Reclaiming my ethnic identity would not have taken the form it did without the intimate and inten... more Reclaiming my ethnic identity would not have taken the form it did without the intimate and intense interaction with Martha Ayres, a WASP who was willing to fight with me. My gratitude to her for the fights as well as her empathy cannot be adequately articulated. Finally, I thank my grandmother who survived and passed the story of her life on to me.
Resistances -- Women Who Eat Too Much: Femininity and Food in Fried Green Tomatoes / Laura Linden... more Resistances -- Women Who Eat Too Much: Femininity and Food in Fried Green Tomatoes / Laura Lindenfeld -- Chili Peppers as Tools of Resistance: Ketan Mehta’s Mirch Masala / Beheroze F. Shroff / Shish Kebab Armenians?: Food and the Construction and Maintenance of Ethnic and Gender Identities among Armenian American Feminists / Arlene Vosky Avakian
Explora tions in Sights and Sounds life in other southern regions. Amongst the sordid events whic... more Explora tions in Sights and Sounds life in other southern regions. Amongst the sordid events which Archer shares, he skillfully intersperses humor to show how black Mississippians weathered the storm of racial injustices, poverty, and segregation during the Great Depression. Uncle ick's clever boyish exploits included his "ghost" scheme to scare, ridicule, and diminish the effect of KKK members. Other tricks include his snake episode in church and his illegal boating incident on the "whites" only Tchula Lake. The author revisits his ancestral past by providing accounts of numerous pivotal recol lections and important historical facts. This is done through storytelling, which really distinguishes the book. Archer captures the African oral tradition and continues this tradi tion by using the written word. His great-grandmother told stories of white/black relationships in the south, and these are passed on to the younger generations. This book portrays an accurate historical and social account of a society blinded by the rigid tenets of its color caste system. The victims are also white farmers and planters who were forced to use racist tactics to maintain a cadre of black workers during the Great DepreSSion. Archer continues to dig deep to locate the sources of the violence and hatred meted out to black people and discovers the racism his ancestors grew to understand and accept, in most cases. His father, mother, and school teacher represent a new generation of black southerners who refuse to settle for less. Education became the means to the end of oppression. Archer's book is a very introspective autobiographical work dedicated to dealing objectively with relationships in a turbulent and hateful past. This is indeed an excellent source of information for students of African-American history, women's studies, family stud ies, and American history.
... 2. WomenSuffrageUnited StatesHistory. 3. SuffragistsUnited StatesHistory. 4. Afro-Americ... more ... 2. WomenSuffrageUnited StatesHistory. 3. SuffragistsUnited StatesHistory. 4. Afro-American women social reformersHistory. 5. Afro American women Political activityHistory. I. Gordon, Ann D. (Ann Dexter) II. Collier-Thomas, Bettye. ...
Isabel Wilkerson's Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents is critically important to understanding... more Isabel Wilkerson's Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents is critically important to understanding both U.S. history and our contemporary world. A Pulitzer prize winning journalist, Wilkerson's book is based on extensive research yet accessible to a wide audience. Wilkerson argues that what is generally called racial oppression, or more recently white supremacy, is a caste system that predates the formation of the United States, is as fundamental to the United States our nation as our much-touted liberty and freedom, and endures today. As Wilkerson freely admits, this analysis is not new but it is one that ought to have been revived long ago, or perhaps never abandoned in the first place. Although Wilkerson's focus is on the U.S. caste system that it is structured on a Black/white binary irrespective of gender, her book is a must read for feminists and academics who address gender in their research and teaching.
HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific r... more HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.
