Uma Narayan
(Andrew W. Mellon Chair of the
Humanities and Professor of Philosophy,
Vassar College)
will present the
final IRW lecture of the semester on
Thursday, December 4
Ruth Dill Johnson Crockett Building,
160 Ryders Lane, Douglass Campus
"Suspicious Centerings: Third World Women, The Rhetoric of Rights and the Politics of Rescue and Empowerment"
The feminist injunction to put the problems
of poor and marginalized women at the
center of analysis arguably has been
co-opted by some disturbing contemporary agendas, and such agendas will be the
focus of Professor Narayan's talk.
She will examine two distinct phenomena--
the movements in various countries
to "rescue" Muslim women from the veil
and the enthusiasm for economically
empowering Third World women through microcredit. She will talk about how
the rhetoric of rights obscures various deeply problematic aspects of these
"suspicious centerings."
the IRW 2009-10 Interdisciplinary Seminar
Call for Applications
"Gendered Agency"