Call for papers
Feminist Africa 11: Researching for life: knowledge production for feminist activisms
Co-edited by Jane Bennett and Amina Mama
A key challenge for African feminists remains the need to create knowledges which both emerge from the diverse, complex contexts in which we live and work, and speak to such contexts with sufficient resonance to sustain innovative and transformative action. Designing research methodologies capable of addressing the questions which compel us constitutes a politics in its own right, demanding a re-evaluation of received approaches and sophisticated reflection on the intersections of theory and practice as researchers and writers. FA11 will explore the history of research methodologies drawn upon by two decades of feminist work on the African continent, and ask questions about the experience of developing research which engages the realities of our contexts, including:
• Multilingualism;
• challenges of access and gatekeeping;
• the impact of conflict and violence on the meaning of research;
• the experience of engaging with researching the “hidden”, the “private”, and the “taboo”.
Contributions are invited which aim to revitalise theoretical and political debate on questions of “feminist research methodologies” and which highlight the ingenuities and creativity of the work of research in under-resourced, sometimes unpopular, and ultimately critical zones of concern.
Please email the editors at agi-feministafrica@uct.ac.za to indicate your interest (i.e. feature article, standpoint, profile of activism, or book reviews). All submissions need to be in by end of April 2008.