Lauren RubensteinJune 18, 20152min
In a blog post on Africa is a Country, Professor of Anthropology Gina Athena Ulysse reflects on two horrific stories in the news: the mass deportation of thousands of migrant workers and their families of Haitian background from the Dominican Republic, and the killing of nine people in the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. The "ethnic purging" taking place in the Dominican Republic, writes Ulysse, "is a rejection of a certain kind of Black. Blackness that is too African." She continues: Despite our somatic plurality and the color gradations we encompass, Haiti and Haitians have always been portrayed and understood as that…

Lauren RubensteinJune 3, 20155min
Professor of Anthropology Gina Athena Ulysse was recently invited to guest edit a double issue of the journal e-misférica on the theme of Caribbean rasanblaj, to which three of her Wesleyan colleagues also contributed. The journal e-misférica is an online publication of New York University's Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, a "collaborative, multilingual and interdisciplinary network of institutions, artists, scholars, and activists throughout the Americas. Working at the intersection of scholarship, artistic expression and politics, the organization explores embodied practice-performance as a vehicle for the creation of new meaning and the transmission of cultural values, memory and identity." For several years, Ulysse has been involved with the…

Lauren RubensteinJune 1, 20155min
In its most recent meeting, the Board of Trustees conferred tenure on Hari Krishnan, associate professor of dance. He joins seven other faculty members who were awarded tenure earlier this spring. In addition, seven faculty members were promoted to Full Professor: Mary Alice Haddad, professor of government; Scott Higgins, professor of film studies; Tsampikos Kottos, professor of physics; Edward Moran, professor of astronomy; Dana Royer, professor of earth and environmental sciences; Mary-Jane Rubenstein, professor of religion; and Gina Athena Ulysse, professor of anthropology. Brief descriptions of their research and teaching appear below. Associate Professor Krishnan teaches studio- and lecture-based dance courses on Mobilizing Dance: Cinema, the Body, and Culture…

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Laurie KenneyMay 15, 20152min
#THISISWHY In this News @ Wesleyan story, we speak with Kate Weiner from the Class of 2015. Weiner is an anthropology and environmental studies major. Q: Can you describe your thesis, “Reciprocity: Cultivating Community in Urban Agriculture”? A: My thesis is an exploration of how community, identity and belonging interact in urban agricultural spaces, with my hands-on fieldwork with East New York Farms! serving as a case study for examining urban agriculture as a political project. Through melding creative non-fiction, feminist theory, community politics and environmental studies, the intention of my thesis is to provide a framework for understanding the various social, natural, socioeconomic…

Lauren RubensteinMarch 20, 20153min
Gina Athena Ulysse, associate professor of anthropology, wrote a tribute on the Tikkun Daily Blog to Karen McCarthy Brown, professor emerita of anthropology and sociology of religion at Drew University, who passed away earlier this month. "Reading Karen’s Mama Lola kept me in grad school. Vodou got a human face from her," Ulysses posted on Facebook after hearing news of Brown's death. She goes on to explain, "Mama Lola was published by the University of California Press in 1991. Based on extensive fieldwork conducted over a decade, Brown became an initiate of her subject, as a condition to deeper research and writing…

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Olivia DrakeJanuary 5, 20153min
J. Kehaulani Kauanui, associate professor of anthropology, associate professor of American studies, participated in several conferences and events during the fall semester. She presented on a roundtable, "Indigenous Sovereignty, Conquest Mythology, And Indian Policy: Histories and Futures in New England" at the New England American Studies Association Conference held at Roger Williams University, Oct 17-18. She also was an invited participant for a public panel discussion, "Countering Columbus Day,” held at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center on Oct. 25. Kauanui also presented ongoing research on Palestinian solidarity through participation at two events. First, as an invited speaker at Johns Hopkins University for a Gaza teach-in…

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Olivia DrakeOctober 13, 20141min
Gina Athena Ulysse, associate professor of anthropology, participated in "Imagining and Imaging the Caribbean,” the inaugural conference of Columbia’s Greater Caribbean Studies Center, on Oct. 18. Ulysse discussed "Writing in the Caribbean Diaspora" with fellow panelists Cuban writer and artist Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo (Brown University) and Kittian-Brittish novelist Caryl Phillips (Yale University). Other topics included "The Greater Caribbean as a Geo-Historical and Cultural Region," "Writing about the Caribbean from National Perspectives" and "Photographing the City in the Greater Caribbean." The event concluded with a Caribbean concert.

Olivia DrakeMarch 31, 20141min
On March 6, Gina Athena Ulysse, associate professor of anthropology, presented "Why Haiti Needs a Higher Love I," a performative meditation on representation, ripostes and self-making at Central Connecticut State University's Center for Africana Studies 20th Anniversary Conference. On March 10, Ulysse and Jungian analyst and author Craig Stephenson participated in a public dialogue titled "Possession and Inspiration – Between the Psyche and the Spirits: A Conversation about Therapy and Vodou" at the CUNY Grad Center in New York City.

Olivia DrakeMarch 14, 20141min
J. Kehaulani Kauanui, associate professor of American studies, associate professor of anthropology, was a distinguished guest panelist at the 2014 Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship Program in the Humanities Conference at the University of California - Los Angles on March 7. She spoke on “Hawaiian Indigeneity, (Same-Sex) Marriage, and the Racial Politics of Colonial Modernity." She also spoke on “Till death Do Us Part? Settler Colonialism and (Same Sex) Marriage in Hawaii,” at the Women’s Studies and Consortium for Critical Interdisciplinary Studies on Feb. 20 and “New Directions in American Studies: Settler Colonialism and Critical Indigenous Studies,” at the Circuits of Influence: U.S. Israel, and Palestine Symposium…

Olivia DrakeMarch 3, 20142min
J. Kehaulani Kauanui, associate professor American studies, associate professor of anthropology, participated in two recent conferences. During the Transnational American Studies Conference, held at the Center for American Studies and Research, American University of Beirut, Jan. 6-9, Kauanui co-organized a roundtable on “Pinkwashing and Transnational Alliance: Challenging Settler Colonialism in Palestine/Israel, the United States, and Canada." She also organized a panel on “Redwashing: Israeli Claims to Indigeneity and the Political Role of Native Americans," and presented a paper on “The Politics of Recognition: Indigeneity, Sovereignty, and Redwashing." During the American Studies Association annual meeting held in Washington, D.C., Nov. 21-14,…

Lauren RubensteinAugust 28, 20131min
Gina Athena Ulysse, associate professor of anthropology, associate professor of African America studies, wrote an article, "Presumed Innocent: On Bill Traylor's Verve," which appeared on the website Anthropology Now. Ulysse reflects on an exhibit at the American Folk Art Museum by Bill Traylor, a former slave who began drawing at the age of 85, and produced his entire body of work in three years.

Lauren RubensteinJuly 29, 20131min
Gina Athena Ulysse, associate professor of anthropology, associate professor of African American studies, wrote a review of artist Robert Pruitt's Women, currently on exhibit at the Studio Museum of Harlem, in the Huffington Post. The exhibit features 20 portraits of contemporary black women drawn on brown butcher paper with conté-crayons. Ulysse writes: "Although, Pruitt's Women may be warriors, they are not embattled. They may be of and in struggle, yet they are not fighting. Their serenity is too often denied to black women. They are 'keepin' it surreal' inhabiting Suzanne Césaire's state of permanent readiness for the Marvelous."