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In
1992, the SCE sponsored a double session at the MMLA and a special
session at the MLA convention devoted to an investigation of nationalism
and gender. |
Under
the direction of Mary Layoun and Anu Dingwaney Needham, the project
gradually expanded to investigate nationalism more generally in
a session of the MMLA in 1993 and in a day long workshop involving
approximately 30 scholars, "Nationalism(s): Definitions, Explanations,
Alternatives," held April 2, 1994, at Case Western Reserve University.
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In
1997, Wendy Kozol, Mary Layoun and Anuradha Needham revived the
project, though no longer under its original title, or necessarily
under the rubric of its initial, exclusive focus on gender and nationalism.
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The
project organized a mini-conference entitled "Rethinking
Anderson" at the 1998 Midwest Modern Language Association convention
in order to address the following questions: Although nationalism
continues to inform, indeed determine, material conditions in the
world, why does it appear to have stalled as a subject of scholarship?
Is this because the terms and framework for discussion--including
Benedict Anderson's influential concept of "imagined communities"--envision
narrative as the most appropriate modality? Has this focus on narrative
become disabling for discussions that need to be anchored in materialist
explanations? |
In
2002, the SCE sponsored a session at the South Central MLA titled
"Genders in Space: Masculinities
and Femininities Across Neighborhoods and Nations." |
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If
you are interested in this project, contact Anu
Needham, English Department, Oberlin College, Anuradha_Needham[at]qmgate.cc.oberlin
.edu; Wendy Kozol,
Women's Studies, Oberlin College, fkozol[at]oberlin.edu; or Mary
Layoun, English Department, University of Wisconsin, layoun[at]lss.wisc.edu
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