Critical Transnational Feminist PraxisAmanda Lock Swarr, Richa Nagar Provocative, timely, and global, this volume offers a critical and grounded engagement with transnational feminism through the lens of praxis—the juncture of theory and practice. In so doing, it grapples with questions of power and representation while remaining deeply committed to radical critiques and agendas of transnational and postcolonial feminisms. Long-time activists and well-known scholars speak to a wide range of issues and practices, including women's studies curricula; NGOs; transnational and LGBTQ studies; feminist methodologies; and film. These essays similarly conceptualize ways to more effectively theorize feminist collaborative practices while subverting such rigid, established dichotomies as theory/practice, academic/activist, individual/collaborative, and the global North/South. A number of transnational projects are highlighted: the Guyanese Red Thread collective; the Ananya Dance Theater; the Philippine Women Center of British Columbia; the Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance; the VIVA! Project; and the Indian organization Sangtin. Comprehensive in scope and rigorous in critical scrutiny, these powerful essays set the twenty-first-century agenda for political engagement through feminist scholarship. "The mix of styles makes for a lively read that is accessible for its extraordinary candor, its combination of theory with firmly grounded empirical examples, and an unflinching confrontation of pain and conflict. It made me think about entirely new things and about familiar things in new ways and to make connections among them." — Louise Fortmann, University of California Berkeley Amanda Lock Swarr is Assistant Professor of Women Studies at the University of Washington, Seattle. Richa Nagar is Professor of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. She is the author (with Sangtin writers) of Playing with Fire: Feminist Thought and Activism through Seven Lives in India. |
Contents
1 | |
P A R T I Decolonizing Transnational Feminisms | 21 |
Transnational Feminism as Radical Praxis | 23 |
The Work of the Transnationalin Feminist and LGBTQ Studies | 46 |
P A R T II Dialogical Journeys | 63 |
Toward Transnational Feminist Organizing | 65 |
Building Trust in Transnational South Africa | 87 |
5 Feminist Academic and Activist Praxisin Service of the Transnational | 105 |
P A R T III Representations and Reclamations | 145 |
Moving toward Artistic Excellence Moving from Silence to Speech Moving in Water with Ananya Dance Theatre | 147 |
A Transnational Engagement with Creative Tensions of Community Arts | 166 |
The Politics and Possibilities of Transnational Feminist Film | 192 |
CRITICAL TRANSNATIONAL FEMINIST PRAXIS CONTRIBUTORS | 206 |
About the Editors and Contributors | 219 |
Index | 227 |
Intersectionality Activism and NGOized Feminism | 124 |
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academic activism activists Africa American analysis arts authors become body Canada Canadian central challenge chapter collaboration collective colonial color commitment connections constitute context continue create critical critique cultural dance discussion domestic workers Duke University emerging engage experience film first forms gender geographies global histories important individual institutional intellectual interests involved issues kind knowledge production labor lesbian lives material meanings move movement multiple Nagar NGOs North organizations participants particular Philippines political position possible practices praxis Press queer questions racial Red Thread reflection relations relationships representation resistance responsibility Richa Sangtin sexuality shared social South spaces specific stories structures struggles studies subjects suggest tensions theory tion transnational feminism transnational feminist transnational feminist praxis understanding University violence volume women workers writing