March 2007

Margarete Kohlenbach and Raymond Geuss, eds. The Early Frankfurt School and Religion. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. x + 263 pp. Notes, bibliography, index. $85.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-4039-3557-1.

Reviewed for H-German by Emily J. Levine, History Department, Stanford University.

Dialectics of Enlightenment

This volume is the outcome of a growing academic interest in the relationship between religion and Enlightenment broadly conceived. Just as recent works have rewritten religion back into the Enlightenment narrative so, too, this volume reminds us that critical theory was not entirely hostile to religion as was once thought.[1] As Kohlenbach and Geuss explain in their introduction, critical theory was first introduced to the West in the postwar period by the neo-Marxist student movement of the 1960s. Attracted to critical theory because of its claim to link social theory and political practice, the student movement nonetheless simply ignored or suppressed any anti-liberal features of the philosophy that did not fit their own philosophy. This attitude extended to any affinities between critical theory and religious traditions. If the Left adopted a secularized form of critical theory for its political purposes, then the theological camp, for its part, exaggerated the existential concerns of critical theory as justification for its own arguments against the privatization of religion and failed to “realise that for Critical Theory religion represented first and foremost a _problem_, even on those rare occasions when it seemed to be presented as a solution” (emphasis in original, p. 2). Read the rest of this entry »

I have completed the first part of Trinh Minh-ha’s text, Woman, Native Other. The first two sections contained the conceptual framework for woman/women, language, writing, nativism, and science. Largely an anthropological perspective, this text begins to broaden the interdisciplinary purview of women’s history and the history of displacement. While I found these two chapters quite dense, there is a lively pulse to Minh-ha’s text. The narrative that is being written is also writing both the author and reader. Displacement is inevitable; however, I get the sense that the displacement is both the displacement of the native, woman, women, oppressed and the displacement of the one who has been managed by rationality, the masculine symbolic, and Father Culture.

In Commitment from the Mirror-Writing Box, echoes of French Feminist Theory [namely Kristeva and Cixous] are very present and help to buttress Minh-ha’s writing/feminine writing/woman writing. This chapter reveals the undercurrents [yes, she points to several] that oppress women’s ability to write: rationality, male dominance, and Father Culture are some to name. The following chapter on the Language of Nativism continues to unmask the binds of oppressions by considering the act and function of language. No longer can language be something that is passive; for Minh-ha, language is a birthing process, free from male/masculine rationality.

Writing is an act of envelopment; it is an act of labor and birth.

Call For Proposals: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future

Are you a group of women seeking change? Do you have ideas about how the feminist movement should change to accommodate the next generation of feminist students and activists? Would you be interested in meeting other feminists with similar interests?

We are looking for proposals from women who would like to organize a 3-day workshop that would bring together feminists to explore how the needs of new generations of women can best be fulfilled in the feminism of the future.

Timing: Workshop to be held in 2008.
Location: Anywhere in Canada.
Budget: Maximum grant available is $40,000.
Who Can Apply: Open to any group of young women (under age 30) in Canada.
Deadline for Applications: 31 May 2007.

Where to Send Applications:

Claire L’Heureux-Dubé Fund for Social Justice
c/o Professor Constance Backhouse
Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa
57 Louis Pasteur
Ottawa K1N 6N5

The Claire L’Heureux-Dubé Fund for Social Justice is an organization committed to supporting innovative feminist projects. Check out our website: www.commonlaw.uottawa.ca/heureuxdube/

Projects will be evaluated by the Board of Directors of the Fund, and selected from the competition based on their propensity to further the egalitarian objectives that underline the legacy of Madam Justice Claire L’Heureux-Dubé’s important contribution to equality within Canadian society. Applicants will be advised of the Board’s decision by the fall of 2007.

