Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women

brown university spring 2009 Pembroke Center for teaching and research on women

Markets and Bodies in Gender, Modern China, and the Transnational Perspective

Kay B. Warren, Charles B. Tillinghast Jr. ’32 Transnational Humanities Professor of International Studies and Professor of Anthropology, will lead the March 13, 2009 2009-2010 Pembroke Seminar. The seminar will look at global flows of people and technology that involve reimagining the body and transforming what it means to be human. It aims to trace patterns of global flows, and responses—international and local—to the ten- sions and uncertainties they unleash, seeking to understand the changing ways bodies are com- modified and the individual experiences and ideological constructions of these processes. Schol- ars will explore sites of anxiety that arise when innovations in global labor markets and biotech- nologies appear to push ahead of the law. How are these sites moralized and politicized? How are international norms and regulatory strate- gies formulated to define rapidly moving cur- rents of change? This inquiry calls for a variety of disciplinary perspectives and case studies from different parts of the world.

Since these innovations are occurring in con- Hank Randall texts of neoliberal regimes of governance, we will consider policies that have the effect of projecting personal responsibility, self-regula- tion, and choice onto individuals as rational Hank Randall actors, which creates routinized sites of moni- (L-R) Amy Dooling of Connecticut College, Haiping H. Yan of Cornell University, Rey Chow of Brown University, Gail toring and intervention. What is obscured in Hershatter of University of California, Santa Cruz, Lingzhen Wang of Brown University, Zheng Wang of University of the focus on decontexualized individual bodies Michigan, and Chengzhou He of Nanjing University. – the migrant, the trafficking victim, the consumer of one’s own genetic information? When In conjunction with the Nanjing-Brown dramatically changed their views of the do local narratives reassert the primacy of the Joint Program in Gender Studies and the relationship of Chinese women to the social and economic contexts of people’s lives Humanities, the Pembroke Center, along revolution, shifting from a fascinated and their wider communities? Looking at mar- with East Asian Studies and the Cogut admiration of women’s elevated status in kets as particular historicized innovations Center for the Humanities, sponsored a socialist China in the early 1970s to a whose complex social and political fields medi- series of lectures and a colloquium on pronouncement of the failure of the ate their development, we will examine two dis- the question of gender in modern China. feminist cause in the Chinese commu- tinctive domains of markets and bodies: the nist revolution of the mid-1980s. This simultaneous recruitment and deterrence of While twentieth-century China has long radical change in perception has spurred migrant labor across borders and regions; and been described as a century of revolu- many questions. Was there a the simultaneous normalization and rejection of tion, Western feminist scholars of China human bodies with the global circulation of have, over the past twenty years quite Continued on page 4 public health and biotechnological regimes. For more information, please visit our website at www.pembrokecenter.org. Postdoctoral Fellows Hank Randall Hank Randall Hank Randall Hank Randall Sandy Alexandre Jason Lindquist Astrid Schrader Lisa Uddin Nancy L. Buc Carol G. Lederer Artemis A.W. and Martha Pembroke Center Postdoctoral Fellow Postdoctoral Fellow Joukowsky Postdoctoral Fellow Postdoctoral Fellow Ph.D. in English, Ph.D. in English Literature and Ph.D. in History of Consciousness, Ph.D. in Visual and University of Virginia, 2007 Victorian Studies, University of California, Cultural Studies, Indiana University, 2008 Santa Cruz, 2008 University of Rochester, 2008

Project: “The Lynching Project: “Tropical Surfeit, Project: “Responsibility and Project: “Race, Gender, Diaspora: The Strange Fruits the Observing Subject, the Politics of Temporality in and Species in American of Violence” and the Text, 1773–1871” Toxic Microbiology” Zoo Renewal”

