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Newcastle University -‐ Americas Research Group (ARG) -‐ IV Postgraduate Conference:
“Rethinking the Americas: Peoples, Places and Cultures” Venues: -‐ Room 2.22, Research Beehive, Old Library Building, Newcastle University -‐ Room G.13, Percy Building, Newcastle University Date: 15th March 2012 Conference Programme: 10:00-‐11:00
Registration & Coffee (Room 2.22, Research Beehive, Old Library Building)
11:00-‐11:45
Welcome and Keynote: Dr. Simon Hall, University of Leeds. (Room 2.22, Research Beehive, Old Library Building)
11:45-‐1:15
Panel 1: Placing the Americas (Room 2.22, Research Beehive, Old Library Building)
1:15-‐2:00
Lunch
2:00-‐3:10
Panel 2a: Natural resource exploitation and socio-‐economic development (Room 2.22, Research Beehive, Old Library Building) Panel 2b: Ethnicity, citizenship and religion (Room G.13, Percy Building, Newcastle University)
3:10-‐3:20
Time for changing venues
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3:20-‐5:00
Panel 3a: Social movements and grass roots organisations (Room 2.22, Research Beehive, Old Library Building) Panel 3b: Identity and cultural production (Room G.13, Percy Building, Newcastle University)
5:00-‐6:00
Panel 4: Plenary Discussion and Close (Room 2.22, Research Beehive, Old Library Building)
6:00
Drinks in N Stage bar/lounge
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Programme for panels: 11:45-‐1:15
Panel 1: Placing the Americas Chair: Dr. Simon Hall Venue: Room 2.22, Research Beehive, Old Library Building
11:45-‐12:00
Daniel Bowers, University of Bristol
12:00-‐12:15
Andrew Cummins, University of Sunderland
12:15-‐12:30
Gregory Davis, University of Strathclyde
12:30-‐12:45
Sarah Duggan, Newcastle University
12:45-‐1:00
Tristan Partridge, University of Edinburgh
1:00-‐1:15
Discussion
2:00-‐3:10
Panel 2a: Natural resource exploitation and socio-‐economic development Chair: Prof. Esteban Castro Venue: Room 2.22, Research Beehive, Old Library Building
2:00-‐2:15
Carsten-‐Andreas Schulz, Nuffield College, Oxford University
2:15-‐2:30
Geoff Goodwin, Institute for the Study of the Americas, University of London
2:30-‐2:45
Stephanie Pearce, Queen Mary, University of London
2:45-‐3:10
Discussion
2:00-‐3:10
Panel 2b: Ethnicity, citizenship and religion Chair: Dr. Benjamin Houston
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Venue: Room G.13, Percy Building, Newcastle University
2:00-‐2:15
Iris Marchand, University of Edinburgh
2:15-‐2:30
Reeta Humalajoki, Durham University
2:30-‐2:45
Shantelle George, University of London
2:45-‐3:10
Discussion
3:20-‐5:00
Panel 3a: Social movements and grass roots organisations Chair: Prof. Nina Laurie Venue: Room 2.22, Research Beehive, Old Library Building
3:20-‐3:35
Alfred Cardone, King's College, University of London
3:35-‐3:50
Daniela Bressa-‐Florentin, University of Bath
3:50-‐4:05
Natalie Cresswell, Newcastle University
4:05-‐4:20
Alexandra Seedhouse, Newcastle University
4:20-‐4:35
Sarah Fearn, Institute for the Study of the Americas
4:35-‐5:00
Discussion
3:20-‐5:00
Panel 3b: Identity and cultural production Chair: Dr. Patricia Oliart Venue: Room G.13, Percy Building, Newcastle University
3:20-‐3:35
Juan Aldape, Warwick University
3:35-‐3:50
Stacy Dunlea, Sheffield University
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3:50-‐4:05
Sarah Buchanan, Queen's University Belfast
4:05-‐4:20
Tom Astley, Newcastle University
4:20-‐4:35
Collin Lieberg, Warwick University
4:35-‐5:00
Discussion
5:00-‐6:00
Plenary and Discussion Chair: Dr. Patricia Oliart Venue: Room 2.22, Research Beehive, Old Library Building
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Keynote and Chairs: Contact Details Keynote: Dr. Simon Hall Senior Lecturer in American History, University of Leeds [email protected] http://www.leeds.ac.uk/site/custom_scripts/people_profile_details.php?profileID=803 Chairs:
Prof. Nina Laurie School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University [email protected] http://www.ncl.ac.uk/gps/staff/profile/nina.laurie
Prof. Esteban Castro School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University [email protected] http://www.ncl.ac.uk/gps/staff/profile/esteban.castro
Dr. Patricia Oliart School of Modern Languages, Newcastle University [email protected] http://www.ncl.ac.uk/sml/staff/profile/patricia.oliart
Dr. Benjamin Houston School of Historical Studies, Newcastle University [email protected] http://www.ncl.ac.uk/historical/staff/profile/ben.houston
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Abstracts and Presenters’ Contact Details
