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Transcending Borders: Women of Color's Constructive Responses to Marginality

Submitted to Program Units
1: Women of Color Scholarship, Teaching, and Activism Unit

Oluwatomisin Oredein, Brite Divinity School, Presiding

Abstract for Online Program Book (maximum 150 words)

From questions of identity creation to innovative tactics to reclaim and re-make one's own identity - this panel session features papers exploring the colonial contours of marginal identity and what empowering, resistant, or subversive identity-making practices have been inspired as a result. Topically diverse and attentive to how the world's systems and religious systems can respond responsibly and humanely to minoritized women, this panel directly addresses sensitive yet critical issues such as: using affect theory to reconceptualize the margin as a locus of resistance, reproductive justice via a critical conversation around transnational adoption, a decolonial approach to naming and dismantling the multi-border oppressions of indigenous peoples, and the unjust and abelist pressures on minoritized women in the academy that can be resisted via these womens' commitment to "laziness." Overturning that which has been normalized and margin-making, these papers envision, theorize, and outline constructive ways to think forward that center the dignity of women. 

Papers

  • Seong Hyun Lee, Drew University

    Seeking alliance replacing alienation by reconceptualizing margins as the locus of resistance: a Praxis of Emotion-based Pedagogy of discomfort

    Abstract

    As the feminist scholars, activists, pastoral and non-pastoral caregivers of and for marginalized communities, how can we dismantle the equalization of those who are in the margins as inferior and subservient?” How can we utilize emotions as methods of resistance to challenge and change any socio-cultural perceptions, customs, norms that uphold and perpetuate this unjust and unequal society? How can we empower those who live their daily lives at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities by maximizing moral value of emotions such as anger, empathy, shame, and guilt; and minimizing the moral risks of emotions? By using pedagogy of discomfort (Megan Boler) and the pedagogy of the oppressed(Paulo Freire), I will offer a social imaginary as praxis that is based on the feminist care ethics.

  • L. Nelson Leonard, University of Texas at Austin

    Making Diaspora: On Memory, Transit, and Ritual in Transnational Adoption

    Abstract

    For many adopted people, their authentic perspectives of adoption as a system are distinct from how they feel toward their adoptive parents and family. But the way that adoptees remember why and how they survived does not always align with the dominant cultural narratives and assumptions surrounding adoption. Many find themselves in the position of having to reinforce “positive” notions of adoption or remain silent, which reinforces unresolved feelings of displacement or loss. This paper focuses on what happens when transnationally adopted people resist those expectations and make themselves “un-silent” through discourses and performances that articulate a form of world-making otherwise suppressed, misrecognized, or ignored. 

  • Yenny Delgado, University of Lausanne

    “Decolonizing Borders in Abya Yala”

    Abstract

    The paper "Decolonizing Borders in Abya Yala" delves into imposed borders' historical and theological underpinnings during the colonization. Through comprehensive analysis, the study identifies three types of borders resulting from colonization and their far-reaching implications in Abya Yala. The first border explores the physical barriers that divided the motherland, profoundly impacting native communities, broken families, slavery, and land expropriation. The second border investigates the imposition of Spanish, Portuguese, and English as "civilized" languages, which overshadowed native languages, leading to forced assimilation and erasure of native languages. The third border pertains to the control of knowledge and spiritual practices, wherein native spiritualities and wisdom were marginalized, being viewed as pagan compared to a dominant form of Christianity presented as the only acceptable belief system. A decolonial approach challenges existing border paradigms and aims to empower native descendants to reclaim their heritage, knowledge, identity, and spiritual practices in Abya Yala.

  • Kayko Driedger Hesslein, Lutheran Theological Seminary, Saskatoon

    The Lazy Academic as Resistance

    Abstract

    This paper will theoretically and autobiographically engage the premise that living the "lazy" academic life can be an act of resistance against the totalitarianism of late stage capitalism in academia, as well as a position of solidarity with those who live with neurocognitive disability. Drawing on the presenter's experience as a "model-minority" academic diagnosed with neurocognitive post-exertional malaise caused by long COVID, this paper will critically examine the ways in which the pressure on model minorities to succeed in a culture shaped by a white Protestant work ethic both contributes to disability while simultaneously rendering disabled persons as unproductive and "lazy." Using the work of crip theologian Karen Bray and race and cultural theorist Sarah Ahmed, this paper will propose that living into the disabled "lazy" life can dismantle the ableism of white academia while simultaneously working towards life-giving and generative academic practices.

Audiovisual Requirements

Resources

LCD Projector and Screen
Play Audio from Laptop Computer
Podium microphone

Full Papers Available

No
Program Unit Options

Session Length

90 Minutes

Schedule Preference

Sunday, 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Schedule Info

Monday, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM

Tags

Women of Color; Marginal Resistance; Decolonization; Affect Studies; Diaspora; Reproductive Studies; Identity; Ableism Studies
Affect Theory
margins
marginality
pedagogy of discomfort
feminist epistemology of ignorance and feminist stand point theory
psychology of emotion
women's and gender studies
Disability
theology
pressures of academia
academia
Model Minority
ableism

Session Identifier

A25-431