genderplaceculture

New rapid response articles available now: Emergent and Divergent Spaces in the Women’s March: The Challenges of Intersectionality and Inclusion

Gender, Place & Culture, Volume 24, Issue 5, is now available online on Taylor & Francis Online <http://www.tandfonline.com>. This important issue is dedicated to articles concerned with the Women’s March, one of the largest coordinated protests in US and world history. Entitled ‘Emergent and Divergent Spaces in the Women’s March: The Challenges of Intersectionality and Inclusion’, the collection addresses some of the key issues arising through collective expressions of protest.

You may also like to read our linked blog post ‘Reflecting on the Women’s March on Washington’ by Frances Kunreuther here

Introduction

Emergent and divergent spaces in the Women’s March: the challenges of intersectionality and inclusion

Pamela Moss & Avril Maddrell

Pages: 613-620 | DOI: 10.1080/0966369X.2017.1351509
Rapid Response articles

On being groped and staying quiet. Or, what kind of place an airplane can be
Naomi Adiv
Pages: 621-627 | DOI: 10.1080/0966369X.2017.1342075

Intersectional feminism beyond U.S. flag hijab and pussy hats in Trump’s America
Banu Gökarıksel & Sara Smith

Pages: 628-644 | DOI: 10.1080/0966369X.2017.1343284

‘It definitely felt very white’: race, gender, and the performative politics of assembly at the Women’s March in Victoria, British Columbia
CindyAnn Rose-Redwood & Reuben Rose-Redwood
Pages: 645-654 | DOI: 10.1080/0966369X.2017.1335290

Token girl: reflections of an emerging feminist’s journey through music
Amanda Hooykaas
Pages: 655-660 | DOI: 10.1080/0966369X.2017.1328663

Generative spaces: intimacy, activism and teaching feminist geographies
Shannon Burke, Alexandra Carr, Helena Casson, Kate Coddington, Rachel Colls, Alice Jollans, Sarah Jordan, Katie Smith, Natasha Taylor & Heather Urquhart
Pages: 661-673 | DOI: 10.1080/0966369X.2017.1335293

Latent alliances: the Women’s March and agrarian feminism as opportunities of and for political ecology
Garrett Graddy-Lovelace
Pages: 674-695 | DOI: 10.1080/0966369X.2017.1342604

KNIT + RESIST: placing the Pussyhat Project in the context of craft activism
Shannon Black
Pages: 696-710 | DOI: 10.1080/0966369X.2017.1335292

(Re)producing feminine bodies: emergent spaces through contestation in the Women’s March on Washington

Sydney Boothroyd, Rachelle Bowen, Alicia Cattermole, Kenda Chang-Swanson, Hanna Daltrop, Sasha Dwyer, Anna Gunn, Brydon Kramer, Delaney M. McCartan, Jasmine Nagra, Shereen Samimi & Qwisun Yoon-Potkins
Pages: 711-721 | DOI: 10.1080/0966369X.2017.1339673

Resist, persist, desist: building solidarity from Grandma Ella through baby Angela to the Women’s March
Bisola Falola & Chelsi West Ohueri
Pages: 722-740 | DOI: 10.1080/0966369X.2017.1335291

Coming out of darkness and into activism
Petra Doan
Pages: 741-746 | DOI: 10.1080/0966369X.2017.1328664

Book Reviews
Constructive feminism: women’s spaces and women’s rights in the American city
Jenny Lendrum
Pages: 747-748 | DOI: 10.1080/0966369X.2016.1275105

An imperialist love story: desert romances in the war on terror
Andrea Miller

Pages: 748-750 | DOI: 10.1080/0966369X.2016.1275106

This year’s model: fashion, media, and the making of glamour
Pilar Ortiz
Pages: 750-751 | DOI: 10.1080/0966369X.2016.1275109

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genderplaceculture

A Box Filled with Treasures by Maureen Wilson

female wall

This post is written by Maureen Wilson, Hamilton, Ontario

I have a box filled with treasures.

No, they’re not diamonds, gold or even Apple shares. These treasures are homemade cards and pieces of art work made by each of my three children. Some of them are touching: “I love daddy. Daddy loves pizza and pie. But he loves me more” (Nailed it). Some are funny: “For 7 years of my life, you were a good mom.” That one was written by my son when he was seven. I can’t wait to see what he writes when he’s 14 and 21. Or maybe I can.