‘I take SPACE to be the central fact to man born in America’: Willa Cather and Herman Melville
Daniel Bowers [email protected] 1st Year PhD Student University of Bristol The first European settlers in America believed that it was their God given right to colonise and explore the vast geographical limits of their new country. At that time, America was thought of a huge empty space, devoid of form or mapping, and waiting to be surveyed by its new inhabitants. Charles Olson writes 'SPACE' large because 'it comes large here. Large, and without mercy'. My paper will examine the work of two American writers, both born in America, whose focus is claiming this space for the American people. Willa Cather's The Professor's House contrasts interior and exterior spaces either side of the western frontier line and depicts the effects of colonisation on native cultures. Herman Melville's Moby-‐Dick goes further by exploring the oceans, and in particular, the Pacific. Melville was open minded enough to understand the Pacific as part of the American geography, as another western frontier to conquer, pitting man against nature in a battle to claim the seas. Both Cather and Melville understand the importance of space to the American people and although their texts are almost 75 years apart, their depictions of America's obsession with space strike a very similar chord.
Perpetuating the Ghetto. Segregation and the real estate industry in New York during the 1960s Andrew Cummins [email protected] PhD Researcher University of Sunderland This paper will analyse discuss the discrimination experienced by African Americans attempting to enter the property market in New York during the 1960s. I will illustrate this issue by highlighting the controversial, and arguably racist, policies of both the real estate and banking industries. Focusing initially upon real estate I will discuss how, to African Americans, many areas of the city were off limits, compelling them to purchase properties in only the least desirable of neighbourhoods. I will illustrate how restrictive covenants were placed upon properties in more desirable, often suburban, neighbourhoods to guarantee that such communities were populated only by those deemed to be desirable. This ensured that even in circumstances in which an African American family were in possession of sufficient finances they had far from a universal choice of where to locate to. This discussion of finances will allow me to move on to my second principle area of discussion, the policies of the banking industry. I will use the neighbourhood of Bedford-‐Stuyvesant as an example to illustrate how banks often adopted a policy of red lining entire communities. Neighbourhoods that fell with this red line were deemed to be too much of a financial risk and home loans were refused on principle. This inevitably occurred in the poorest, minority populated neighbourhoods. A discussion of these points, along with some acknowledgement of attempts to address such discrimination, will allow me to highlight the fact that these policies trapped African Americans, and other minorities, in neighbourhoods considered to be less desirable, and perpetuated the existence of the deprived and deteriorating urban ghetto.
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American Approaches to the nature of the West during the Post-‐Revolutionary Period Gregory Davies [email protected] PhD Researcher University of Strathclyde My work explores American approaches to the nature of the West during the early nineteenth century, particularly the influence of Judeo-‐Christian theology upon American motivations for subduing nature. In doing so, it examines the ways in which prominent artists, intellectuals and politicians of the period mythologized over nature when considering the process of westward expansion, creating in the minds of their compatriots the idea of a garden; an imagined westward landscape by which the new nation could forge a distinctly American identity. The earliest attempts to realise this new vision are documented by the physical discontinuity in the landscape that occurs along the Ohio River, running along the Ohio-‐West Virginia boundary. Here the randomness of the metes and bounds system for surveying land – as adopted by the British-‐American administration in the eastern states, suddenly transforms into a rigid, imposing grid system for dividing the land, representing the new nation’s desire to divide and conquer the natural resources of the West as a means to accumulating much needed capital, whilst at the same time satisfying its uniquely democratic objectives.
