Around the world, gatherings are being held to mark the 100th celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8. Here at the University of Oregon, ecofeminist philosopher and activist Vandana Shiva was the keynote speakers at an event celebrating of the triumphs achieved by women around the world and the ongoing oppression many still face.  Shiva, who has been serving as the distinguished Wayne Morse Chair at the UO Law School, lashed out at corporate agriculture and argued that while the world has been shocked by the death of more than a thousand people in Libya in recent weeks, little if any attention has been paid to the more than 200,000 Indian farmers who have committed suicide in the recent years. According to Shiva these deaths are directly linked to the monopoly control over seed patents enjoyed by the Monsanto corporation.
Shiva went on to call for an ecofeminist approach to agriculture and economics. Shiva laid out three basic principles of ecofeminism to the cheering crowd: 1) the earth is our mother and should be respected and treated as such; 2) patriarchal domination of both Western and Eastern societies has been achieved by a rhetorical conflation of women and the environment that allows men to treat both as commodities to be controlled by patriarchy; and 3) treating women and the environment as commodities has enabled the development of corporations which are committing eco-suicide on the planet.  Shiva has been criticized in the past for anthropomorphising the environment as a woman (Mother Nature) but she been very well received during her time at this campus.
This week I attended a talk by art historian and critic, Susan Noyes Platt. She was on campus talking about her recent research, which is collected in Art and Politics Now: Cultural Activism in a Time of Crisis as a broad survey of political art, from street protest to gallery work to online manifestations and collaborations. The text is divided into ten chapters with themes such as war, terror, censorship, migration, and while the book’s last chapter focuses on ecology as it primary theme, there is definitely overlap in the various themes highlighted. For example, discussions of migration with reference to Ursula Beimann’s Geobodies work piqued this ecocritic’s interest.
The book promises an excellent entry point for any one interested in political art in its various manifestations and can be commended for its breadth and reach. It highlights a variety of artists who work in different media and in different contexts of political empowerment and disempowerment (Native American artists such as Gail Tremblay, Iraqi artists such as Hana Malallah, chicana/latino artists such as Celicia Alvarez, and street performers such as Backbone Campaign and the Yes Men.)
Recently, the largest solar flares in the last five years have been occurring on the surface of the sun. According the BBC News, this activity can play havoc with satellite-navigation equipment, particularly Global Positioning Systems (GPS). Solar power is not the the only way media are intimately connected to the sun. Video from AP News:
“Where Horror Dwells: Locating Horror across Media Landscapes”
Editors: Drew Beard and Patricia Oman, University of Oregon
Psychoanalysis and gender have dominated scholarship on the horror film for several decades, but they are by no means the only lenses through which horror can be viewed. The fields of ecocriticism, urban studies, transnationalism, and globalization provide exciting new opportunities for exploring the horror genre. At the same time, horror has manifested across media platforms, including television and video games. These developments in the genre and shifts in critical perspectives have occurred in the past decade, following the publication of previous horror anthologies such as “The Dread of Difference” (ed. Barry Keith Grant) and “Horror Film Reader” (eds. Alain Silver and James Ursini). “Where Horror Dwells” is a comprehensive anthology that seeks to build upon and further the study of the horror genre by considering its relationship to metaphors of location and space, e.g., situating the horror genre across media and identifying the common spaces/landscapes of horror. “Where Horror Dwells” is in the process of being submitted to potential publishers.
We welcome new or recently published articles on the production, exhibition, distribution, aesthetic qualities, or cultural significance of the horror genre as it relates to the following subjects: (1) Theorizing the Genre; (2) The Family Unit; (3) Dystopic or Horrific Landscapes; (4) Regional/Global Conflict; and (5) Revisionist Tales.
Abstracts should be 500-1,000 words in length, and include brief biographical details (name, affiliation, and previous publications). Please choose the most appropriate book section, based on those provided above, and submit the abstract as a .doc file to both Patricia Oman (poman@uoregon.edu) and Drew Beard (abeard3@uoregon.edu). The deadline for submission of abstracts is February 28, 2011.
