cfp.english.upenn.edu

Black and Latina feminist scholars offer multiple ways of understanding feminist cultures that transcend ideological borders and patriarchal conventions. More recently, Black and Latina feminists have negotiated the positionality of the woman of color in the ever-changing world of Hip Hop since its inception. The Black and Brown Feminisms in Hip Hop Media Conference situates Black and Latina feminist theory in the context of Hip Hop representation to discuss ways Hip Hop music, film, and club industries fetishize, exploit, celebrate, empower and/or disempower Black and Brown women.

This interdisciplinary conference will feature unpublished work on women in Hip Hop to exchange ideas, share research, and initiate a sustained conversation by and about Black and Brown women in Hip Hop media. Vital to this discussion is attention to the blurring lines between Black and Latina feminist studies and a dialogue that attempts to understand an interweaving history of objectification, struggle, and potential for agency. How do we read Black and Brown women in Hip Hop culture? What readings of Black and Brown women other than conventional black feminist readings and Latina feminist analyses are cogent? What theories enable those readings? Finally, what would an investigation into autobiographical stories of video models yield? How would those narratives differ from that of more conventional readings?
A select number of accepted papers will be included in a one-day, academic conference at the University of Texas at San Antonio as a part of UTSA’s celebration of Women’s History Month on March 4, 2011 with a Hip Hop performance from local Texas as well as national hip hop artists on the evening of March 5, 2011. This conference will be an opportunity for presenters to share views and concerns on the growing intersections between Black and Brown women in hip hop culture. Possible Panel Topics Include:

Interdisciplinary Approaches to Gender and Race in Hip Hop
Colorism within Hip-Hop video culture
The New Female Entrepreneur
Negotiating Sexualities
Black and Latina Diasporas
Video Vixens or Video Models?
Female Rappers
Queer Identities
Chicana/o Rap
Alternative Models of Black Femininity
Latinas in Video Model Culture
Intersections of Video Models with Youth Culture
Performing the Black Body/ Brown Body
Reggaeton
Able-Bodied Privilege in Hip Hop Feminisms
A Case Study of Karrine Steffans
Strip Club Culture
Confessions of Video Vixens
Eroticism vs. Pornography
Women as Exchange among a Male Economy

Please submit a 500 word abstract to Kinitra Brooks and/or Marco Cervantes blackandbrownfeminisms@gmail.com on or before November 15, 2010.