As an Armenian-American, as the child of an immigrant from Iran and a refugee from Turkey, profes... more As an Armenian-American, as the child of an immigrant from Iran and a refugee from Turkey, professor and director of a Women, Gender, Sexuality Program at a major university, and an anti-racist feminist I have thought and written about identity construction with emphasis on gender and its interaction with other social formations, particularly race/ethnicity/nation, for many years. While not all of this work focuses on my Armenian heritage, it is all informed by my experiences as an Armenian-American who grew up in an Armenian community in New York City in the 1940s and 1950s. The genocide and its denial are, of course, central to that experience. This commentary focuses on Armenian-Americans in the United States, with an emphasis on identity construction, nationalism, and gender from the perspective of observer, researcher, and sometimes participant. I am particularly interested in the genocide's central place in constructions of Armenian-American identity and community institutions, and the absence of a feminist voice in both scholarship and community debate. My thoughts about all of these issues are also informed by my participation in the Hrant Dink Memorial Workshop at Sabanci University in the May of 2009 and by subsequent discussions with Armenian and other feminists who trace their roots to Anatolia. While well-known as the first state to accept Christianity in 301, and boasting an alphabet as early as in the fifth century, much of Armenian history since the fourteenth century is one of statelessness, dispersion, and diaspora. Beginning in the tenth century, Armenia was overrun by a variety of foreign invaders, forcing migration from the Armenian Pla-
Reclaiming my ethnic identity would not have taken the form it did without the intimate and inten... more Reclaiming my ethnic identity would not have taken the form it did without the intimate and intense interaction with Martha Ayres, a WASP who was willing to fight with me. My gratitude to her for the fights as well as her empathy cannot be adequately articulated. Finally, I thank my grandmother who survived and passed the story of her life on to me.
Resistances -- Women Who Eat Too Much: Femininity and Food in Fried Green Tomatoes / Laura Linden... more Resistances -- Women Who Eat Too Much: Femininity and Food in Fried Green Tomatoes / Laura Lindenfeld -- Chili Peppers as Tools of Resistance: Ketan Mehta’s Mirch Masala / Beheroze F. Shroff / Shish Kebab Armenians?: Food and the Construction and Maintenance of Ethnic and Gender Identities among Armenian American Feminists / Arlene Vosky Avakian
Explora tions in Sights and Sounds life in other southern regions. Amongst the sordid events whic... more Explora tions in Sights and Sounds life in other southern regions. Amongst the sordid events which Archer shares, he skillfully intersperses humor to show how black Mississippians weathered the storm of racial injustices, poverty, and segregation during the Great Depression. Uncle ick's clever boyish exploits included his "ghost" scheme to scare, ridicule, and diminish the effect of KKK members. Other tricks include his snake episode in church and his illegal boating incident on the "whites" only Tchula Lake. The author revisits his ancestral past by providing accounts of numerous pivotal recol lections and important historical facts. This is done through storytelling, which really distinguishes the book. Archer captures the African oral tradition and continues this tradi tion by using the written word. His great-grandmother told stories of white/black relationships in the south, and these are passed on to the younger generations. This book portrays an accurate historical and social account of a society blinded by the rigid tenets of its color caste system. The victims are also white farmers and planters who were forced to use racist tactics to maintain a cadre of black workers during the Great DepreSSion. Archer continues to dig deep to locate the sources of the violence and hatred meted out to black people and discovers the racism his ancestors grew to understand and accept, in most cases. His father, mother, and school teacher represent a new generation of black southerners who refuse to settle for less. Education became the means to the end of oppression. Archer's book is a very introspective autobiographical work dedicated to dealing objectively with relationships in a turbulent and hateful past. This is indeed an excellent source of information for students of African-American history, women's studies, family stud ies, and American history.
... 2. WomenSuffrageUnited StatesHistory. 3. SuffragistsUnited StatesHistory. 4. Afro-Americ... more ... 2. WomenSuffrageUnited StatesHistory. 3. SuffragistsUnited StatesHistory. 4. Afro-American women social reformersHistory. 5. Afro American women Political activityHistory. I. Gordon, Ann D. (Ann Dexter) II. Collier-Thomas, Bettye. ...
Isabel Wilkerson's Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents is critically important to understanding... more Isabel Wilkerson's Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents is critically important to understanding both U.S. history and our contemporary world. A Pulitzer prize winning journalist, Wilkerson's book is based on extensive research yet accessible to a wide audience. Wilkerson argues that what is generally called racial oppression, or more recently white supremacy, is a caste system that predates the formation of the United States, is as fundamental to the United States our nation as our much-touted liberty and freedom, and endures today. As Wilkerson freely admits, this analysis is not new but it is one that ought to have been revived long ago, or perhaps never abandoned in the first place. Although Wilkerson's focus is on the U.S. caste system that it is structured on a Black/white binary irrespective of gender, her book is a must read for feminists and academics who address gender in their research and teaching.
HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific r... more HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.
As an Armenian-American, as the child of an immigrant from Iran and a refugee from Turkey, profes... more As an Armenian-American, as the child of an immigrant from Iran and a refugee from Turkey, professor and director of a Women, Gender, Sexuality Program at a major university, and an anti-racist feminist I have thought and written about identity construction with emphasis on gender and its interaction with other social formations, particularly race/ethnicity/nation, for many years. While not all of this work focuses on my Armenian heritage, it is all informed by my experiences as an Armenian-American who grew up in an Armenian community in New York City in the 1940s and 1950s. The genocide and its denial are, of course, central to that experience. This commentary focuses on Armenian-Americans in the United States, with an emphasis on identity construction, nationalism, and gender from the perspective of observer, researcher, and sometimes participant. I am particularly interested in the genocide's central place in constructions of Armenian-American identity and community institutions, and the absence of a feminist voice in both scholarship and community debate. My thoughts about all of these issues are also informed by my participation in the Hrant Dink Memorial Workshop at Sabanci University in the May of 2009 and by subsequent discussions with Armenian and other feminists who trace their roots to Anatolia. While well-known as the first state to accept Christianity in 301, and boasting an alphabet as early as in the fifth century, much of Armenian history since the fourteenth century is one of statelessness, dispersion, and diaspora. Beginning in the tenth century, Armenia was overrun by a variety of foreign invaders, forcing migration from the Armenian Pla-
Lion Woman's Legacy An Armenian-American Memoir Arlene Voski Avakian ... Lion Woman's L... more Lion Woman's Legacy An Armenian-American Memoir Arlene Voski Avakian ... Lion Woman's Legacy Xhi. s One XF03-QYN-81C1 ... THE CROSS-CULTURAL MEMOIR SERIES Available from The Feminist Press I Dwell in Possibility, a memoir by Toni McNaron The Seasons: ...
This course asks the fundamental questions and introduces the basic concepts in women, gender, se... more This course asks the fundamental questions and introduces the basic concepts in women, gender, sexuality studies. How can we conceptualize the category women and gender so that it is reflective of all the similarities among us as well as our very substantive differences? What are the relationships among gender, race, class, sexuality, in a global context? What do we mean when we say that gender is socially constructed? What theoretical frameworks have feminists developed to explain women and gender oppression and what strategies have they proposed for liberation? How has feminist activism addressed these issues in the past, and what are some contemporary approaches to change?
How do we represent our lives? Which lives merit telling? The women's movement and women's studie... more How do we represent our lives? Which lives merit telling? The women's movement and women's studies transformed how we think about the value of "ordinary" lives and transformed autobiography from a practice reserved for "great" men who had accomplished "great" things to one in which everyone has valuable stories to tell. We will explore the ways in which lives are embedded within their social, political and cultural contexts; how those contexts change over time; the ways in which people construct their lives within and in resistance to these contexts; and how people represent their lives. We will have a particular focus on the ways in which gender, race, class, ethnicity and sexual orientation impact lives and the ways these social forces interact with each other. Examining their own lives in their various contexts, students will create autobiographical work which could take a variety of forms; e.g. written, oral, visual or dramatic in virtual or material space.
Designed for students who have some familiarity with the historical, economic and political bases... more Designed for students who have some familiarity with the historical, economic and political bases of racism, this course will explore the social construction of whiteness, its interaction with gender, and historical and contemporary political resistance to white privilege. Goals of the course are: 1. to gain an understanding of the historical, economic and political forces responsible for the construction and maintenance of whiteness; 2. to explore the mechanisms which insure that whiteness is experienced as the norm and not as a race; 3. to explore the relationships between the constructions of whiteness and the constructions of gender; 4. to foster students' ability to position themselves on the multiple axes of race, gender and class and to help them gain an understanding of the role they play in maintaining the privileges they have; 5. to help students explore effective action to challenge white privilege.
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