Rethinking place and identity: exploring spaces of collective belonging in Bahia Brazil
Sarah Duggan [email protected] PhD Candidate in Latin American Studies School of Modern Languages, Newcastle University Historically, questions of place have been largely neglected in anthropological literature. This is reflected both in the tendency for western academic theories to relegate place to the realm of the particular, the limited and the confined (Escobar, 2001: 143) and in its traditional treatment of ethnographic locales as a neutral grid on which cultural difference, historical memory and societal organisation is inscribed (Gupta and Ferguson, 1997: 34). However, in ontological terms, ideas about roots and territory often play a central role in constructing notions of community and belonging. Moreover, despite increased transnational mobility, deterritorialisation, displacement and travel, questions concerning boundaries play an increasingly important role in the ways in which identities are lived and experienced in social life (Morley, 2001). This has lead to growing recognition of the fact that ways of understanding the relationship between culture, place and identity require significant redefinition (Escobar, 2001). Central to my own research is an interest in the continued salience of place-‐based identities and the impact of transnational processes on the ways in which these spatialised identities are reproduced, lived and experienced in everyday life. I draw empirical reflections from a rural community in Brazil in which environmental concerns have resulted in the displacement of mining as the principal socio-‐economic activity in the region in favour of tourism. In this presentation I will briefly review some of the recent approaches to place and identity construction and contextualise this theory in relation to my own research interests and existing case studies in Brazil and Latin America.
Placing Community Anew: Recuperation, Resilience and Resources in Ecuador
Tristan Partridge [email protected] PhD Candidate in Social Anthropology
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University of Edinburgh This paper examines the relationships between an Indigenous community in Ecuador's central Andes and the social and spatial boundaries that people there are re-‐organizing, enacting and redefining. Whilst patterns of migratory labour see many members of the ‘comunidad’ travel away from the village of San Isidro to Amazonian regions to take up often precarious shift-‐work in the petrol industry, collective efforts continue ‘at home’ to preserve water supplies and agriculture, and to manage inherited areas of the 'páramo' highlands. These activities reflect strong ties with areas of land held both communally and individually, land which is actively farmed, occupied and defended. Responses, then, to increasing connections with more distant places, people and institutions have involved efforts to continue communal ways of organising and understanding social life, and a renewed sense of ‘place’. This builds on Doreen Massey's notion of ‘place’ as combining specific histories and landscapes with shifting interactions and relations with others, and explores the extent to which ‘place’ still shapes and influences a changing sense of ‘community’, considering each as a process defined in part by a perspective on what it is not.
