Theory as Liberatory Practice

Let me begin by saying that I came to theory because I was hurting-the pain within me was so intense that I could not go on living. I came to theory desperate, wanting to comprehend-to grasp what was happening around and within me. Most importantly, I wanted to make the hurt go away. I saw in theory then a location for healing

Writing for Reconciliation: A Musing

This musing grew out of the AEPL Summer Conference in Berea, Kentucky, June 2006, at which bell hooks was the keynote speaker

Mulheres negras: moldando a teoria feminista

Resumo Este texto de bell hooks teve um papel central na discussão contemporânea sobre os limites do feminismo para levar em conta as posições sociais e as experiências das mulheres negras. A crítica à visão de que existe um coletivo “mulheres”, bastante presente na literatura posterior, é feita por hooks a partir da exclusão das mulheres negras do conhecimento e da política feministas. Ela chama atenção para as relações de opressão e dominação entre mulheres e, nelas, para o silenciamento das mulheres negras. O ponto de vista dessas mulheres, em contraposição a um “nós” baseado na experiência das mulheres brancas e de classe média, é destacado na construção da teoria feminista e de um projeto político feminista radical. Palavras-chave: teoria política feminista; raça; dominação; mulheres; poder.   Abstract   This essay by bell hooks has played a central role in contemporary discussions about the limits of feminism to consider black women’s social positions and experiences. The criticism to the understanding that there is a collective subject such as “women”, very frequent in later literature, is produced by hooks considering the exclusion of black women from feminist knowledge and politics. She underlines oppression and domination among women and that they prevent black women from speaking. The perspective of those women, as opposed to a “we” based on the experience of white middle class women, becomes central in building feminist theory and a radical feminist political project. Keywords: feminist political theory; race; domination; women; power

Woman Changing Buddhism: Feminist Perspectives

This chapter is a conversation with bell hooks, Sharon Suh, and Karma Lekshe Tsomo; moderated by Susanne Mrozik. This panel conversation explores the diverse contributions that diverse kinds of women are making to Buddhism in the U.S. today

Politicising the ‘personal’:the resistant potential of creative pedagogies in teaching and learning ‘sensitive’ issues

Drawing upon student narratives gleaned through qualitative interviews, this paper argues that teaching and learning ‘sensitive’ issues surrounding gender and sexualities through ‘creative’ pedagogies can be a mode of resistance against the reproduction of problematic social discourses, and to the negative impacts of neoliberalism on student’s learning within higher education. The findings point to the importance of speaking about sensitive issues; the value of creative approaches for enhancing learning; and that together these can enable students to articulate an agenda for social change. Students saw the ‘personal as political’ – of sharing personal journeys around sensitive issues as important. They further spoke of ‘apathy’ in an neoliberal era of student ‘consumers’ and how this could curtail ‘creative’ teaching and jeopardise learning. Overall, it is argued that creative approaches to teaching and learning sensitive issues can invoke a resistant potentiality which exposes the ‘hidden injuries’ of the neoliberal university

Aesthetics of Resistance in Western Sahara

In reaction to neo-liberal globalization policies that were spearheaded in the 1980s by Reagan-economics and Thatcherism, indignant movements ignited globally in distinct places, spaces, and territories, using diverse resistance strategies, both violent and nonviolent. Today, two years into the new social media revolutions, with the “Arab Spring” (in Tunisia known as Sidi Bouzid Revolt, in Libya as the Revolution of February 17th, and in Egypt as Revolution of January 25th), the “indignado/a” movement in Spain, and “Occupy Wall Street” in the United States, what does it mean to be “indignant”?Within an interdisciplinary Peace Studies and Research context, how do we begin to talk about and theorize this (inter)subjective move from being a “victim” to being “indignant?” And, how do we do so in a way that captures the complex and multi-layered dimensions of liberation struggles? We begin with a theoretical overview in order to frame the discussion. We then specifically examine the “Sahrawi Spring” in order to see theory in practice. As Africa’s last colony,Western Sahara provides an interesting look into the aesthetics of resistance

Migrant African women: tales of agency and belonging

This paper explores issues of belonging and agency among asylum seekers and refugee women of African origin in the UK. It discusses the ways these women engendered resistance in their everyday life to destitution, lack of cultural recognition, and gender inequality through the foundation of their own non-governmental organization, African Women’s Empowerment Forum, AWEF, a collective ‘home’ space. The focus of this account is on migrant women’s agency and self-determination for the exercise of choice to be active actors in society. It points to what might be an important phenomenon on how local grassroots movements are challenging the invisibility of asylum seekers’ and refugees’ lives and expanding the notion of politics to embrace a wider notion of community politics with solidarity. AWEF is the embodiment of a social space that resonates the ‘in-between’ experience of migrant life providing stability to the women members regarding political and community identification

Re-storying autism: a body becoming disability studies in education approach

This paper presents and analyzes six short first-person films produced through a collaborative multimedia storytelling workshop series focused on experiences of autism, education and inclusion. The aim of the project is to co-create new understandings of autism beyond functionalist and biomedical ones that reify autism as a problem of disordered brains and underpin special education. We fashion a body becoming disability studies in education approach to proliferate stories of autism outside received cultural scripts – autism as biomedical disorder, brain-based difference, otherworldliness, lost or stolen child and more. Our approach keeps the meaning of autism moving, always emerging, resisting, fading away and becoming again in relation to context, time, space, material oppressions, cultural scripts, intersecting differences, surprising bodies and interpretative engagement. We argue that the films we present and analyse not only significantly change and critique traditional special education approaches based on assumptions of the normative human as non-autistic, they also enact ‘autism’ as a becoming process and relation with implications for inclusive educators. By this we mean that the stories shift what autism might be and become, and open space for a proliferation of representations and practices of difference in and beyond educational contexts that support flourishing for all