Format for Applications:

1. Title of Workshop
2. Date & Location of Workshop
3. Objectives of the Workshop
4. Description of the 3-day Retreat

a. Describe the participants you will include criteria for selection, and numbers

b. Outline the schedule of activities

c. Indicate the anticipated outcomes that the workshop will produce ­ short & long term

5. Budget: (Maximum $40,000)

a. Itemize estimated costs for organization of workshop, travel, accommodation and meals, costs of facilitators/speakers (if any), costs of preparation of final report on outcomes of workshop

6. Description of the Group Submitting the Proposal

a. Name
b. History of group (if any)
c. Objectives of Group
d. Previous activities (if any)
e. Contact person: name, address, phone, email.

I have begun the reading of Minh-ha’s text, and is the first book by Minh-ha that I have read.  This text is listed in cultural and feminist studies and powerfully is “situated” at the intersections of a number of different fields/disciplines.  I’m guessing this text will continue to help me understand migration and violence and the role of boundaries, conversion and displacement.

“In the first full-length study of Post-Feminism, Trinh-Minh-ha examines post-colonial processes of displacement–cultural hybridization and decentered realities, fragmented selves and multiple identities, marginal voices and languages of rupture.  Working at the intersection of several fields–women’s studies, anthropology critical cultural studies, literary criticism, and feminist theory, she juxtaposes numerous prevailing contemporary discourses in a form that questions the [male-is-norm] literary and theoretical establishment.  She incorporates the poetic in the analytic and stays away from the old way of theorizing through systematic dissection, combination, and recapitulation.  Trinh discusses questions of language and writing in relation to the notions of ethnicity and femininity; of identity, authenticity, and difference; of commitment as to the function and role of the woman writer; and of storytelling as a continuing setting into motion of a feminist problematic in the context of a female living tradition.”  [from the back cover]

I have completed my reading Jagose’s text on the introduction to queer theory. This small, 150 page, text is largely a historical analysis of the emergence of the term “queer” and subsequent term that is used as a trope and guide within critical cultural theory. I have found this text helpful in tracing the history of sexuality from the Homophile movement, Homosexuality, Lesbian Feminism, identity politics; and, additionally, to the ways in which Poststructuralism has used the term Queer.

The historical analysis of this text was central to the Jagose’s method, and in turn proved quite helpful in filling gaps in my own knowledge of feminist theory and Poststructuralism.

I haven’t seen many reviews of this text in the WP community or otherwise, but am interested in hearing/reading if there are some critiques.

For those interested, the term queer is typically used as a relational term. This term is not necessarily an indication of sexual orientation, in particular, same-sex orientation. Oftentimes the term queer is used in relationship to same-sex orientation and sexual orientation; however, the emergence of the term queer was an attempt to utilize poststructuralist tools in the construction of identity and politics. It seems to me that queer becomes an aspect of politics; that is, a cause that produces effects. Queer oftentimes is something that is derived from the self and used in self-definition, and not a term that can be used to talk about something or someone; however, theorists and opinions differ regarding the ways in which the term queer is used.

“Queer turns identity politics inside out…” [Jagose, taken from The Afterword]

Interns welcome for Summer 2007 at WATER

WATER welcome applications for internships for the Summer of 2007. Please see our web site, www.hers.com/water for more details and application forms. Gather your references, write your statement and apply!

Last summer four wonderful women joined us for parts of the summer to learn how to run a small feminist non-profit, meet with people from a range of religious traditions, help get our library on-line, do staff work for a conference, hone their fundraising skills, introduce older staff to the finer points of iPods and Facebook, and become part of the feminist liberation theological community worldwide.

Typical interns are college or graduate students with commitments to women’s well being, interest in feminist theology, ethics and/or ritual, a willingness to work hard, and enjoy the opportunities of being part of a growing women’ alliance.

We invite interns to stay a minimum of six weeks between May 21 and August 2, 2007. There is also a chance to collaborate with the Harvard Pluralism Project through a newly forming linkage of interns.

Tell your friends, students, colleagues about this exciting opportunity. Apply today! Contact WATER (water@hers.com ) for further information. Deadline is rolling but the first notifications will be by April 1, 2007.