‘Thoughts that Burn but Cannot be Spoken’: Re-Imagining the Political within Histories of Feminist Activism Kathleen E. Boyd A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2013 Reading Committee: Eva Cherniavsky, Chair Ronald Thomas Foster Sabine Lang Program Authorized to Offer Degree: English Literature and Language © Copyright by Kathleen E. Boyd 2013 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED University of Washington Abstract ‘Thoughts that Burn but Cannot be Spoken’: Re-Imagining the Political within Histories of Feminist Activism Kathleen E. Boyd Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor Eva Cherniavsky Department of English ‘Thoughts that Burn but Cannot be Spoken’: Re-Imagining the Political within Histories of Feminist Activism is an interdisciplinary cultural study of feminist activism, from 1840 to the present moment, that focuses on exploring how the figure of the feminist activist and her corresponding activist practices are differently imagined in discrete historical moments. Parallel to the history of the 501 (c) 3 non-profit corporation, I move across the disciplines to track how the institutionalization of various forms of activism has differently (re)produced certain kinds of activist subjects whose social imaginaries inform the limitations and possibilities of social movements strategies for social transformation. Rather than constructing a social history of non- profit activism or a sociological study on particular feminist NGOs, my project is interested in tracing how the feminist activist subject is differently imagined in a variety of cultural and institutional domains, ranging from non-profits themselves and academic disciplines, to literary fictions produced in time with social movement activism. More specifically, this project is intent on exploring differing activist sensibilities and “alternative” forms of agency particular to black feminist political traditions in and against the current political context dominated by NGO and non-profit activism. In order to expand contemporary political imaginations of anti-racist feminist activism, I strive towards three larger and related ambitions. First, this project resituates the current debates on NGOization and the Non-Profit Industrial Complex (NPIC) within a longer, critical cultural study of anti-racist feminist activism that interrupts the temptation to ahistorically or transhistorically universalize the present regime of NGOization as always the case. In this way, I consider how the NGO and non-profit have produced power accommodating activist subjects to different ends, in order to more broadly consider how institutions in civil society are historically and unevenly imbricated in furthering the expansion of state power. Second, my work to explore now “alternative” feminist activist subjects’ imaginaries correlates with different theorizations of the relationship between citizens, the state and (global) civil society. In liberal and neoliberal traditions, civil society—and institutions in civil society like the non-profit—are presumed to inhabit a sphere separate from state and economic interests. Turning away from such theories, I follow Antonio Gramsci’s work to investigate how institutions in civil society are subject making and world shaping. In a moment where non-profits and NGOs are uncritically celebrated across the disciplines as the most logical mode of social change, and are figured as the preeminent form of political agency for responding to state violence, globalization processes, and inequality at the local, national, and international level, this project considers the distinct ways these institutions are historically (though differently) bound up in what Gramsci calls the “educative function of the state.” Finally, while I heavily rely on the work of feminist social scientists and social movement histories to think critically about NGOization and corresponding transformations in state power, this dissertation centers on literary production as an alternative site for thinking critically and historically about feminist activism and moreover, for (re)imagining new ways of being political. Reading historically, across disciplinary formations and “against the grain,” I position the literary narratives of social movements as invaluable to emerging histories of feminist activism that, under NGOization, are either disappeared, or in some cases even memorialized in the service of legitimizing the dominant political logics of the present. For those in struggle against the many iterations of racial, gender, sexual, economic and national violence, who dare to imagine political dreams that, at times, are painful and even unthinkable. Acknowledgements (Love Letters) This project would