Alexandre’s project analyzes Lindquist considers the rela- Schrader asks how one might Uddin examines the racial how what she calls “the ecol- tionships between the scien- think differently about and gendered dynamics ogy of lynching violence” nec- tific travel narrative and a vari- responsibility in scientific involved in the representation essarily informs the ways in ety of other European practices. Based on a compar- of animals. Focusing on U.S. which black-American artists representational modes. In ative analysis of experiments zoos of the 1960s and 1970s, think about black urbanization particular, he argues for the involved in an ongoing scien- she traces the simultaneous while reappraising the popu- emergence of a distinctive tific-political controversy over turns during that period to larity of the pastoral idyll in “rhetoric of excess” in the the toxicity of a fish-killing wildlife conservation, on the American literature and cul- tropical travel narrative, its microorganism, Schrader’s one hand, and urban and sub- ture. Alexandre’s work dispersion into fiction and project looks at how criteria urban development, on the addresses some of the follow- poetry, and its eventual effect for what counts as evidence other. Looking at the National ing questions: What does it on constructions of the ideal for or against toxicity get built Zoo and the San Diego Zoo, ultimately mean that “strange Victorian observer. Lindquist into scientific experiments. Uddin studies the ways zoo fruits” are unnatural to the concludes that the writing of Taking seriously that science designers, directors, and pro- (American) natural environ- travelers such as Alexander is a material practice to which moters struggled to construct ment? For blackness, even as von Humboldt, Charles Dar- not only humans contribute, naturalistic displays of breed- it is re-imagined as so many win, and Harriet Martineau Schrader proposes a notion of ing wildlife as displays of nor- fruit, is still dubbed influenced British thinking on responsibility that is attentive mative civic life. She asks “strange”—is indeed alien to a range of topics from aesthet- to multiple “histories” and how and to what extent pastoral accouterments. What ics to gender to imperial and “agencies,” and that under- endangered zoo animals ideologies do these fruits ulti- colonial relations. In scientific pins objectivity in science became surrogates in the mately help to fortify in their circles, in particular, encoun- rather than interfering with it. mid-twentieth-century pro- very uselessness as fruits— ters with an overwhelming Moving beyond the investiga- duction of American white- indeed, by their dying? What multitude of unfamiliar tion of how social values influ- ness, and considers the impli- role has the invocation of details became ritualized, ence the production of scien- cations for posthumanist American pastoral ideology encoded in the scientific tific facts, Schrader’s project theory and practice. played in shaming lynching process by John Tyndall and highlights the ways ethical apologists? Alexandre is also at others as a necessary prelimi- and political concerns become work on a second book proj- nary to scientific insight. necessarily part of the objec- ect, Race against Time, which tive referent in scientific looks at the ways we might experimentation as soon as transform our understanding more-than-human agencies of “race” if we examine how are taken into account. the very practice of race changes with age—both bio- graphically and generationally.

2 • pembroke center Pembroke Seminar Visions of Nature: Constructing the Cultural Other Leslie Bostrom, Chesler-Mallow Senior Faculty Research Fel- ture, humans represent their relationships with nature. Nature low and Associate Professor of Visual Art, is the director can be a kind of dark mirror, reflecting back one’s desires and of the 2008– 09 Pembroke Seminar. This year’s seminar, fears, loaded with contradictions and colonial yearnings. Peo- “Visions of Nature: Constructing the Cultural Other,” explores ple consume it and attempt to control it, yet revere it and representations of nature cross culturally and historically. attempt to preserve it. The seminar explores the ways such Those in the West have an uneasy and contradictory relation- ambivalences have driven Western scientific thinking as well ship with the natural world, being of it as animals yet simulta- as its social and cultural aspirations. In doing so, it looks at neously observing, consuming, and attempting to control it. what is particularly “Western” about Western nature. Through the visual arts and popular media, through science, For a full seminar description, please visit: literature, and philosophy, through landscaping and architec- www.pembrokecenter.org

2008-2009 Pembroke Center Lectures Hank Randall Donna Goodnow Hank Randall Ursula Heise Stefan Helmreich Lorraine Daston Associate Professor of English and Associate Professor of Anthropology Director Director of the Program in Modern Massachusetts Institute of Technology Max Planck Institute Thought and Literature “Alien Ocean: Life at Sea” for the History of Science Stanford University Visiting Professor of Social “The Surrealist Microscope” March 17, 2009 Thought and History University of Chicago February 10, 2009 “The Naturalistic Fallacy Revisited”

