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Third Annual CISA Student Symposium

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May 5, 2000 Campus Center UMass Amherst Session I: Journeys Jennifer Higa, Amherst College "Off-Reservation Boarding Schools in Contemporary Indian Education" - The historical perception of off-reservation boarding schools as institutions of cultural genocide conflicts with the strong support for the remaining residential schools from the Indian communities they serve. Reconciling the supposed contradictions requires close examination of the changes that have occurred in the goals and philosophies of these schools. My research examines these changes in two off-reservation boarding schools still in operation, Santa Fe Indian School, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Chemawa Indian School, Salem, Oregon. Michele Murphy, Amherst College "The Social and Economic Effects of the US Dollar in 21st Century Cuba" - With the legalization of the US dollar in 1993, and increases in the flow of currency into Cuba from migration and tourism, the Cuban economy and society have both seen widening divisions between the dollar sector and the peso sector. The dollar has not only created a difference between the rich and the poor but has also created increased separation along racial and regional lines. Along with the influx of American dollars has been an influx of US cultural and material ideas as well, which I see as the first step towards the propagation of US cultural values in Cuban society. Akilah Noel, Mt. Holyoke College "African-Americans in Southern Africa: Return Home or Discovery of a Foreign Land" - The term African Diaspora is used to encourage unity among people of African descent. But is there a real sense of inclusion and connection in the words "African Diaspora?" Many Black Americans have traveled to various parts of Africa, in order to seek out this connection. However, many returned with their expectations dashed. My presentation will examine their reasons for traveling to Africa, and whether their hopes were realized. Vanella Daniel, Smith College "The Black Panthers and the Cuban Revolution" - Every American administration since Jefferson has despised Cuba for its tenacious resistance to American penetration. Afro-America, however, has historically admired and celebrated Cuba for the same reason. As a more militant fight for Black Liberation emerged after the assassination of Dr. King, Cuba served as both a tactical and ideological reference point for Black revolutionary struggle. Arguably, the most intense exchange was between Cuba and the Black Panthers. The outcomes of this intense exchange were often unpredictable. The resulting collaborations and volatile disagreements revealed a great deal about the different lenses through which Cubans and Afro-Americans viewed economics, political and the very central question of race. In examining the link between the Black Panther Party and the revolutionary Cuban regime, this presentation will explore the central role of two distinct racial paradigms in the rise and decline of an alliance. Session II: Memory Anna E. Bogle, Hampshire College "Sitting Down to the Table: Food and Community in Southern and Central Food is a vital component in the creation and maintenance of community, and a tool to define and reinforce relationships between neighbors. An important primary source for this project is oral history interviews I conducted in communities and East Tennessee and Eastern Kentucky about local foodways that are swiftly being lost in a world of increasingly homogenized food. Other sources include my personal memories as an Appalachian native and a cook of Appalachian food. Katy Williams, Mt. Holyoke College "Creating the Native: How Anthropology and Museum Display Shape Perceptions of Culture " - Contemporary anthropological theory has created a framework for examining how museums have shaped our perceptions of culture through the analysis of their social and cultural history. In representations of Native American cultures, many different anthropological theories have been melded together over the past century creating immensely varied perceptions of Native peoples and their cultures. The conflict of changing theories, seen through displays, creates a dynamic tension within museums. Using the Springfield Science Museum as a case study, I will show that the progression of the museum's displays agrees with a model created by Renato Rosaldo, which incorporates three different periods of anthropological theory. I will demonstrate how the exhibits in the Springfield Science Museum are reflective of changing theories in the discipline of anthropology and in turn, how they changes in theory create a tension between displays. The exhibits will be deconstructed and analyzed as to their inherent meaning. Jennifer Kwon, Hampshire College "Remembering Atrocities, Constructing History: the Korean Comfort Women" - During the Pacific War, the Japanese Imperial Army forced approximately 200,000 women, 80-90% of whom were Korean, into sexual slavery. Due to political, economic and social factors, their histories were "forgotten" until the early 1990s. The revival and reconstruction of this history, however, is subject to political considerations similar to those which suppressed this memory for fifty years. Inclusion of "human memory" in constructions of this history may provide new ways to address and remember this atrocity and the politics which surround it. Sarah Thorpe, Smith College "The Red Mean: Self Portrait: Grappling with Identity and Violence on Canvas" - In this talk, I will study Quick-to-See Smith's The Red Mean: Self Portrait (1992), a striking, life-size painting and collage. Guilt-provoking and brutally honest, this work not only alludes to the forced suppression of Native American culture, but also underscores the complexity of Quick-to-See Smith's identity as American, woman, artist and multi-ethnic member of the Flathead tribe. In light of a quote by Rene Girard, I will explore how Quick-to-See Smith creates a work that transcends racial boundaries, yet paradoxically enough, is very much about them. Session III: Frontiers Elizabeth Lenig, UMass Amherst "Jelles Fonda and the Multi-cultural Landscape of the Mohawk Frontier" - I will discuss my discover of Jelles Fonda's Indian Account Bok, and how I believe that this document can be utilized to shed light upon social and economic conditions on the western New York frontier. I will touch upon material culture and Jelles Fonda's role as a culture-broker between two worlds. I