No hallmark card comes close to offering me a glimpse into the heart, humour and personality of each of my children at that moment in their lives. My son will never be seven again, but I have a piece, however small, of what he was like when he was seven. Just thinking about it makes me weepy.

Which brings me to the Women’s March on Washington. I suppose it’s because I love the written word so much that I was drawn to the signs. Thousands upon thousands upon thousands of signs, almost all of which were homemade. The same mothers who have made countless trips to the craft store or the dollar store on behalf of their kids and pending school projects were making the same trip for themselves. Bristol board. Markers. Some required glue and yarn. Others needed cotton batten. There was paint of every colour.

I’ve been to a few demonstrations over the last number of decades but I’m the furthest thing from radical. I aspired to be Mary Tyler Moore’s “Mary Richards” when I was younger, not Gloria Steinem. I am a feminist and have thought of myself as a feminist most of my life. To be sure, I am a white now middle class feminist. I am growing increasingly aware of my privilege and I know that I must listen and learn from the experiences of women unlike myself, including women of colour and Indigenous women. Some of the signs helped in that regard and have got me started on my journey.

The homemade signs offered a glimpse into the heart, humour and personality of each woman. They owned their signs. It was important to them and they carried the signs with pride and tremendous emotion. And, unlike other demonstrations I have been to, solidarity and strength was not measured in the uniformity of each sign. It was found in the differences. And, isn’t that a lesson in democracy, inclusiveness and civility, especially after witnessing the intentional chaos, panic and fear of the Executive Order from the President of the United States seeking to ban refugees (Muslims) from entering the United States – a case study in how demagogues and their handlers fan the flames of division, create scapegoats and use diversionary tactics to reorder society to prop up their own positions of power and privilege.

But of all the signs I bore witness to last Saturday one in particular affected me most. We came upon a long line of women, and a few men, with linked hands dressed in jumpsuits depicting a brick wall. In the place of some bricks were the words:

  • Dog
  • Bimbo
  • Must be a pretty picture. YOU DROPPING TO YOUR KNEES.
  • As long as you’ve got a young and beautiful PIECE OF ASS.
  • A person who is FLAT CHESTED is very hard to be a 10.
  • Disgusting Animal
  • There was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her wherever
  • Slob
  • I’ve said if Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her

Of course, these are the words of Donald Trump. We had all heard these words over the past year. But to see them in bold print and attached to the bodies of women was very powerful. Imagine the size of the crowd, as you’ve seen from the television reports, and then imagine absolute silence. Women knelt before this wall and cried. I cried. The women forming the wall cried and strangers hugged strangers to console, to grieve, to give strength and support. I don’t think I’ll ever forget it as long as I live.

The printed word matters. Today, more than ever. Truth matters. Alternative truth is another word for fiction. Sources that seek to uncover and offer the truth matter like the free press and libraries. I will double down on my support for both and I hope to unite with people who feel the same. And, I will refill my supply of Bristol board and markers and always have a comfortable pair of shoes at hand. I am ready to march. Again.

genderplaceculture

Reflecting on the Women’s March on Washington

 

Written by Frances Kunreuther, Reblogged from the Building Movement Project

The day after Trump’s inauguration, I was one of the 500,000 or 1.2 million who marched in Washington, D.C.  I was glad to be there, even with the flaws. There was a feeling of optimism reflected in the pussy hats, homemade signs, different issues that were represented, throngs of people, and general good will. That feeling is quickly fading as our new President’s actions wreak havoc on the environment, Muslims, people in need of health care, refugees, women who are sexually active, people of color, immigrants, workers, those without resources, and so much more.

Being at a march that was dominated by white women, I kept thinking about the ‘other white women’ – the majority who voted for Trump. They were not wearing pussy hats or holding signs that read “Free Melania” or shouting, “Our Bodies, Our Choice.” Trump’s denigration of women, or anyone else, didn’t seem to matter to them, or to matter enough to keep them from casting their vote for a self-avowed sexual predator, and the question is why not?