‘Civilization and Barbarism’? Rethinking Latin America’s standing in nineteenthcentury
international society Carsten-‐Andreas Schulz [email protected] DPhil Candidate in International Relations Nuffield College, University of Oxford In recent years, Latin American countries have acted with growing self-‐confidence on the global stage. At the same time, external actors have come to perceive the region in a newly positive light, which sharply contrasts with its past image as a zone of political crises and rampant poverty. Although caution should be exercised when making generalizations about such a highly diverse region, today, more so than ever, Latin America appears poised to step out of the marginality that characterized most of its post-‐independence experience. To fully appreciate the significance of this historical transformation, one needs to understand the dynamics that have influenced the region’s particular position in the past. This paper critically examines existing accounts that seek to explain Latin America’s international standing during the nineteenth century. It offers a novel interpretation that deemphasises geopolitics and economic dependency while emphasising the importance of evolving ‘logics of appropriateness’. Drawing on international legal thought, it argues that the standing of Latin American states, that is, their recognition as fully-‐fledged members of international society, depended to a large extent on whether they were perceived as being ‘civilised’. By contrast, widespread political instability reinforced cultural and racial prejudices, ultimately legitimising foreign interference and, at times, military interventions on behalf of powerful states. Thus, the paper contributes to an understanding of the socio-‐historic construction of Latin America’s place in world politics and the political consequences this entailed. Agrarian reform through the lens of the “double movement”: The case of Highland Ecuador, 1964-‐2006 Geoff Goodwin [email protected] PhD Student Institute for the Study of the Americas, University of London The paper explores the evolution of state and market directed agrarian reform in Highland Ecuador (1964 to 2006) through the lens of Karl Polanyi’s concept of the “double movement”. It analyses the links between agrarian reform and land commodification and explores the role indigenous communities and movements performed in contesting and influencing these processes. The paper argues that the opposition indigenous groups waged against agrarian policies under neoliberalism can only be understood in the context of the longer-‐term evolution of the capitalist market restructuring of rural Ecuador. This
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challenges popular interpretations of the “double movement” which characterise the process as a pendulum swinging toward and against the market during the neoliberal phase of capitalism. These studies, the paper argues, lack a critical analysis of the political economies that evolved during the 1960s and 1970s, which leads them to underestimate the degree of change that will be required to reduce long-‐standing inequalities and tensions, especially in rural Latin America.
Sharing the wealth; Exploring Petrocaribe & Venezuela’s role in Caribbean development Stephanie R. Pearce [email protected] PhD Candidate School of Politics and International Relations, University of London Since its establishment in 2005, Venezuela has used the Petrocaribe framework to turn its natural oil wealth towards promoting development in the region; constructing agreements for the supply of oil products to 16 Caribbean neighbours under preferential conditions, within which certain percentages of their bill can be paid in goods and services, and/or offered on low interest credit. The financing system offers an alternative to conditional loans offered by Washington institutions, whilst funds saved from debt servicing are invested in infrastructure and services. In addition having both guaranteed energy resources and a stable export market facilitates long term planning and investment in key industries. Arguably the combined effect is an opening up of policy space for post neo-‐liberal, endogenous development strategies in the Caribbean. In turn the Venezuelan government can pass on transaction costs savings it makes from receiving goods as payment to its population, helping to mitigate the budgetary pressures of fluctuating commodity prices both domestically and for the region. This paper will explore the implications of Petrocaribe for development in detail, via analysis of the agreement between Guyana and Venezuela. The case study will look at the impacts the agreement has had in each country. As well as exploring to what extent Petrocaribe can be seen to have contributed to a rethinking of trade in Latin America and the Caribbean; one that focuses on cooperation over competition, and views exchange as an exercise in solidarity.
Rethinking our dual discursive competence: a case study questioning ethnicity in Nickerie, Western
Suriname Iris Marchand [email protected] PhD Candidate in Social Anthropology University of Edinburgh With reference to national, ethnic, and religious boundaries, Gerd Baumann (1999) used the term ‘dual discursive competence’ to refer to the human tendency to think in static essentialist categories yet to act in processual, constructive manners rendering these categories to be context-‐dependent and in flux. In this paper I will consider this dual discursive competence by questioning why Suriname’s demography is often understood to be primarily one of historically shaped ethnic contrasts. Based on ethnographic evidence from anthropological fieldwork in Nickerie, Western Suriname, I will present a case study of the ways in which Nickerians describe themselves and others. Accounts of Nickerie as ethnically plural will be contrasted to how Nickerians relate themselves to the Surinamese capital of Paramaribo, to their Guyanese neighbours, and to whom they refer to as Euro-‐Surinamers. This case study will not dispute that boundaries between social groups tend to be drawn and redefined by historical events and influential political actors and likewise through everyday interactions by people seeking to understand how they relate to each other. However, what these ethnographic observations do
