postcolonial

Space and Place in French and Francophone Women’s Writing

Borders and Boundaries in Popular French Caribbean Culture

This panel welcomes papers focused on illustrations of borders and boundaries in popular culture in French Caribbean women’s writing or film. Papers may be in English or French and may not exceed 20 minutes. Please send 250-word abstracts and any A/V requests to Lisa Connell (lconnell@westga.edu) by June 1, 2017.

Ireland, Irish America, and Work is the theme of the 33rd annual meeting of the American Conference for Irish Studies-Western Regional [ACIS-West] for Oct. 19-22, 2017 at the Davenport Hotel in Spokane, Washington. Many prominent members of the American Labor Movement were Irish and Irish-American. Jim Larkin and James Connolly worked for the I.W.W in both Ireland and the United States, where, in 1917, the I.W.W. began to face vicious repression. By July 1917, federal troops began to be used to suppress industrial conflicts, to raid I.W.W. halls, to break up meetings, and to arrest Wobblies. In Spokane, Irish I.W.W. leader James Rowan was arrested and sent to Leavenworth.

Featuring

Regarding an ongoing research project at Columbia University, Barnard student Sabrina Singer reflected that when she walks around the campus, now, she wonders: “What else is history going to forget?”[i] The research Singer and her colleagues are doing looks at the historical ties between the institution now educating them and the historical institution of slavery. We were prompted to similar reflections having visited Yale’s Peabody Museum and an exhibit there of Elihu Yale’s gemstones collection. Included in the display is a painting of Yale: he is pictured with a large unfinished diamond ring on his finger, symbolizing Britain’s dominance over India.

Material culture assumes significance of massive proportions in cultures across the globe by virtue of its ability to trace everyday life and its nuances through the signifying metaphor of objects. The historical trajectories of nations, cultures and communities function in tandem with that of the prevailing material culture(s) in as much as transformations in the latter sphere inevitably represent ruptures or shifts in the former. The stories that objects recount surpass the boundaries of time and space as they transcend both. They function as signifying metaphors, carrying multiple significations of lives lived through and with them.