I began to wonder if white women are just used to men like Trump. Maybe he is not that different from the other men in their lives: husbands, fathers, partners, sons, co-workers, neighbors, friends. White men who feel it is fine to talk about, or grab, someone’s pussy and claim it’s a compliment; who believe they have power that should not be challenge.

Back in the day, I worked in what we called the battered women’s movement. We saw intimate partner violence as an issue of power. We knew it was systemic, that institutions – school, communities, laws, policies, families, and in places of worship – kept gender-based power differences in place. We heard the justifications for the violence, and we listened to the reasons why women did not leave. They were dependent on their partner financially, no one believed them, the criminal justice system ignored their pleas for help and often told women they were responsible.  Women didn’t have control over their lives, they were told they were worthless and over time they started to believe it. They loved their partner and hoped he would change. In response, we wanted to raise consciousness, help women see our own agency, and support each other. We wanted to offer an alternative, for the victims of violence, and for all of us; to change the systems that kept these power differences in place.  Many women stayed with their abusers, and it was just as difficult to watch then as it is disappointing to learn that 53% of white women, and almost half of college education white women voted for Trump.

Much has already been written contrasting how white women voted with the fact that only 4% of black women and 26% of Latinas were Trump supporters. We know that women of color, too, experience violence from within and outside of their families. But women of color – especially Black women – also know what violence has been perpetrated against their communities in order to“protect” white women. So maybe when they looked at Donald Trump, they also saw in him other white men they had known, making his presidency even scarier.

And white women? Is our trade-off to ignore the slights all women face – about our competency and interests, judgements about our bodies, harassment in public spaces, and fear of verbal and physical violations at home or by strangers – so we can be “protected” by white men whose power is enhanced by Trump’s reactionary populism, meaning a political climate that tilts male, white and Christian? Will there be a time when the majority of white women will recognize the costs to them and their mothers, aunts, sisters, daughters and sons of this compromise, and have the courage to bond with their sisters of color, just as so many brave women have taken the risk to leave the “normality” of their abusers?  And will that build a soon-enough, strong-enough movement to stop the madness– the greedy financial interests, male privilege and white supremacy –  that has led us to Donald Trump?

genderplaceculture

Call for Dissertation Précis now open

Call for Dissertation Précis

 Gender, Place and Culture is committed to promoting scholarship in feminist geography. As part of this commitment the journal is launching a new initiative: publishing doctoral dissertation précis. As part of the feminist geography community, we seek to celebrate academic work written by students who have laboured long and hard to complete their studies. By honoring these accomplishments, the journal can show how students engaging with feminist geography are building the future of the discipline.

 Gender, Place and Culture will be publishing doctoral dissertation précis in each issue. Submissions will be considered on a competitive basis. Each précis will undergo a vetting process by an Editor. Successful submissions will join the queue for publication.

 We seek original pieces of writing of about 1500 words (including references) that summarize a recently defended dissertation. Rather than publishing the abstracts submitted with the dissertation, we request that authors write a different piece summarizing the dissertation in a way that highlights the contributions to feminist geographies. We request that the abstract accompanying the dissertation be submitted alongside the newly written précis. We also request that a set of five to seven key words accompany the submission. Please refer to our guidance notes for further information on dissertation précis at: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/authorSubmission?journalCode=cgpc20&page=instructions

The Editors invite authors to submit précis of their dissertations through ScholarOne. Dissertations defended in 2016 and 2017 are now being accepted.

On behalf of the Editors of Gender, Place and Culture

Pamela Moss

genderplaceculture

Call for blog post contributions: Help us celebrate 25 years of Gender, Place and Culture!

In 2018, Gender, Place and Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography is celebrating its 25th anniversary, and we’d like to mark the occasion by hearing from those of you who have an interest in all things feminist geography! We are therefore looking for expressions of interest to contribute blog posts to our website!

We seek 25 blogs for 25 years. The posts will be released approximately twice a month throughout 2018. And, if we receive more than 25 blogs, we’ll post them more frequently! As well as being shared via our Facebook and Twitter feed (please share with anyone who you think might be interested!) using our special #GPC25 hashtag, the blogs will also be featured on this site and a new GPC@25 website that is currently under construction.

What we need now

All we need at this stage is: 1) title/subject and 2) a short statement of a sentence or two outlining the broad topic. We will decide on the release date of the blogs nearer the time. So at this stage you are only committing yourself to delivering a 750-word blog/essay in principle.

