A call for a special issue: Celebrating Women’s Legacies: African Women and Social Transformation in a Global Context. The issue will be guest edited by Dr. Josehpine Ahikire.
Deadline for Title and Abstract: April 30, 2011.
Deadline for Paper: August 31, 2011
Submit your title, abstract and paper directly to Dr. Ahikire at jahikire at ss.mak.ac.ug
Celebrating Women’s Legacies: African Women and Social Transformation in a Global Context
In the 1980’s, women studies scholarship in Africa was largely dependent on policy-oriented applied research methods; it was donor driven, undertheorized and depoliticised. By the 1990s, the discipline gained strength as a number of women entered the field of gender studies. Despite the dominance of Western theoretical constructions, African women emerged as the central subject of social inquiry, raising questions about which aspects should be visible, which should be silenced, and what are the consequences of both in theoretical and practical terms. Questions about visibility and silencing point to the need to go beyond women as eternal victims. While it is undeniable that historically women have been disadvantaged relative to men, perpetually looking at them as victims creates a discourse of lamentation that negates rather than promote knowledge about them.