April 7, 2009

FACULTY FELLOWS Nancy Jacobs GRADUATE FELLOWS History Leslie Bostrom Edith Goldthwaite Miller Faculty Fellow Hilary Kaplan Visual Art Comparative Literature Project: “Birds in Africa: Power over Chesler-Mallow Senior Faculty Pembroke Center Graduate Fellow People, Power among People” Research Fellow Project: “The Voice of Nature and Wendy Chun Contemporary Poetry” Modern Culture and Media Pooja Rangan Edwin and Shirley Seave Faculty Fellow Modern Culture and Media Project: “Programmed Visions: Pembroke Center Graduate Fellow Software, DNA, Race” Project: “Traces of Nature: Peter Heywood Archiving Subjectivity at the Limits Biology of Ethnography” Pembroke Center Faculty Fellow Project: “Values of Nature in Representations of the Quagga” Hank Randall Graduate Fellows Pooja Rangan and Hillary Kaplan

pembroke center • 3 Gender, Modern China, and the Transnational Humani- ties

continued from cover tice that interrogates universalized con- gender revolution in China’s long twen- cepts of subject, gender, and history and tieth century? How do we understand calls for critical attention to historical the state feminism practiced in the com- specificities, local cultural dynamics, munist revolution and in socialist and political contingencies in dealing China? Could Chinese women’s stories with ever changing and multilevel and writing help us comprehend revolu- patriarchal collaborations. tion and agency differently? It is in this context that a group of lead- The changing perceptions that sparked ing scholars gathered at Brown to such questions have, in turn, stimulated reassess gender and revolution in mod- critical reassessments of the ideological ern China, reevaluate different political and political assumptions underpinning and feminist legacies, and develop new Western feminism itself: feminist schol- transnational approaches that take into ars worldwide have had to reframe their consideration different cultures, histo- political and intellectual endeavors in ries, and political significations.

light of the entrenchment of transna- Hank Randall tional capitalism and international Chengzhou He, Associate Director media. Taking into account the long his- of the Institute for Advanced tory of globalization and modernity, they Studies in Humanities and Social have examined, in particular, the com- Sciences at Nanging University, plicitous role of feminism in reinforcing spent a month in residence at power structures in both national and Brown as a Cogut Center Distin- global settings. Challenging the long- guished Fellow. On March 10, existing modes of colonialist/neocolo- he delivered a lecture on “Gaze, nialist and cold-war knowledge produc- Performativity, and Gender Trouble tion, some feminist scholars have in Farewell My Concubine.” articulated a transnational feminist prac-

4 • pembroke center Louise Lamphere Visiting Assistant In February, Gayatri Chakravorty Professorship in Gender Studies Spivak delivered the inaugural lecture for the Brown initiative In the fall of 2009, the Department of Department in the 1970s. After being Towards a Global Humanities. Anthropology and the Pembroke Center denied tenure, Lamphere became the Spivak’s lecture, “The Stakes of will be pleased to welcome the inaugural lead plantiff in a class action suit against a World Literature,” was jointly Louise Lamphere Visiting Assistant Pro- the University for sex discrimination. sponsored by Africana Studies, fessor in Gender Studies. The suit was settled by a consent decree the Pembroke Center for Teach- in 1977 that mandated goals and timeta- This visiting assistant professorship is ing and Research on Women, the bles for the hiring and tenuring of made possible by anthropologist Louise Cogut Center for the Humani- women faculty. Over the years, the con- Lamphere’s major gift to Brown Univer- ties, and International Affairs. ditions of the consent decree resulted in sity in support of gender studies in many more women scholars joining the In March, Ratna Kapur, director cross-cultural and transnational perspec- Brown faculty. This story of gender stud- of the Center for Feminist Legal tives. The gift is particularly meaningful ies scholarship and activism comes full Research in New Delhi, spoke in that Lamphere, Distinguished Profes- circle with Lamphere’s groundbreaking as part of the South Asia sor of Anthropology at the University of gift to support visiting junior faculty Speaker Series. Kapur’s lecture, New Mexico, was a pioneer in early fem- appointments at Brown. “Hecklers to Power? The Wan- inist scholarship and a junior faculty ing Tools of Liberal Rights and member in the Brown Anthropology Challenges to Feminism in South Asia,” was sponsored by International Affairs and the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women.