What should I write about?

You may already have a great idea but as a guide, the theme is “Feminist Geographies at 25”. Blogs might reflect on the following ideas, but do not need to be limited to them:

  • Key interventions made by feminist geographers;
  • Histories of feminist geography;
  • Doing feminist geographies;
  • Key themes or issues;
  • Feminist geographers that have inspired your work;
  • Impact of the journal in your work;
  • Calls to action;
  • Why you wanted to be published in Gender, Place and Culture; and

Comments on current events are also appropriate, especially when related to aspects of feminist geography.

Who can write for the site?

We welcome submissions from geographers of all career stages – researchers, scholars, master’s and doctoral students, post-docs, undergraduate students, and community activists. We would especially like to encourage doctoral students and early career researchers to contribute.

Where do I submit my idea and my blog?

Submission ideas should be sent to our dedicated GPC@25 website email address (GPCat25 @ gmail.com) by 31st August 2017. These will ideally be posted in the first half of 2018. A second submission date will be set later. Blog ideas will be vetted and selected that reflect the broad interests of feminist geographers. Once your post has been selected, Anna Tarrant the social media coordinator for Gender, Place and Culture, will get in touch with you to provide an approximate timeline for delivering the blog. We would expect that most contributions be sent to us in the space of 2-3 weeks.

If you have any questions, please ask. Ideas do not need to be fully formed at this stage and we are happy to provide further guidance/advice if necessary.

genderplaceculture

Volume 24, Issue 4 now available, including special section ‘Embodying violence’

Volume 24, Issue 4 is out now! We have four fascinating articles with international focus exploring the gendered politics of empire, female pilgrims, women’s military experiences and ‘wandering intellectuals’. We also have a special section, edited by Jennifer L. Fluri & Amy Piedalue, entitled ‘Embodying Violence: Critical Geographies of Gender, Race, and Culture.’ The volume finishes with three book reviews.

Articles

Gendered politics of empire: the female explorateur and natural histories of the Amazon basin 1899–1901
Jessica Carey-Webb
The voices of female pilgrims in medieval wills. The Jacobean devotion in Apulia (Italy)
Lucrezia Lopez & Rubén Camilo Lois González
Wandering intellectuals: establishing a research agenda on gender, walking, and thinking
Mia Keinänen & Eevi E. Beck
Embodying Violence: Critical Geographies of Gender, Race, and Culture
Embodying violence: critical geographies of gender, race, and culture
Jennifer L. Fluri & Amy Piedalue
genderplaceculture

Volume 24, Issue 3 now available

Volume 24, Issue 3 has some fantastic articles, including an exciting special section about queer methodologies. If you are interested in creativity in geographic practice, Mexican masculinities, Muslim masculinities, and Vegas, then this is the issue for you!
Articles
Critical geographies and geography’s creative re/turn: poetics and practices for new disciplinary spaces
Sarah de Leeuw & Harriet Hawkins
Gender mainstreaming and water development projects: analyzing unexpected enviro-social impacts in Bolivia, India, and Lesotho
Maryann R. Cairns, Cassandra L. Workman & Indrakshi Tandon
Being a man in the horse capital: Mexican farmworkers’ masculinities in Kentucky
Mitchell Snider
Diva Las Vegas: queering space in the entertainment capital of the world
Dan Udy
genderplaceculture

A note from Beth W. Kamunge, one of our New and Emerging Scholar Award winners

 

In todays post, Beth W. Kamunge tells us a bit about her research and future plans. Beth is a 3rd year doctoral researcher at The University of Sheffield’s (UK) department of Geography. As one of our new and emerging scholar award winners she also gives potential future applicants some advice about submitting for the award in future!

A bit about Beth’s research

The original contribution to knowledge that my research project offers, is the empirical and embodied exploration of black women’s food experiences, which have so far been relatively ignored by feminist scholars. At the beginning of my project I was curious as to what new insights black women’s food-related experiences could provide to contemporary debates in food politics. I spent a year having food-based dialogues with 12 self-identifying black women in Sheffield (UK). These dialogues included shopping for food together mostly in City Council markets, street and farmer’s markets, and independent grocery stores; sessions of cooking together lasting between 3 to 7 hours at a go; sharing meals; and hanging out at allotments for participants who grew their own food. In the end I found that there was a lot to be gained in how we think about ‘local’ food as a pathway to social justice; the devaluation of food knowledges; and kitchens as alternative spaces for knowledge production. Studying food is by definition an interdisciplinary project. Whilst I have drawn upon and contributed to feminist geographies of food, I have also brought in work from Black-Feminisms, Philosophy, Sociology, Politics and Literature.