Articles should be approximately 35–50 double-spaced pages (approximately 10,000-15,000 words) in length, including bibliography and footnotes, and formatted according to the 16th edition of “The Chicago Manual of Style.” The deadline for articles will be August 1, 2011.
The NOVA website at Public Broadcasting provides a wealth of information on the relationship between science and media technologies. Particularly interesting is there interactive guide to The Stuff of Smartphones.  In 2010, an estimated 250 million Smartphones hit the market, bringing total cellular phone sales to more than 1.2 billion in a single year.  NOVA’s interactive guide provides basic information on the materials that make up these phones and provides a brief discussion of their environmental impact.  A perfect starting place for students.
Two environmentally themed documentaries, Gasland, produced for HBO by Josh Fox, and Wasteland, directed by Lucy Walker have been nominated for this year’s Academy Awards. Gasland explores the natural gas drilling industry’s fracking practices, and Wasteland is a film about Rio de Janeiro’s trash pickers.
Though the Oscar’s fictional film line-up might not immediately denote environmental themes, there’s probably plenty of environmental grist in The Social Network, True Grit, and Winter’s Bone. Do post thoughts and comments on these and other potential nominations.
Transnational ecocinemas: film culture in an era of ecological transformation
A critical collection edited by Pietari Kääpä
Critical analysis of Hollywood cinema dominates much of the contemporary work on ecocriticism
and the cinema. While discussion of Hollywood and other place-centric films is important (ie.
Lu and MiÂ’s work on Chinese ecocinema), it is vital to contextualize such ideas within the
transnational economic and geopolitical system, especially concerning the proposed ‘global’
solutions to environmental concerns. There is a clear need for more sustained critical
interrogation of the ways concerns central to transnational cinema studies (eg. hybridity,
post-colonialism, diaspora, the geopolitics and economics of global inequality) feature in
cinematic analysis of the global ecoscape. The adoption of theoretical and methodological tools
from transnational studies allows us to address the very real economic and political factors
that are being negotiated and challenged in much of global cinema.
Instead of validating, advertently or inadvertently, the centrality of US-based
ecocinema, shifting the focus to transnational considerations allows us to build a more complex
picture of the ways ecological considerations work (g)locally, ultimately expanding our
framework to explore the global impact they have. This does not merely involve focusing on
the types of films usually considered as part of the canon of transnational cinema (ie. marginal,
liminal, postcolonial, hybrid or any number of other adjectives designating their somewhat
‘lesser’ position on a global scale). Rather, the aim is to shed light on a range of films and
cinematic practices from different cultural contexts that may be overshadowed by the
critical attention paid to mainstream ecocinema (ranging from Gore to Emmerich). Yet, we do not
neglect the important contributions US-centric films have made to global eco-awareness. Indeed,
the interaction and increasing blurring between different ecocinemas, especially in distribution
and exhibition, is one of the key areas the book seeks to interrogate.
This volume has four methodological orientations in mind: 1) a materialist-industrial study of
the potential of cinema to envision and provide more sustainable practices for cultural
production and dissemination; 2) ecocritical readings of specific films from different
cultural contexts; 3) reception studies of (trans)local audiences and their engagement with
ecological texts; 4) the potential of media convergence to advance cinematic ecologicalism.
Topics to be discussed:
The politics of development: ecosocialist rhetoric in transnational cinemas
Ecodocumentaries: planetarism and local realities
Anthropomorphism in different cultural contexts
Human ecology and cross-border/domestic migration
Mobile media and new directions in producing/distributing ecocinema
Anti- or neo-hegemonic transnational /regional ecopolitics
The city and urban / human ecology
Post-humanism and post-colonialist theory
Industrial developments, especially in markets
rarely addressed in ecocinematic literature (Bollywood, Nollywood etc.)
Haptic spectatorship and affectivity, especially
in translocal reception contexts
The collection is under contract with Intellect publishing and due out in early 2012.
Please send short proposals for articles (150-200 words) and brief author information to
Dr. Pietari Kääpä (Pietari.Kaapa@nottingham.edu.cn) by March 14 2011.
