Navigating Feminism in 21st Century Oceania by Dr. Teresia Teaiwa

April 10, 12:30pm - 2:00pm
Mānoa Campus, Hamilton Library 401

I come to help celebrate the 40th anniversary of Women's Studies at the University of Hawai'i, from a context in which five years ago my own university in New Zealand dismantled what had been the first Women and Gender Studies program in the country. The landscape and oceanscape of feminism in Oceania is predictably varied and uneven: maternal morbidity is high, literacy rates and political representation for women low in some of the fastest growing Pacific nations; highly qualified professional women lead some of the most powerful organizations and institutions in the region, while international aid donors funnel millions of dollars into gender equality programs; discourses of civil rights and human rights pervade the language of self-identified feminists engendering a chasm of incommensurability with women invested in alternative discourses, such as indigenous rights; and although the blogosphere and social media have become fertile ground for the expression of diverse Oceanian feminist standpoints, feminist literature by indigenous scholars is still surprisingly scarce. As a result, the theoretical, cultural and political challenges for feminists in 21st century Oceania are immense and intensely complex. This talk, therefore, seeks to navigate its way through some of that perilous territory.


Ticket Information
Free and open to the public

Event Sponsor
Women's Studies Dept, Mānoa Campus

More Information
Vijaya Perumal, (808) 956-7464, vperumal@hawaii.edu

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