Future plans

I am at the point of my PhD where I am not thinking too far beyond just finishing it! I have on the whole quite enjoyed doing it and I am looking forward to seeing what my thesis looks like at the end. Beyond that point, I would like to have an academic career, still around Black-Feminist food politics. I would be particularly keen to focus in on one of my PhD chapters and construct a research project around it. I have been heavily involved in the Critical Race and Ethnicities Network (CREN) in the last 3 years. We have held symposiums, workshops and two conferences. Currently we are doing a 3-part Black-Feminisms seminar series (May, June, and July 2017) to mark the end of CREN. But I would be interested in carrying out anti-racist feminist activisms in different iterations throughout my academic career.

Advice for future applicants to the New and Emerging Scholar Award

I think it’s been really helpful for me to think about academic work as being at various stages of being ‘unfinished’. I was having a conversation with Dr Derrais Carter (Assistant Professor, Portland State University) where I said there was something I hadn’t applied for, because I didn’t feel ‘ready’. And their response was “the ellipses of our work is always implied”. That’s something I found really helpful in dealing with perfectionist tendencies. Also, at the beginning of 2017 I read an article (via Twitter) of a writer who made it their goal to receive 100 rejections. To be honest it did sound extremely bizarre (who wants to get rejected 100 times!), but after reading it, it made a lot of sense. Their logic was that to get 100 rejections, means they have submitted their work at least 100 times rather than being too afraid to try. The piece had resonance because it was about not waiting to do that one ‘perfect’ application, but sending out 100 ‘good-enough’ applications and seeing what happens. In the end they say they got to 47 rejections, but with I think 6 big acceptances including a prestigious fellowship, book contract and so on that made it all worth it. So that’s how I made my intention for 2017 to be the year to “submit” my work even when I don’t think it’s ‘perfect’. So far, I have submitted 10 things, 3 of which were rejections (and 1 of which had really good constructive feedback that I was quite pleased with) but 7 acceptances including 3 awards that I wouldn’t have gone for otherwise. So, I guess it works! Just go ahead and submit.

On that note, I would like to thank Gender Place and Culture for the award and the opportunity to present my research at the upcoming RGS-IBG conference in London (August 2017).

genderplaceculture

Volume 24, Issue 2 now available

Volume 24, Issue 2 is now available online. This issue includes a viewpoint by Ann Bartos about food politics, two book reviews, and articles covering a range of fascinating topics that are advancing feminist geographies. Enjoy!

Viewpoint 

The body eating its food politics: reflections on relationalities and embodied ways of knowing

Ann E. Bartos

Articles

Caliban and the Witch and wider bodily geographies
Sutapa Chattopadhyay
The legal grading of sexual citizenship: sentencing practices in Norwegian rape cases
Anne Bitsch & Marit Elisabeth Klemetsen
The home the law built: white domesticity and the designs of juvenile dependency law in Los Angeles, California
Akhila L. Ananth
Work intensifications, injuries and legal exclusions for paid domestic workers in Montréal, Québec
Carmen Teeple Hopkins
Migration, marginalization and metropolitaneity: negotiation of masculinities of Nepali drug users in Hong Kong
Wai-Man Tang
Gender perspective on the social networks of household heads and community leaders after involuntary resettlement
Melissa Quetulio-Navarra, Anja Znidarsic & Anke Niehof
Urban homesteading and intensive mothering: (re) gendering care and environmental responsibility in Boston and Chicago
Brenda Parker & Oona Morrow
Getting comfortable to feel at home: clothing practices of black muslim women in Britain
Azeezat Johnson
Saving and fearing Muslim women in ‘post-communist’ Poland: troubling Catholic and secular Islamophobia
Kasia Narkowicz & Konrad Pędziwiatr
Book reviews
Henri Lefebvre and education
Barbara Pini
Marriage migration in Asia: emerging minorities at the frontiers of nation-states
Raksha Pande
genderplaceculture

Interview with Dr. Kelsey Hanrahan, Recipient of a 2017 New and Emerging Scholars Award

In 2007, the editorial team introduced the Gender, Place and Culture annual award for new and emerging scholars with funds supplied by Taylor & Francis. We are excited to share an interview with Dr. Kelsey Hanrahan, one of the 2017 recipients of this award. Thank you, Kelsey, for responding to our questions!