Manuscript submission deadline will be in late 2011.
Thanks to Claudia Pine for drawing our attention to three newly established PhD scholarships at the universities of York, Leeds and Sheffield in the UK for students interested in examining water-related topics.
White Rose Research Studentship Network
Hydropolitics: Community, Environment and Conflict in an Unevenly Developed World
This network consists of three interconnected projects within a multidisciplinary network at the universities of York, Sheffield and Leeds. All of these projects look critically at struggles connected with water in the global South; however, they also look more hopefully at the ways in which these struggles help create communities either born or consolidated in adversity, and in which these communities interact with the larger international community in pursuit of a more sustainable world.
The White Rose scholarships offer a full Research Council equivalent stipend and a fee waiver at the home/EU rate. For further particulars, applicants should contact the principal supervisor of the project (or projects) for which they plan to apply.
The formal closing date for applications is Monday 21st February and shortlisted candidates should be available for interview in York on Thursday 10th March.
Project 1: The Nile Basin, 1950-2010: Communities in Conflict, Communities in Conversation
Principal Supervisor: Professor Graham Huggan (English, Leeds), g.d.m.huggan@leeds.ac.uk
Co-supervisor: Dr Ziad Elmarsafy (English, York), ziad.elmarsafy@york.ac.uk
Project description
The four main objectives of the project are (1) to explore the impact of the Aswan High Dam on Egyptian literature and film; (2) to examine the literatures and cultures of Egypt in their African context, thereby resituating the representation of Egypt as an African, rather than Arab, regional power; (3) to show how water conflicts have mobilised a variety of cultural communities in Egypt and Sudan, with particular attention to the cultural sustainability and resilience of Nubian communities on either side of the Egypt-Sudan border; and (4) to trace the recent history of conversations, both within these particular communities and between them and the wider international community, with specific reference to the representation of intercultural dialogues and exchanges across the languages of the region.
The researcher involved in this project will benefit from the combined expertise of Professor Graham Huggan at the University of Leeds (postcolonial studies, environmental studies) and Dr Ziad Elmarsafy at the University of York (North African literatures and languages); from institutional strengths at both universities in the areas of English studies, African studies and Middle Eastern studies; and from the multidisciplinary approaches adopted by the Centre for African Studies (LUCAS) and the Institutes for Sustainability Research (SRI) and Colonial/Postcolonial Studies (ICPS), all of which are housed at the University of Leeds. Opportunities will be provided for fieldwork in Egypt and for Arabic language training, while the researcher will also be invited to take part in, and help organise, a number of network-wide events.
Applicants are subject to acceptance to study for a PhD at the School of English. High-class BA and MA degrees will generally be seen as a requirement. Very high standards of English are expected; competence in Arabic may be an advantage. Further information on the application procedure can be found at: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/rsa/postgraduate_scholarships/wrs
Project 2: Hydropolitical Adaptation: Post-tsunami ‘Sustainabilities’ in Sri Lanka
Principal Supervisor: Dr Tariq Jazeel, Department of Geography, University of Sheffield
Co-supervisor: Dr Joseph Murphy, Sustainability Research Institute, University of Leeds
Project description
The main objective of this studentship is to explore the relationships between the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, narratives and representations of trauma, resilience and sustainability across differently ethnicized community contexts in Sri Lanka, and the contested politics of the postcolonial Sri Lankan national. It is expected that the project will use comparative ethnographic effort as well as examining recent fictional and testimonial representations in the wake of the disaster to explore how differently ethnicized communities have narrativized the tsunami and its effects in order to cope with, adapt to and build hydrological `resilience´. It will also explore how each community has responded to and connected with governmental post-tsunami reconstruction and aid initiatives articulated at the national level. The project aims to offer new understandings of the differential cultural and community resources that go into the fashioning of hydropolitical `sustainabilities´, whilst also exploring the role that post-tsunami efforts played in Sri Lanka´s protracted civil war.