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show is that theoretical notions of ethnicity, citizenship and ‘passport identity’ risk to be meaningless analytic tools unless it is clear within which discursive scopes the boundaries are drawn. What I propose is that when terms such as ‘ethnic’ are used in social research, we should carefully contemplate how our dual discursive competence, as researchers, may least produce disparities between the theoretical and the empirical, or even transform the latter. Responding to Termination: Native American Tribal Councils' Interpretations of Citizenship, 1950-‐1956 Reeta Humalajoki [email protected] PhD Candidate Department of History, Durham University The United States federal policy of Termination (roughly 1950-‐1971) aimed to eliminate the federal trust status of American Indian tribes and assimilate the Native population into mainstream American society. Though the policy is now unanimously condemned by scholars and Native American leaders alike, during the 1950s members of some tribes demonstrated an initial acceptance of the policy. This paper will demonstrate how federal and tribal understandings of Termination rhetoric differed, by examining discussions of two of its key concepts – “citizenship” and “the American” – in tribal council meetings during the early Termination era. Statements made by individuals during council meetings of the Mississippi Band Choctaw, Five Civilized Tribes, and the Navajo reveal an interpretation of citizenship which did not preclude tribal participation, as well as an understanding of “becoming American” that did not entail wholesale cultural assimilation. Before 1953, “Termination” and “self-‐determination” were interchangeable concepts. Looking specifically at meetings immediately preceding and following the passing of Termination legislation that year shows how Termination rhetoric became stabilized, transforming Native interpretations into challenges to the status quo. Rather than ignoring the early acceptance of the policy, scholarship must look at the fluidity of language to explain this occurrence.
Religion, Memory and Identity Formation among Indentured Africans and their Descendants in Grenada, 1836-‐present
Shantelle George [email protected] 1st year PhD Student School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London British suppression of the transatlantic slave trade resulted in the diversion of enslaved Africans, destined for the plantations of Brazil and Cuba, into the British Caribbean from 1807 to the 1860’s. Existing studies on the experiences of these Africans, who were “liberated” and then indentured in the British Caribbean, have focused on the larger branches of migration into regions such as the Bahamas, Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad, neglecting smaller branches of migration into places like Grenada. This paper seeks to address this by firstly highlighting the experiences of indentured Africans in Grenada, including their resistance to the “civilising mission,” their interaction with planters and the African-‐Grenadian population, and the strategies used to create their own autonomous communities. Second, this paper will examine the diverse geographical, ethnic and linguistic backgrounds of these mid-‐nineteenth-‐century African arrivals. For example, did the ethnicities of indentured Africans differ to those of enslaved Africans? Lastly, by looking at cultural traditions and using oral history, this paper will consider the cultural legacies of indentured Africans in twenty-‐first century Grenada. For example, what explains the predominance of Yorùbá-‐inspired traditions, such as Sàngó worship? Do oral accounts tell us anything about indentured Africans’ experience of displacement, migration, cultural alienation, intercultural relations and place-‐making? My research concludes that although African migration into Grenada was much smaller than other territories in the Caribbean, its effects on the socio-‐cultural landscape of Grenada is none-‐the-‐less significant.
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The Grassroots American Jeremiad Alfred Cardone [email protected] PhD Student North American Centre, King’s College London Ample praise regarding the virtue of grassroots movements and their adherence to the tradition of civic activism constitutes an integral part of the current American political discourse. Technological advancements have amplified their performance and influence, reinforcing the positive perception amongst Americans concerning their “virtue” and “purity” in the defense of popular sovereignty. Therefore, developing a detailed understanding of grassroots movements in order to assess their evolving impact on government and American society would be warranted. I will commence by defining the essential elements of grassroots movements and clarify any ambiguity surrounding them, followed by examining whether grassroots movements today are compelled to action by temporary issues of current concern or by long-‐term issues that span American history. Verifying whether a link to the past exists will further determine whether current movements merely represent temporary concerns of individual citizens or a larger apprehension of the societal traits in American society. By focusing on education, immigration, and globalization, three issues Americans deem of great importance, I anticipate the ability to develop a definition of grassroots movements that will be clear, concise, and that includes modern technological advancements. Furthermore, I believe that a link to an intensive period of civic activism in America’s past exists, which suggests a continuing debate on how Americans view themselves and the future direction of the country. Upon establishing these points, I assert that conclusions can be drawn on how current movements are influencing American society and government and whether these movements are the “defenders” of popular sovereignty.