Jihyun Sung Pembroke Center Postdoctoral Research Associate Department of Molecular and Cell Biology and Biochemistry Department of Education

Thanks to generous support from the Ford Foundation, Jihyun Sung has joined Professor Anne Fausto-Sterling’s team leading a research initiative titled, “The Emergence of Sexually Differentiated Behaviors in Infancy: A Dynamic Sys- tems Approach.” From the perspective of dynamic systems theory, the project argues that sex-typed behaviors come into being through a process of dynamic interactions between children and their environment—a function of both biological and social influences. Accordingly, in the current project, researchers are conducting detailed analyses of ten infants (five boys and five girls from ages two to fourteen months)

Charley Chen and their mothers in weekly sessions. The analyses are yielding rich descriptions of the development of activity level, vocalization, and play behavior, three behaviors for which sex-typed differences have previously been reported in the first three years of life. Postdoctoral fellow Jihuyn Sung received her Ph.D. in 2008 from the University of Georgia.

For more information about the research initiative, please visit: http://www.brown.edu/Research/Behaviors_in_Infancy/

pembroke center • 5 Colloquium Observes Twentieth Anniversary of differences

The year 2009 marks the twentieth The latest issue of the journal, Psycho- anniversary of differences: A Journal of analysis and the Question of Social Change Feminist Cultural Studies. In celebration, (spring 2009), has appeared, while a the journal will publish a special issue double issue on The Future of the Human that takes a look at the current state of (summer-fall 2009), guest edited by critical theory. Four of the contributors Nancy Armstrong and Warren Montag, to the issue joined Brown faculty at a is forthcoming in early September. The colloquium in April asking “What’s the twentieth-anniversary issue (spring Difference? Critical Theory Today.” 2010) is currently in production.

The Feminist Theory Papers

By consolidating, organizing, and digi- Louise Tilly, are currently accessible to The Feminist Theory Papers advisory tizing the papers of scholars and critics the public; in April, the papers of Teresa board is chaired by Joan Wallach who have transformed their disciplines Brennan became the newest materials to Scott, Harold F. Linder Professor of as well as the field of feminist theory, join the collection. The Center has Social Science at the Institute for the Pembroke Center is preserving a secured commitments from a large num- Advanced Study and founding director crucial body of work that changed the ber of well-known feminist theorists, with of the Pembroke Center. Other mem- intellectual landscape of universities in scholars continuing to pledge their bers of the board include Ferris Olin, the U.S. and internationally. papers. At the formal dedication of the head of the Margery Somers Foster Cen- Feminist Theory Papers in the fall, the ter of Rutgers University Libraries; The Feminist Theory Papers archivist is names of those who have already com- Ranjana Khanna, Margaret Taylor Smith Amy Greer, a graduate of the Simmons mitted their papers will be announced. Director of Women’s Studies and Profes- College Master’s program in Library sor of English at Duke University; and and Information Science. The papers Ben Kafka ’98, Assistant Professor of of Naomi Schor, Elaine Marks, and Media, Culture, and Communication, and History at New York University.

Women's Studies on the Edge, edited by Joan Wallach Scott and the third book in the differences series, appeared in spring 2008. According to Duke University Press, the collection of essays, which have in common their embrace of feminism as a critical stance, is selling well. Sponsorship of such publications continues to make the Pembroke Center a leading voice in feminist studies.

