CFP: Gender and Anti-colonialism in the Interwar Caribbean (Caribbean Review of Gender Studies)
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Call for Papers: Gender and Anti-colonialism in the Interwar Caribbean
Caribbean Review of Gender Studies
Guest Editors: Dr. Natanya Duncan (Lehigh University) and Dr. Reena Goldthree (Dartmouth College)
Deadline: 1 September 2016
The decades between the First and Second World Wars witnessed intensified challenges to both European and US imperialism in the Caribbean. Issuing demands for self-determination and full citizenship rights, activists utilized new mass organizations—such as trade unions, political parties, and nationalist associations—as well as older collectives such as mutual aid societies, religious groups, and cultural clubs to contest the legitimacy of foreign rule. The duration, scale, and militancy of anticolonial mobilizations varied widely across the region, as activists employed tactics ranging from formal negotiation with the state to armed guerilla warfare. Yet, as an interdisciplinary literature has demonstrated, the surge in grassroots protest during the interwar years occurred throughout the colonial Caribbean as well as in the formally independent nation-states of Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. Thus, the political ferment of the interwar era not only laid the groundwork for post-World War II independence movements, but also created an opening to contest hegemonic constructions of race, gender, and nation.
This special issue of the Caribbean Review of Gender Studies will examine how gender shaped anticolonial thought and praxis in the interwar Caribbean (1919-39). Studying the global origins of anticolonialism, feminist scholars have deconstructed the “citizen/subject” binary, highlighting the relationship among political exclusion, racial hierarchies, and gender inequality. They have also illuminated how oppositional movements throughout the colonized world reconfigured and reproduced ideas about sexual difference, articulating citizenship claims through gendered ideologies that often affirmed—rather than dislodged—patriarchy.
Intervening in this burgeoning literature, Caribbeanist scholars have investigated how local understandings of “womanhood” and “manhood” shaped resistance to colonialism in the turbulent 1920s and 1930s. In addition, they have documented women’s myriad roles in struggles against colonial rule, excavating the forgotten connections between anticolonial and feminist movements. Disrupting the longstanding focus on the “fathers” of Caribbean nationalism, groundbreaking biographical accounts of female activists have revealed women’s crucial contributions as intellectuals, organizers, and foot soldiers during the interwar years. Building on these foundational works, an important body of scholarship has also begun to interrogate “the sexual inheritances of nationalism” and the “heterosexual imperative of citizenship” in the postcolonial era (Alexander 1994: 11, 6).
For this special issue, we invite submissions that deepen the literature on gender and anticolonialism in the interwar Caribbean (including the global Caribbean diaspora). We hope to include essays based on specific case studies as well as theoretical works that grapple with the gendered implications of anticolonialism in a region forged through centuries of colonial incursions. Possible topics for exploration include (but are not limited to):
● Constructions of masculinity and femininity in interwar anticolonial movements
● Organized labor in the Caribbean and the fight against colonialism
● Caribbean feminist thought in the interwar era
● Nationalism, gender, and the circum-Caribbean press
● The campaign against the U.S. occupation of Haiti and the Dominican Republic
● Challenges to Canadian annexation campaigns in the British Caribbean
● Anticolonial currents in literary and cultural movements (e.g. Négritude, surrealism, indigenism, and Afrocubanismo)
● The ideology and praxis of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA)
● The role of Caribbean activists in the Communist International and other leftist organizations
● Movements for Puerto Rican independence
● Transnational ties between Caribbean anticolonial activism and post-World War I nationalism in Asia and Africa
● The role of religion and spirituality in anticolonial movements
PROPOSAL SUBMISSIONS
We welcome essays that address the special issue theme from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. In addition to scholarly articles, we would be pleased to consider proposals for review essays and critical reflections on sources and methodology. We will not consider essays that have been published previously or that are currently under review by another journal.
For full consideration, potential contributors should submit a 500-word article abstract no later than 1 September 2016. Full article manuscripts of no more than 7000 words must be submitted to the editors by 5 January 2017 for peer review. The special issue will be published in 2018.
CONTACT INFORMATION
All correspondence or questions regarding submissions for the Caribbean Review of Gender Studies should be addressed to:
Ms. Tivia Collins
Editorial Assistant, Caribbean Review of Gender Studies
Email: [email protected]
IMAGE: Professor Elsa Leo-Rhynie https://sta.uwi.edu/crgs/
The Caribbean Review of Gender Studies stimulates cross-cultural exchanges among Caribbean peoples within the region, those in the Caribbean Diaspora, as well as those who bring a comparative perspective to bear on Caribbean gender and feminist concerns. The journal is established around an identity and voice emanating from Caribbean realities of power in gender, ethnicity and class relations, and their effects. The journal welcomes critical disciplinary or multi-disciplinary scholarly articles and creative contributions that broaden networks and enhance the global understanding and reach of Caribbean feminist theory and praxis.