Between Life and Policies: the Politics of Buen Vivir in Bolivia and Ecuador Daniela Bressa-‐Florentin [email protected] PhD. Student in Social and Policy Sciences University of Bath Since the beginning of the 21st century a new indigenous ethos has gained especial significance in Bolivia and Ecuador: Buen Vivir. In brief, it posits a life-‐project to live in harmony both with others and with nature. Buen Vivir is based on indigenous cosmology, that is to say, their lifeworld, implying cultural history as well as communitarian practices. At the same time, governments of both countries have integrated Buen Vivir as part of their policy framework and as general guiding principle of their national constitutions. The above mentioned parallel processes were enacted within increasing tensions between government policies, on the one hand, and indigenous peoples, on the other. I argue in this paper that this contradiction is the effect of the institution of two discursive ‘parts’ grounded in two epistemologically different bases. This tension expresses, in other words, current processes of integration and exclusion underpinning contemporary processes of fascinating change in Bolivia and Ecuador.
A New Mapuche Movement? Urbanisation, Changing Demands and Political Space Natalie Cresswell [email protected] MA / PhD Student (ESRC-‐funded) Newcastle University
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Levels of Mapuche migration from rural to urban areas increased significantly in the second half of the 20th century, a process which has resulted in the urbanisation of over half of Chile’s Mapuche population. While several studies have tackled the subject of Mapuche urbanisation in relation to notions of cultural identity and the Mapuche experience within the city, few works have examined the relationship between urbanisation and the Mapuche struggle for rights. Drawing on qualitative data, this paper illustrates the ways in which young urban Mapuche are leading a revival of the Mapuche movement. The paper argues that Mapuche culture is undergoing a resurgence within urban areas and while young people are integrated into wider society, they feel a sense of pride in being Mapuche. New educational and political demands pertinent to the lives of urban Mapuche show how the Mapuche are adapting and re-‐framing notions of Mapuche identity and culture, giving new meanings to being Mapuche in urban areas. Urbanisation has also facilitated the creation of alliances with other organisations and provided new spaces from which the Mapuche can demand their rights. This paper argues that these processes have generated new opportunities for the Mapuche movement to engage and negotiate with the Chilean state.
Gender and Ethnic Identity Formation within Anti-‐mining Resistances in the Peruvian Andes Alexandra Seedhouse [email protected] PhD candidate in Human Geography and Modern Languages Newcastle University The dramatic expansion of the extractive industries in Peru in recent years has brought with it an escalation of indigenous social movements. This paper investigates the negotiations of ethnicity and gender within two communities resisting natural resource extraction in the Peruvian Andes. Conceptually informed by feminist political ecology, it analyses Quechua women’s experiences of resistance movements. The discussion is based on empirical findings from fieldwork, which utilised a mixed-‐method approach; triangulating ‘rapid ethnography’ with semi-‐structured interviews, focus groups and document analysis. The findings underline the complex interconnections between gender and ethnicity, and highlight the fluidity of the ways in which participants perceive their identities. Finally, I argue that while mining is not unequivocally “good” or “bad” for development, under certain circumstances it may serve as a catalyst for the amelioration of women’s empowerment. Through this research, I aim to fill a gap in current understandings, created by the previously scant attention accorded to women’s experience of resistance to natural resource extraction. The Mixer Blessings of the 21st Century Patron: NGOs and Indigenous Identity and Organisation in Peru Sarah Fearn [email protected] PhD Candidate in Latin American Studies Institute for the Study of the Americas, University of London This paper analyses the role of NGOs in the construction and re-‐construction of both indigenous identity and indigenous organisation in Peru. Based on fieldwork carried out in three Amazonian and Andean regions between 2010 and 2011, it aims to elucidate how NGOs shape the meaning and utilisation of the word ‘indigenous’, how NGOs decide who counts as ‘indigenous’, and how NGOs shape, strengthen and weaken indigenous organisation. Since the early 1990s, NGOs have been actively working on topics of ethnic and indigenous revaluation in Peru. This paper aims to clarify the interdependency and complex dynamic between the NGOs who provide workshops on identity, rights and political participation, as well as financial and technical assistance; and the local organisations who take advantage of these opportunities to analyse, revise and strengthen their identities and organisational aims and capacities.