The student involved in this project will benefit from the combined expertise of Dr. Tariq Jazeel at the University of Sheffield (Geography, Postcolonial Studies, South Asian Studies) and Dr. Joseph Murphy at the University of Leeds (Governance, Environment and Sustainability, Colonial/Postcolonial Studies). The student will also benefit from involvement in the South Asian Studies In the North (SASIN) research network, in which York, Leeds and Sheffield participate, as well as the University of Sheffield´s `Sheffield International Development Network´ (SIDNET). Opportunities will be provided for fieldwork in Sri Lanka, while the researcher will also be invited to take part in, and help organise, a number of network-wide events.
For further details contact either Dr. Tariq Jazeel (t.jazeel@shef.ac.uk) or Dr. Joseph Murphy (j.murphy@leeds.ac.uk), and see http://www.shef.ac.uk/postgraduate/research/scholarships/project/jazeel.html.
A White Rose Scholarship award will cover the cost of the UK/EU tuition fees and provide an annual, tax-free maintenance stipend at the standard UK research rate. In addition, a support grant will be made available to the lead for project research expenses. International applicants will be required to pay the difference between the UK/EU tuition fee and the Overseas tuition fee. Awards are tenable for a maximum of three years, subject to satisfactory progress. Further information on the White Rose Scholarships can be found at http://www.shef.ac.uk/postgraduate/research/scholarships/whiterose.html
How to apply
Applicants should fill out an on-line application available through the Department of Geography at http://www.shef.ac.uk/geography/phd/
In their supporting statement (no more than 500 words), applicants should make clear their suitability for this studentship and what they will bring to the project. We also require 1 sample of written work with your application.
Project 3: Drinking the Sea, Making the Desert Bloom: Water, Community and Culture in Contemporary Israel/Palestine
Principal Supervisor: Dr. Anna Bernard (English, York), anna.bernard@york.ac.uk
Co-supervisor: Dr. Jessica Dubow (Geography, Sheffield), j.dubow@sheffield.ac.uk
Project description
The doctoral researcher selected for this project will consider the cultural and communal importance of water in the context of the two greatest challenges to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process: the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the settlement developments in the West Bank. Research will combine interviews with local stakeholders together with compilation and critique of key literary, filmic, and visual representations of water resource and usage. The project’s main objective is to identify and explore the narratives of community formation and conflict that are derived from the conditions and rights of access to water in Gaza and the West Bank settlements. The researcher will evaluate the role of these images and imaginings in the definition and negotiation of community boundaries among Gazans and settlers, and where possible determine areas for inter-community dialogue and exchange.
The student will benefit from the combined expertise of Dr. Anna Bernard (York), who specializes in post-1980 Palestinian and Israeli literature and culture, and Dr. Jessica Dubow (Sheffield), a cultural geographer, with specific interest in landscape representation, spatial practice, and the nature of exilic identity. S/he will also benefit from current research conducted in the Centre for Peace Studies and the ‘Sheffield International Development Network’ (SIDNET) at Sheffield, and the Post-War Reconstruction Unit and the Centre for Applied Human Rights at York. Opportunities will be provided for fieldwork in Israel/Palestine and for Arabic language training, while the researcher will also be invited to take part in, and help organise, a number of network-wide events.
The White Rose scholarships offer a full Research Council equivalent stipend and a fee waiver at the home/EU rate. More details can be found here: http://www.york.ac.uk/students/housing-and-money/financial-support/bursaries/postgraduate/white_rose/.
To be eligible, applicants must first apply for a place in a full-time PhD programme in English at York: http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/engl/gsp/index.htm. In their research proposal, applicants are asked to describe their suitability for this studentship and what they will bring to the project.
For more information, please contact the principal supervisor, Dr. Anna Bernard, at anna.bernard@york.ac.uk.
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Ziad Elmarsafy
Department of English & Related Literature
University of York,
Heslington,
York YO10 5DD
UK
Tel: +44 (0)1904 323342
Fax: +44 (0)1904 323372
E-mail: ziad.elmarsafy@york.ac.uk
Website: http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/engl/staff/academic/elmarsafy.htm