Feminist Form(n)ations: Gender, Performance, Transnationalism

Lecture and Workshop by Jennifer A. REIMER, PhD (Department of Development Studies, University of Vienna)

28.01.2020
12:00 - 15:00
Institut für Soziologie (Geschlechtersoziologie)
015G010100 (Großer Besprechungsraum der UNI-IT), Universitätsstraße 15 Bauteil G, Resowi-Zentrum
Anmeldepflichtig
Anmeldung bis 26.01.2020, 23:59

Abstract

This lecture/workshop will explore two important keywords in gender studies: intersectionality and transnationalism. We will explore how race, class, gender/sexuality and national origin intersect in the formation and expression of feminist identities in a transnational context. Our entry into these conversations will be through visual culture and performance. We will examine several performances by female pop musicians that have been called “feminist” by the media, the fan base, and/or the artists themselves. Our goal will be to comment on how the visual and musical elements of the performances, alongside a critical reading of song lyrics, interact to comment on key issues in transnational feminism: feminist solidarity, women’s relationship to national culture and national identities, the regulation of women’s bodies in time and space, the effects of multiple structures of power on women in different times and places, the promises and limitations of a transnational feminism, resistance and others. After a brief definition and explanation of terminology and basic theoretical grounding, we will watch four music videos and together offer our thoughts on how each artist/video constructs a feminist vision (or doesn’t). We will identify specific aesthetic modes and contextualize each performance in its social/economic/political moment. Enacting a cross-cultural praxis amongst ourselves, this workshop will also explore how interpretations vary based on our own positionality (where and when each of us are in the world).

 

Short CV

Jennifer A. Reimer, Lise Meitner senior postdoctoral fellow in the American Studies department at the University of Graz (Austria), received her PhD in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Berkeley in 2011, and her MFA in Writing from the University of San Francisco in 2005. She is the 2011 winner of the American Studies Association’s Gloria E. Anzaldúa Award and currently serves as Chair on the ASA’s International Committee. Jennifer’s scholarly work has appeared in Western American Literature, ARIEL (A Review of International English Literature), The Journal of Popular Music Studies, Latino Studies, The Journal of Transnational American Studies, Aztlan: A Journal of Chicano/a Studies, as well as in the Routledge Companion to Transnational American Studies. Her current research examines how innovative poetry by women of color in the United States contributes to theories of transnational feminism. Her first prose poetry book, The Rainy Season Diaries, was released in 2013. The Turkish translation of The Rainy Season Diaries was released in 2017 by Şiirden Press (Istanbul). Poems from her current poetry manuscript, Keşke (pronounced kesh-kay), have won several awards. She is the Forwards Editor for the Journal of Transnational American Studies, the co-founder and co-editor of Achiote Press, and a proud native Californian.

 

Limited seating capacity, please register with brigitte.hartveld-holzner@uni-graz.at by 26th January 2020