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Peru is chosen as an example of a ‘deviant case’. Whilst neighbouring countries such as Ecuador and Bolivia have experienced high levels of indigenous political mobilisation and participation from the 1990s onwards, Peru has been labelled the continental ‘anomaly’1; in a country with an indigenous population of 47%2 , the indigenous population has neither utilised ethnicity as a politically motivating identity nor created strong, national indigenous organisations. This paper forms part of a wider PhD thesis that attempts to explain this exceptionalism.
The Subaltern is Undocumented and Unafraid: Performing a New American Citizenship Aesthetic
Juan Aldape [email protected] M.A. Candidate in International Performance Research Warwick University/University of Arts in Belgrade, Serbia In the United States the real and legitimized standard to gain citizenship is established by birthright, or the naturalization process. Additionally, yet conversely, there is an imaginary aesthetic of performing citizenship across multiple dimensions of engagement in community, economic, political and military spaces. Performed examples of the imaginary aesthetic are seen in staged graduation ceremonies of DREAMers. DREAMers, self-‐defined as undocumented youth who would gain a legal path to American citizenship, benefitting from a federal bipartisan legislation known as the DREAM Act, organize simulated convocations in political, public spaces to proclaim they have demonstrated their adherence to the imaginary performance standard of American citizenship, despite their lack of birthright or options for naturalization. This paper analyzes two staged convocations by DREAMers in 2011 through a synthesized performance theoretical framework. Ultimately, this will illuminate how these graduation ceremonies, specifically those made public by Latino students, serve as cultural nterventions to highlight the paradox of citizenship’s performative nature across citizenscapes, and as a fixed legal system unable to adapt to conflicting economic migratory conditions.
Community Radio and the Internet in Bolivia: Alternative Media or New Hegemonic Order? Stacey Dunlea [email protected] Mphil (2nd Year) in Latin Americas Studies Department of Hispanic Studies and School of Modern Languages and Linguistics, University of Sheffield This paper examines the shifts in Bolivian communication and news media. Drawing upon recent Bolivian discourse on communicative citizenship, and communication and information as fundamental human rights, the paper examines the ways in which traditionally marginalized social groups have attempted to assert their voices in a participatory democracy. Historically, the Bolivian press has constituted an elite speaking to an elite, and is devoid of mass-‐circulation newspapers. Television news, whilst more accessible to the general public, is characterized by sensationalism and, arguably, largely serves the interests of economic elites rather than the public interest. However, improving literacy rates and improved access to technology have, in the context of
1 Yasher, Deborah J. 2005. Contesting Citizenship: The Rise of Indigenous Movements and the Postliberal Challenge. New York: Cambridge University Press. p.224 2 ILO (1999).
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intense resistance to the neoliberal policies pursued by successive governments in the twenty years preceding the election of MAS’s Evo Morales in 2005, coincided with the increased visibility of marginalized groups, including the country’s indigenous majority. Social movements have made use of community radio and the internet in an effort to transform the ways in which Bolivian society interacts. Simultaneously, the new political elite have publicly sought to redefine and re-‐construct Bolivian identity as a multi-‐faceted notion in a ‘pluri-‐national’ state. This paper considers the limitations of community radio and the internet and asks if the new opportunities associated with technology really provide a voice for the marginalized or, given the MAS administration’s roots in social movements, the emergence of an ‘alternative’ media is simply reflective of the emergence of a new hegemonic order in Bolivia.
