2013 GRADUATE RESEARCH WORKSHOP March 6 Bailey 109 University of Kansas Engage. Network. Converse.
PROGRAM Panel 1: “Vital Cityscapes” Chair: Beverly Mack, Professor of African/African-American Studies and Director of KASC
10:00-10:45
“Intellectual and Developmental Disability in Kinshasa: Personhood and Support” Heather Aldersey, Education, KU
10:45-11:30
“Half Slum, Half Paradise: Chris Abani’s Global Cities” Dustin Crowley, English, KU
11:30-12:15
“Urban Growth and Management of Tripoli City, Libya” Almokhtar Attwairi, Geography, KU
12:15-1:00
Lunch (provided for workshop participants)
Panel 2: “Delivering the Message: Audience and Form” Chair: Kathryn Rhine, Asst. Prof., Socio-Cultural Anthropology
1:00-1:45
“‘Highway to Success?’ African Pentecostalism and the Divine Pursuit of Wealth” Emily Stratton, Religious Studies, KU
1:45-2:30
“Lessons from the Niger Delta: The American Reader of Ken Saro-Wiwa’s A Month and a Day” Ali Brox, English, KU
2:30-3:15
“Steve Biko’s I Write What I Like: An Autobiography of Sorts” Stephanie Scurto, English, KU
ABSTRACTS Intellectual and Developmental Disability in Kinshasa: Personhood and Support Heather Aldersey, Education, KU Many disability interventions worldwide are based upon Western conceptualizations of disability; yet disability supports are most effective when grounded in cultural understanding of the disability in question. This presentation, grounded in 7 months of empirical, qualitative fieldwork, explores the construction of personhood of people with intellectual disabilities in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. It also discusses the needs and availability of support for people with intellectual disabilities and their families in Kinshasa and provides suggestions for future disability interventions on the continent. Half Slum, Half Paradise: Chris Abani’s Global Cities Dustin Crowley, English, KU Chris Abani’s literary work typically centers on the urban experience, both in Africa and in the cities where Africans find themselves around the world. With his cityscapes acting almost as characters themselves, Abani explores the enigma of the urban landscape, especially in its interactions with the vagaries of globalization. His narratives inhabit the knotty intersection and interplay of city and scale that shape the world’s metropolises, detailing the profoundly ambiguous causes, conditions, and consequences of global urbanity. His main characters struggle—and generally fail—to ground themselves in fluid, disruptive, and often unjust cityscapes; yet at the same time, Abani portrays (especially marginalized) urban spaces as places of vitality and value, engendering possibilities for alterity that exist alongside of—and perhaps arise out of—the hardships of city life. Refracted through cities as widespread as London, Los Angeles, and Lagos, continued on next page...
ABSTRACTS Abani’s ambivalent representation of global urbanity complicates notions of mobility, hybridity, and victimization that are often attached to discussions about cities, especially by seeing Africa’s cities as occupying a unique “place-in-the-world” while simultaneously connected to a sort of common urban experience. By eschewing simplistic evaluations about the progressive or oppressive nature of these phenomena, Abani’s narratives challenge readers to grapple with the multidimensional, multiscalar forces at work producing the worlds beautiful and ugly, violent and vital cities.
Urban Growth and Management of Tripoli City, Libya Almokhtar Attwairi, Geography, KU Despite the fact that Libya is a small country in terms of population and a huge geographical area, the urbanization rate is very high. In fact it is one of the highest rates in the African continent. My research analyzes the urban growth of Tripoli city. It focuses on the role of urban management policies in last two decades, urban growth and its impact on the surrounding environment. Special attention will be given to the planning structure and the political role on the planning and development process and practices.
