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January 13, 2007
Happy New Semester!
Well, it's that wonderful time of the year...oh wait-that time has past. It's called Christmas (or Yule, depending on your spiritual association). But, it is an exciting time of the year for me because after this semester I will be reading for exams! Two years down, two to go-and, I might add, my entire cohort and I are all on schedule. So, it looks like the Divine '09 (so called because that's year we we'll walk and not because there are nine of us) is forging ahead. Go us! It is also an exciting time for me because I am teaching Latina feminism for the first time. This is important to me because there are so few books devoted to Latina feminism. We all know that a lack of scholarship generally means a lack of conversations, which ultimately means there is nothing (important enough) to talk about, right? Well, there's plenty to say about us, and I thought it might be a good idea to give the texts that I'm using in my class some exposure on my blog.
I'm hoping these books will be responsible for many exciting and provocative conversations both inside my classroom and among other scholars that are as excited as I am to see more work on Latina women being done. I do have to admit that I am partial to the first one, since it is solely devoted to Puerto Rican women. Hey, what can I say; I like stuff that's all about me and mine. Colonize This! promises to be just as provocative, with essays about All women of color, from everywhere. Divas is a novel about 4 women that embark on a car ride together on their way to a conference. On their way they have to negotiate small spaces and cultural differences, and I am hopeful that my students will see this as an opportunity to explore their own feelings about womanhood and difference.
I want to give a shout out to my (new FPP) mentor Gwen for putting me on to Colonize This! and Divas. Thanks teach! Now let's see how many of my male students actually don't go running when they discover they are in a feminism course...
Posted by dvaldesd at January 13, 2007 04:44 PM