not have been possible without the invaluable critique, insight and passion of so many radical activists, scholars and allies. Thank you Northwest Coalition for Human Dignity and Home Alive organizers and researchers for inspiring these political desires, passions and commitments. In particular, thank you Cristien Storm and Camelia Caton-Garcia for your on-going friendships, humors and incredible brilliance; you have taught me more than I can ever detail in writing. To my radical trans-disciplinary “support group” Chance Sims, Heather Clark, Gita Mehrotra and Joseph Daniels, thank you for your ongoing support and insight into navigating the politics of being a “non-traditional” graduate student at the University of Washington. I am deeply indebted to members of the Race/Knowledge Project—Pacharee Sudhinaraset, Simon Trujillo, Sooja Kelsey, Jason Morse, Sydney Lewis, Jed Murr, Christian Ravela and Suzanne Schmidt—for teaching me how to better understand my location, my project, pedagogy and activism, and for inspiring new visions of what might count as critical “public humanities” labor. Our struggles were well worth the (ongoing) pain and frustration, as well as the critical celebrations that occasionally transpired. Thank you to my Dissertation Writing Group, headed by Eva Cherniavsky, for taking the time to read and reflect on several very unpolished versions of this dissertation. Thank you, Jesse Weinstock and LeRoy (Mr. Buddy), for your patience, humor and endless cheerleading when I couldn’t see through the pollutions of stress and insecurity. Thank you Julia Freeman, Steven Miller, Megan Kelly, Pacharee Sudhinaraset, Simon Trujillo, Jason Morse and Karen Chappell for your brilliance and support, and for reminding me to always connect to life beyond the institution. Thank you Marty and Scott Boyd for being amazing little brothers—my friends always remark that you “turned out so well” and I wholeheartedly agree. Thank you, Marilyn Boyle, for passing down your 1 obsessive research gene and bravery. Thank you, Joe Boyd, for raising me to be an organizer that understands pleasure as key to building community. I also wish to acknowledge faculty I was fortunate enough to take classes with over the last eight years at the University of Washington: Chandan Reddy, Thomas Foster, Eva Cherniavsky, and Priti Ramamurthy. Your courses, in particular, challenged, inspired and shaped this project and my thinking on the political and anti-racist feminist activism more generally, in countless invaluable ways. Thank you Anis Bawarshi and Gillian Harkins for your teaching support and mentoring. To my committee, Sabine Lang, Thomas Foster, Priti Ramamurthy (so much more than an extra hard working GSR) and Eva Cherniavsky, I wish to express gratitude. I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with you and I can see your brilliance in every page I write. I am forever grateful. Finally, I wish to acknowledge the superior intellect, insight, creativity, and humor of Professor Eva Cherniavsky. Without your support, Eva, I would not have been able to survive graduate school. I cannot thank you enough for challenging, inspiring and encouraging me to create a project that begins and ends before and beyond my graduate studies, and that connects the essential questions I (still) struggle with in the productive tensions that lie between the discourses of “academic” versus “activist,” “theory” versus “practice,” and the “university” versus the “community.” You model pedagogical, research, writing, and social practices that I feel so fortunate to have witnessed, experienced and connected with over the last eight years. I will never be able to thank you enough and I am sure my gratitude will only expand in my post- graduate studies world. 2 C o n t e n t s ‘Thoughts that Burn but Cannot be Spoken’: Re-Imagining the Political within Histories of Feminist Activism Prologue…………………………………………………………………………………………4 Chapter One ‘Velvet Triangles’ or ‘Bermuda Triangles’: Transnational Feminist Networks, Global Civil Society and Alternative Feminist Political Imaginaries………………………………………... 29 Chapter Two Contending Forces: Social Work, Non-Profit Incorporation, and Agitation in Black Women’s Progressive Era Club Activism……………………………………………………...109 Chapter Three Stop Thinking Properly: Feminist Activism and Coalescing with History…………………….187 Chapter Four ‘We’re All a Little Co-opted’: ‘Comfortable Strait Jackets’ and the Compromised Politics of Pleasure………………………………………………………………………………………223 Works Cited……………………………………………………………………………………285 3 Prologue ‘Thoughts that Burn but Cannot be Spoken’: Re-Imagining the Political within Histories of Feminist Activism I begin ‘Thoughts that Burn but Cannot be Spoken’: Re-Imagining the Political