

The Sexual Democracy Of Miscegenation: Jossianna Arroyo Examines The Homoerotic Narratives Of The Father Of Racial Democracy, Marcelo Montes Penha

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

Investigations of the sexual Other generally attempt to explain sexual practices by characterizing their practitioners as "homosexual" or "gay." Jossianna Arroyo, Assistant Professor of Spanish at the University of Michigan, went beyond this approach during her March 28 colloquium presentation, "Brazilian Homoerotics: Cultural Subjectivity and Representation in Gilberto Freyre." Arroyo explores not just sexual practices but also the construction of the Brazilian nation through a reading of Gilberto Freyre's two novels, Dona Sinha e o Filho Padre (1964) and O Outro Amor de Dr. Paulo (1977).

Sexual Difference And Black Communities, Barbara Smith

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

During my fellowship year I have had the opportunity to deepen my understanding of Black lesbians and gays' historical relationship to large Black communities through interviews with a variety of informants. I have especially made progress in my research concerning Black lesbians and gays in Cleveland, Ohio (which was the focus of my CLAGS colloquium) and in my documentation of Black educational institutions as identifiable locations of lesbian and gay life.

Without Closets, Without Shame: Conference Commemorates Latino/A Autobiography And Testimony, Oscar Montero, Elena Martínez, Ramón Rivera-Servera

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

Crossing Borders '99, the second CLAGS conference focusing on Latino/a queers, opened Thursday evening, March 11, with a Cabaret Night hosted by the "Songbird of Cuba," Carmelita Tropicana. The evening, subtitled "Sin closet/sin verguenza" ("Without Closets/Without Shame") featured, among others, Deyanira Bautista's Afro-Caribbean Drums, dancer Arthur Aviles with his nude flying body, and the sultry, seductive, Mexican drag chanteuse, Tito Vasconcelos.

Crossing Borders '99: Autobiography And Testimonials By Lesbian And Gay Latino/As And Latin Americans, Oscar Montero

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

On March 13-19, 1999, the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies will revisit an important theme that emerged at the ground-breaking Crossing Borders conference. Crossing Borders '99: Latino/a and Latin American Lesbian and Gay Testimony, Autobiography, and Self-Figuration will focus on autobiographical writing, testimony, and self-figuration by Latin American and Latino/a lesbians and gay men, inviting artists and scholars from different geographical areas and diverse academic fields to share and discuss their works and lived experiences.

Duberman Fellow Examines Latin American Lesbianism, Oscar Montero

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

Norma Mogrovejo, a Peruvian scholar living and working in Mexico, is currently completing a book on the lesbian movement in Latin America. Her work focuses on the complex local relationships among lesbianism and its two main sources: feminism and the movement for homosexual rights.

Michael C.P. Ryan Bequest, James Wilson

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

CLAGS has received a generous bequest from the from the estate of Michael C.P. Ryan. The executor of Mr. Ryan's estate, Ana-Mita Betancourt, announced that the $60,000 bequest will fund the Michael C.P. Ryan Latino/Latina Colloquium Series, a five-year program exploring political, cultural, and artistic questions facing lesbian and gay Latino/as in the United States and Latin America. The bequest follows an earlier gift from the Ryan estate that helped fund the historic conference. Crossing National and Sexual Borders: Queer Sexualities in Latin/o America, in October 1996.

Tearing The Goat's Flesh: Homosexuality, Abjection, And The Production Of A Late Twentieth-Century Black Masculinity, Robert Reid-Pharr

Publications and Research

A negative image of the homosexual must be promoted to preserve the heterosexual society, an idea that extends to the construction of African-American masculinity. African Americans represent the lack of boundaries in a chaotic culture. The resulting presumption that blacks are subhuman and irrational comes from the history of slavery and the presumed separateness of the race. Homosexuals also have been cut from their history by society and therefore must rediscover their roots to reject society's negative images.

Black Nations/Queer Nations Conference, Cathy Cohen

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

Black lesbian and gay men have made significant accomplishments but continue to confront a number of urgent challenges, such as AIDS, unemployment, racism, and homophobia. Our future survival turns on our ability to break new ground toward overcoming these challenges. It is therefore necessary for us to dialogue, debate, and develop new strategies of resistance and community education that will advance the politics of lesbian and gay people of African descent, our communities, and society as a whole. To this end, we will sponsor an unprecedented three-day conference.

A Research Note: Race, Slavery, And The Ambiguity Of Corporate Consciousness, Herman L. Bennett

Publications and Research

In 1769, as he languished in Córdoba's prison, Diego Antonio Macute seethed. He was not alone. Fifteen of his compatriots shared his sentiments as they confronted their re-enslavement. Recent events painfully reminded them that racial consciousness had limits: their maroon allies, after all, had returned them to their former masters.

Disseminating Heterotopia, Robert F. Reid-Pharr

Publications and Research

Focuses on the motion picture The Passion of Remembrance by Isaac Julien and Maureen Blackwood, and the book Tales of Neveryon by Samuel Delany. Highlights of the motion picture and the book; Author's argument that the tendency to ossify myths only leads to further confusion; Understanding of the mythic process.

The Infusion Of Teachers From Eastern Indonesia Into West Kalimantan, Jay H. Bernstein

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.