Reason for this email is that I'm editing an anthology on race
and
gender identity on the internet with my friend and colleague
David
Erben. David teaches American Indian Studies and English at the U
of
Toledo; I teach in the Comparative Culture & Lit Studies
Program at
the U of AZ. We're both interested in the intersection between
academics and life/politics/art/activism and we both try to make
sure to keep moving between the worlds. What we're looking to do
is
put together a book and an accompanying electronic text that
showcases
the work of women and people of color and working-class or poor
folks
who are self-consciously trying to push the envelope on the
internet
and make some room for themselves, their art, their politics,
their
culture(s). We're currently assembling contributors so that we
can put together a pitch to a commercial publisher. (Both of us
have
a history of academic publications, but we don't think academic
books reach enough--or the right--people.)
We're resisting the tired-but-still-commonly-accepted idea that
the
virtual world provides a somehow "level" playing field,
in which race,
gender, culture(s) no longer matter. We think that that such
ideas
are based on the false notion that there's a normative
whitehetmale
middle-class culture to which all folks can gain access now that
the
barriers imposed by the physical body have been miraculously
removed.
We want essays, articles, and examples of work which show that
the
"politics of identity" is alive and well on the
internet, and that
instead of regressing to a sort of Eisenhowerian procession of
the
bland leading the bland, there are people out there using
electronic
technology to emphasize and celebrate and motivate and defend
their
own communities and cultural ideals.
There's been a lot of talk (mostly by white men) about the
"liberating"
potential of the internet and of virtual spaces. What they
usually
mean is a liberation *from* the body, to some kind of higher
plane.
But we're interested in how folks whose bodies are usually
threatened
by the power structure (nonwhite folks, women, poor people, queer
folks) are using the internet as a platform for making themselves
more
visible (a liberation *of* the body), and how that connects to
other
contemporary activist movements.
If any of that makes sense or sounds interesting to you, we'd be
pleased
to have you contribute to our anthology and/or the accompanying
electronic text. We'd also appreciate it if you could suggest
other
writers/scholars/activists/artists who you think would find our
project of interest.