6 • pembroke center Barbara Anton Internship Award Recipient Alison Cohen’09 Presents at AAAS Annual Meeting

The Pembroke Cohen’s internship is a critical compo- Associate Professor of Public Health and Center Associ- nent of the research for her honors the- Environmental Science, Policy, and ates, the Cen- sis, “Community-Based Participatory Management at the University of Cali- ter’s alumnae/i Epidemiology: Developing, Conducting, fornia, Berkeley. support organi- and Analyzing an Environmental Health Through her internship, Cohen con- zation, pro- Assessment with Communities for a ducted survey research on residents’ vides an Better Environment.” The thesis aims health status, health resources, and annual award to develop a better local understanding known exposures. Thanks to the prom- to an under- of the pollution burden and health prob- ise shown by her initial research, she graduate stu- lems affecting residents of Richmond, was accepted to present her preliminary dent whose California, a low-income community of findings at the American Association for honors project color living near a Chevron oil refinery the Advancement of Science annual involves an internship or volunteer work and other industrial facilities. Phil meeting in February. She also presented in a community agency. This year, the Brown, Professor of Sociology and Envi- her findings to the survey participants Barbara Anton Internship Award went ronmental Studies and Interim Director and neighborhood residents. to Alison Cohen, a Brown senior who is of the Center for Environmental Studies, an intern for Communities for a Better serves as Cohen’s thesis advisor. A sec- Environment in Oakland, California. ond adviser is Rachel Morello-Frosch,

Helen Terry MacLeod Research Grant Recipient Karen Dannemiller’09 Seeks to Reduce Formaldehyde Exposure Karen Dannemiller, a senior concentrating in chemical engineering, is the recipient of this year’s Helen Terry MacLeod Research Grant to support her research to develop and test a formaldehyde detection system.

Dannemiller’s project aims to develop an inexpensive method of detecting formaldehyde that can be used in the home. Formaldehyde is a respiratory irritant and a carcinogen that is found in all types of housing but especially in mobile homes due to a variety of construction materials and consumer products. High formaldehyde levels were a significant problem in the temporary housing initially supplied by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in response to Hurricane Katrina. Pregnant women and young children are at particular risk. Dannemiller hopes that the system she develops will allow families to identify and remove the sources of formaldehyde to prevent further exposure.

Pembroke Center Has New Home

Pembroke Hall, which recently underwent a $9 million renovation, is now home to the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women and the Cogut Center for the Humanities. Built with funds raised by the Rhode Island Society for the Collegiate Education of Women, Pembroke Hall was originally dedicated on November 22, 1897, as the first permanent home of the Women’s College in Brown University. Rededicated in October of 2008, the newly restored building houses scholars and provides teaching and research spaces for seminars, lectures, and collaborative programs offered by the Pembroke and Cogut Centers. The stunning renovation by architect Toshiko Mori P’05 brings together past and future in a dynamic combination of nineteenth-and twenty-first-century design.

pembroke center • 7 Pembroke Center Non-Proﬁt teaching and research on women Organization for US Postage PAID Permit No. 202 Brown University Providence, RI Box 1958 Providence, RI 02912

Pembroke Center Pembroke Center Associates Advisory Board Council Officers contact Rey Chow Phyllis Santry ’66 Comparative Literature Chair and Modern Culture and Media information Elizabeth Munves Sherman ’77, P ’06, P ’09 Carolyn J. Dean Vice-Chair Pembroke Center History and Modern Culture Brown University and Media Pembroke Center Staff Box 1958 Mary Ann Doane Elizabeth Weed Providence, RI 02912 Modern Culture and Media Director and English phone: 401 863-2643 Christy Law Blanchard fax: 401 863-1298 Anne Fausto-Sterling Director of Alumnae/i Affairs Biology and Medicine e-mail: [email protected] Denise Davis web: www.pembrokecenter.org Lynne Joyrich Managing Editor of differences Modern Culture and Media Donna Goodnow David Konstan Center Manager Classics and Comparative Literature Amy Greer Bernard Reginster Feminist Theory Papers Archivist Philosophy Martha Hamblett Ex Officio Programs and Stewardship Coordinator Ellen Rooney Modern Culture and Media Suzanne Stewart-Steinberg and English Director of Gender and Sexuality Studies