will then present some preliminary results of my analysis of items purchased and bartered by Native Americans during two separate years in the decade preceding the American Revolution. I would also like to pose some unanswered questions for future research. Penny Molyneux, Smith College "Gathering the Past, Sowing the Future: Oral History" - My presentation will be about a project sponsored by the Monteverde Institute for Biology and Community Development, in Costa Rica. The Women's Studies branch of the Institute has undertaken the collection of the oral histories of women in a rural district of Costa Rica. Women are encouraged to share their experiences about childhood, family life, religion, relationships, health care and other important aspects of their lives. By comparing the different stories one can gain a sense of the evolving role of women in this region. Costa Rica's economic development is bringing changes in educational and economic opportunities available to women and it is interesting to see how women are responding to them. My work included a series of interviews with Josefina, a lively octogenarian who shared her stories of the early years of settlement through her present life. Beginning with her story and continuing with the lives of her daughters and granddaughters, a picture emerges of the amazing adaptablility of these Maeve Hughes, Hampshire College "Earth Visions" - This paper explores the different approaches to the land and its use by both Early European settlers and Northeastern Algonquins along the coasts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. I examine each culture's conceptualizations of the land through older historical writings as well as the legal language of a land purchase. The main goal is to understand these constructs as they helped to physically shape the landscape both politically and ecologically. Session IV: Resistances Michael Gove, UMass Amherst "Rhode Island and the Federal Constitution" - The debates surrounding the ratification of the US Constitution were debates that questioned the very foundations this nation would eventually adopt. The most contentious, and unsuccessful, consitutional debates were held in Rhode Island. In this small state representatives of small rural areas thwarted merchants and townsmen supporting the Constitution for more than thirty months. This paper examines the motives of Rhode Island's initial resistance to the new federation, as well as the causes for the eventual change in public opinion that overcame opposition to the Constitution. Jennifer Cote, Mt. Holyoke College "Becoming 'American:' Irish Catholic Immigrants, Racial Violence, and Service to the Republic in Nineteenth-Century America" - Many Irish Catholics discovered that the new world of New York City was not as promising as they believed before immigration, as they now worked terrible urban jobs and faced rampant anti-Catholicism. During the 1850s-1860s, they clashed with African-Americans at labor sites. In 1863, Irish Catholics led the Draft Riots, a revolt against African-Americans and Republicans. Simultaneously, Irishmen joined Union armies and local police departments. Ultimately, the Irish become one of the United States' most well-established immigrants despite this duality of experience. Leana Dagan, Smith College "What's Wrong with Mary Jane? Eating Disorders and the Disabling of American Women" - This paper attempts to locate eating disorders, disordered eating, and the hatred of women's bodies within a socio-historical analysis of the American Dream and modern America. Moving beyond the bulk of feminist writing on eating disorders, this paper complicates and dispels the myth that women fall prey to images in the media and popular culture. Placed within the phenomena of the mind/body separation, the processes of self-identity for American women become complicated within the socio-historical implications of the American Dream. Unlike the absence in almost all feminist writing on eating disorders, this paper attempts to apply critical white theory to the analysis. Lastly, this paper briefly explores healing and recovery for women with disordered eating. Syd Lindsley, Hampshire College "Discourses of Blame: Race and Reproduction in the 1990s Anti-Immigrant Agenda in California" - The presentation explores how the concept of reproduction, both in terms of childbearing and child-rearing, operated as a defining feature of the anti-immigrant resurgence in California during the 1990s. I argue that anti-foreign sentiment directed at immigrants (a.k.a. nativism) is and has always been articulated in racial terms. Not only is the focus on immigrants reproduction explicitly gendered, non-white immigrant women the brunt of this nativist assault. Session V: Performance Angela Autry, Hampshire College "Fissures and Sutures: Writings on Travel and Home" - I am exploring various methods of storytelling around the themes of travel, home and crossing borders. My writings include travelogue, literary journalism, fiction and poetry. I am also experimenting with ways of combining images and text to tell a story. Much of my writing is fed by my experiences traveling and studying and Ghana and Benin, and focuses on human migration and the connections between personal narrative and collective historical memory of diasporic Africans. Development and positive action born of grief and loss are themes throughout this study of the historical, cultural and spiritual significance of Adinkra symbolism and art. In this work, Adinkra's association with funerals and mourning is emphasized in order to provide a medium and conceptual framework for processing and representing aspects of the legacy of suffering and resistance created by the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The art of Adinkra provides fertile ground for this exploration of the links between image and personal narrat Maria Christian Rangel, Smith College "From a Longer Line of Vendidas: Memories from a Life on the Transfrontera and Beyond; 'Malinchisima or Very Much Malinche'" - Malinchisima! of 'Very Much Malinche!', explores the negotiation of a queer identity within the larger context of cultural archetypes. The narrator struggles with the notion of 'Maria,' both within the context of Chicano/Mexicano culture and the US mainstream culture, particularly given the large mytho-historical (and now mainstream) presence Marias have occupied throughout time. Adding to her confusion are her experiences which prove her to be a bad Maria in the eyes of her Raza, and her desire to look beyond her culture for role models and heroines.