Translating the Favela Sarah Buchanan [email protected] PhD Student Queen’s University Belfast Translation wields great power to describe and represent people and their connection to places. One place, however, can be imagined and remembered as a multiplicity of sites, depending on the conflicting experiences of individuals and communities over time. The favela, a name ascribed to hundreds of communities traditionally situated on the periphery of Brazil’s megacities, is home to 36.6% of Brazil’s urban population. Yet it is denied representation on city maps. Lins, in his novel City of God (1997), sets out to translate favela identity for the Brazilian middle class. His work and Meirelles film adaptation (2003) have served to mark the favela on the map both nationally and internationally. Traditionally ignored, exoticised or condemned as a place of crime and hopelessness, how do Lins and Meirelles respond to previous discourse surrounding the favela as they translate these communities for a mainstream audience? What efforts are made to translate the favela as a heterogeneous community, changing over time? Moreover, how do they redefine or blur borders around the favela, marking it off from the rest of Brazilian society? In order to approach these questions, I will examine the fragmentation in narrative of both the novel and film adaptation. I will look at Lins’ and Meirelles’ choice of discourse in response to previous notions of favela identity and investigate the manipulation of physical space to draw a border between the favela and the rest of the city. This study makes use of Zaluar and Alvito’s anthropological work on the favela and Kearney’s work on the other.
“Outside the Revolution; Everything”: A Redefinition of Left-‐Wing Identity in Contemporary Cuban Music Making
Tom Astley [email protected] PhD Student Music Department, Newcastle University In the often fraught political landscape of Cuba, a constant need to define and redefine the ‘space’ of national identity has long pervaded all manner of discourse. In its assumed role as the last bastion of resistance against the hegemonic forces of ‘globalisation’ (‘Americanisation’), the Revolution of 1959 is often made an all-‐encompassing indicator of ‘authentic’ Cuban identity. However, political recalcitrance, economic stagnation and the ever-‐present lure of the States has left generations of young Cubans
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questioning the ability of the Revolution to represent a contemporary Cuban identity. A growing number of what may broadly be classified as ‘alternative musicians’ are utilising a re-‐established and redefined left-‐wing voice -‐ one that recontextualises notions of what constitutes ‘el pueblo’ (‘the people’) -‐ precisely as a critique of the anachronisms of the Revolution. This paper examines briefly the work of three such artists -‐ punk band Porno Para Ricardo, rapper Eskuadrón Patriota, and singer-‐songwriter Pedro Luis Ferrer -‐ to provide examples of such reclamations of a left wing voice within Cuba. Redefinitions of ‘the people’ pan-‐nationally, along cultural and social, rather than exclusive nationalisitic lines; attempts to reclaim the means of cultural production from an overbearing and censoring hegemony; narratives of Cuban history and geography that seek to augment the often rigidly defined space of ‘official Cubanness’ by recognising cultural difference (often made tacit in the unifying rhetoric of the revolution), yet appealing to the notion of social equality, are all constituent parts of this ‘new’ new left in Cuba.
The Foreign Influence of American Music during the British Invasion
Collin Lieberg [email protected] PhD Student History Department, University of Warwick
Before the British invasion of 1964, American music had a distinct sense of its own identity. Whether it was manufactured in the Brill Building, with the swagger of Elvis or the surf, fun and sun of the Beach Boys, American music had a distinct flavour and little liking for anything foreign. Then came the Beatles, opening America for British and other foreigners, dubbed the ‘British Invasion’. Among the prominent musicians performing American songs were the Rolling Stones, the Animals, Herman’s Hermits and Manfred Mann. The Canadians who, by the end of the decade, included Denny Doherty (of the Mamas & Papas), folk duo Ian & Sylvia, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young and The Band among others, followed suit in influencing American music. Suddenly Americans had to re-‐examine their own music. With the Beatles and Stones boldly and enthusiastically proclaiming the love for the ‘black music’ of Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, and the Animals reinterpreting traditional folk songs, American music gained new meanings. As Brian Ward once wrote, ‘British groups like the Beatles and Rolling Stones encouraged, rather than retarded, white American exploration and patronage of black music by initially recording a diverse range of r&b’. The Canadian artists, both as part of the folk or folk-‐rock movement, played traditional songs and wrote or performed new standards. This resulted in a revitalization of Americana, combining American, British and Canadian traditions. This paper attempts to trace these combined traditions.