“Highway to Success?” African Pentecostalism and the Divine Pursuit of Wealth Emily Stratton, Religious Studies, KU In the 1980s, African nations across the content underwent drastic economic changes. In implementing Structural Adjustment Plans (SAPs), designed and financially backed by the IMF and World Bank, these nations were thrust into new trade agreements and governance styles based upon Western neoliberal values. Coinciding with these economic shifts, a new and Pentecostal form of Christianity developed and quickly came to flourish in urban centers across the continent. This new Christianity takes similar forms and shares many striking continuities throughout the continent, including a zealous embrace of materialism and unabashed promotion of the pursuit of material wealth—a “gospel of accumulation.” However, the faith is far from monolithic. This presentation draws upon ethnographic case studies of the gospel of accumulation, as presented by selected churches in Ghana, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, and Tanzania. I utilize these case studies for two primary purposes: first, to help contextualize the timing of the emergence of Africa’s new Pentecostalism, and secondly, to elucidate its pluralism. The ways in which the pursuit of wealth is theologically conceptualized, prescribed, and justified varies drastically between individual churches and church leaders. Furthermore, I argue that this plurality carries with it significant implications upon urban life in Africa, and raises provocative questions regarding the ethics of church finance and religious authority. The gospel of accumulation—in all of its manifestations—muddles distinctions between theology and charlatanry, evangelism and scam.
ABSTRACTS Lessons from the Niger Delta: The American Reader of Ken Saro-Wiwa’s A Month and a Day Ali Brox, English, KU This paper focuses on the appeals Ken Saro-Wiwa employs to target an American reader and make her aware of the political and environmental threats the Ogoni people face in Nigeria. In A Month and a Day, Saro-Wiwa utilizes certain mainstream perceptions about Africa and African people to make the reader comfortable with her knowledge base, and then he offers a counter-narrative about Nigeria and the Ogoni people that expands the reader’s knowledge of the political, social, and economic policies that are devastating the Niger Delta. He re-imagines a different conception of nature that coincides with a global environmental justice perspective. The evidence that Saro-Wiwa uses to build on this transformed image of the Niger Delta and the Ogoni people resonates with American practices that he represents in his movement for Ogoni rights: the combining of environmental and social issues, the contextualization of vocabularies used in environmental racism struggles to the vocabulary of micro-minority rights that fit his specific situation, and the emphasis on the use of nonviolent means in the struggle. SaroWiwa views the transformation of the American reader in particular as crucial to achieving the goals of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People [MOSOP]. By positioning the reader in relation to significant issues in global environmental justice movements, SaroWiwa develops strategies that simultaneously celebrate local activism and attract international support, and change the way the American reader views her role in global issues.
Steve Biko’s I Write What I Like: An Autobiography of Sorts Stephanie Scurto, English and Philosphy, KU This discussion arises from my dissertation chapter on Stephen Bantu Biko and his position(s) within systems of confinement: literal imprisonment, as well as subjugation under the regime of South African Apartheid. What makes this dissertation chapter particularly challenging is not documenting the systems of confinement under which Biko and people of color suffered from 1948 to 1994. The horrors of this timeline are well-known and widely recognized through numerous sources and lenses. My challenge lies in making the connection between I Write What I Like and the arguments of what constitutes “autobiography” as a genre. I Write What I Like is a posthumous collection of Steve Biko writings, including some of his well-known “Frank Talk” articles. While the collection may not ostensibly announce itself as an autobiography, a close look reveals a set of strongly political works informed by deeply personal ideology steeped in the bitter brew of human injustice and gross abuse of power. Also, in terms of content and structure, I Write What I Like contains a brief personal memoir by the Reverend Aelered Stubbs who writes a heart-wrenching tribute to Biko, offering a blend of Biko’s biographical information and Stubbs’ intense personal narrative of loss.
SPONSORED BY The Kansas African Studies Center
ORGANIZED BY Byron Caminero-Santangelo, Assoc. Prof. of English Glenn Adams, Assoc. Prof. of Psychology Christina Lux, Asst. Dir. of KASC
Cover Photo by: Nadia Imafidon
KASC Bailey Hall, Rm #208 1440 Jayhawk Boulevard University of Kansas Lawrence, KS 66049 kasc@ku.edu
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