DSCN3981.jpg
Dr. Kelsey Hanrahan (right) sitting next to a woman who she shares a grandmother-granddaugther relationship with. The photograph was taken during her dissertation research in Ghana in 2013.

Where do you see your work drawing on or fitting into feminist geography?

I was first drawn into feminist geographies because of the way these geographies work to understand everyday experiences. Similarly with feminist ethics of care, I was drawn into the body of work by its roots, where feminist scholars sought to understand the ways in which people made ethical decisions based not on abstract universalist principles but on the factors that they were facing in their everyday lives.

A project I am currently working on—part of the research I did in northern Ghana for my dissertation—draws on feminist considerations of the body and work in feminist gerontology. I consider how changing physical abilities associated with ageing result in shifts within interpersonal relationships and how, in a community where love is demonstrated in everyday acts of labour, significant emotional challenges accompany ageing. Ageing and later life have been relegated to a marginal position in geography for decades, and even within the growing areas of geographies of age, later life receives significantly less attention. Current conversations in feminist and related geographies of the body, love and emotions are one intersection in which we can contribute to both geographies of age and feminist geographies with our understandings of the experiences of women in later life. While my work so far is specifically contextualized within a rural agrarian setting in Ghana, the experiences of the women I worked with challenge us to remained attuned to how bodies—even those who may have lived much of their lives fitting normative expectations—are subject to displacement both physical and emotional.

What are your current projects?

I see my work as contributing to an ongoing project that is working to better understand care. I have drawn on feminist geographies and feminist ethics of care to work towards shifting my own ontological foundation towards recognizing our fundamental connectedness and therefore the central forces of our interdependencies. Recognizing and working from a place of connectedness, for me, requires me to continually check myself as the dominant discourses of individuality—and the power of individual experiences and narratives in shaping our understandings—work to give the perception that this connectedness is in opposition to individuality and independence.

While I continue to work with my dissertation research data, I am also developing my next research project that will build on these questions of care and intergenerationality and consider the construction of care for Ghana’s older residents. The project will contribute by developing an understanding of how care policy and practice are constructed in a region committed to health development and to understand the ways in which these initiatives may be failing to attend to the needs of an ageing population. I aim to understand how individuals and communities identify care-related needs and in turn legitimize access to care to particular bodies and give shape to the spaces in which people try to access care.

What do you see in your future?

This coming fall I start the first year of a tenure-track position at Towson University in Maryland, USA, after spending this past year as a visiting professor in the same department. I’ve enjoyed engaging students in my courses, particularly geographies of Africa and geographies of health & care, where students are challenged to recognize and explore alternative perspectives. I’m also excited about contributing new courses to the program—qualitative research methods, as well as feminist geographies. I think these courses will contribute an important facet to our students’ program, adding breadth to their skill set and supporting to prepare them to work in their communities in ways that are both respectful and creatively critical.

What do enjoy most about the work you do?

Looking at everyday life requires that we ask a lot of the people we work with. The work I conducted in Ghana considered everyday experiences of work and care from the starting point of personal relationships. The women with whom I worked brought me into deeply personal spaces of their experiences. They shared with me not only material and physical facets of their lives, but emotional dimensions of their position within intergenerational relationships and everyday strategies. Their openness to me, and to the work I was doing, provided me with a rich and textured understanding of their everyday lives. This has contributed to my ability to explore care in ways that both respect the specific context I am considering and present elements that connect across space. I love working on intergenerational relationships and care—in large part because of the reactions of others when I discuss my work. The themes and stories I tell almost invariably evoke empathic reactions, despite talking across significant physical and cultural distances. People recognize pieces of their lives in the work I present and in turn share with me their own experiences of care and intergenerational relationships.