Revolutionary goals of Indigenous movements against colonial oppression during historic periods of insurgency are complicated by the fact that Indigenous women continue to suffer at the hands of those who claim to be the oppressed. Rukiah S. Kertapati describes Indonesia’s movement for independence from Dutch rule in Kedjatuhan dan Hati, while contemporary literature, such as Eden Robinson’s “Queen of the North” examines the oppression of Indigenous peoples of Canada. Women’s interests in intervening in the momentum of revolutionary violence may be interpreted in different ways – from subversive, to reactionary, to dissenting. However, women’s literary voices resist the impact of colonial oppression by illuminating the need for social change that emerges with awareness, combines emotion with intelligence, and recognizes the political relevance of personal experience. / Graduate

Through the life story narratives of Ethiopian women activists, this research explores the journey of Ethiopian women activists during three political and historical periods (1955–1974; 1974–1991; 1991–2015). Thus, the study proposes a new perspective on the forms of Ethiopian women’s activism and subsequently the different types of feminism emerging from their narratives. Through examination of how the activists reflect on, reconstruct and give meaning to their life stories, this research unravels that their activism is informed by feminist principles. It also exposes that it is shaped by a long history of resistance to patriarchy, which enabled women in traditional Ethiopia to negotiate a certain level of “autonomy and liberty”. Contrary to the general expectation, the research demonstrates that the process of modernization (read: westernization) came with its own structure based on western patriarchy, and reinforced local patriarchy. In this new, formalized patriarchy, the rights that women had negotiated through their resistance in earlier times were diminished. This study on women activists, categorized for the purpose of this research as pioneers, revolutionaries and negotiators, suggests that Ethiopian women activists have since adopted different forms of engagement that tend to improve the social, cultural, economic and political conditions of Ethiopian women. Consequently, I argue that, while Ethiopian women’s activism and feminism is firmly embedded in the history of resistance of previous generations of Ethiopian women, the form of activism varies according to the political and historical context in which the activists negotiate and adapt the way they act.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work / Spencer Wood / In this study, I investigate UndocuQueer activists and their use of social media as one type of subaltern counterpublic. Subaltern counterpublics are spaces marginalized communities forge to center their voices and experiences. These counterpublics represent aggregations of emancipatory agency and stand as responses to their exclusion or marginalization by the dominant public sphere. UndocuQueer activists strategically engage in the public sphere using social media because it grants them momentum and brings national attention to their agenda. In this research, I use an interdisciplinary and intersectional approach to understand the UndocuQueer social movement. The guiding research questions were: 1) How do UndocuQueer activists create subaltern counterpublics? 2) How do UndocuQueer activists present their multiple and complex identities on Twitter? Using critical discourse analysis of Twitter, I coded and analyzed over 600 tweets. To further this analysis, I used critical Xicana feminist standpoint to gather three testimonios of UndocuQueer activists. The major findings are of this project are: 1) the UndocuQueer subaltern counterpublic formed through the state’s anti-immigrant policies and the public sphere’s marginalizations and misrepresentations. 2) the UndocuQueer community forged an intersectional subaltern counterpublic online through their lived experiences as undocumented and queer. 3) the undocu-movements: UndocuQueer, UndocuTrans, UndocuBlack, UndocuAPI, and UndocuSolidarity operate coalitionally; thus, I call this a coalitional intersectional subaltern counterpublic. 4) the UndocuQueer activists use social media for community, expression and support of art, and organizing. 5) Lastly, UndocuQueer activists engage in multiple forms of activism via social media, such as participating in marches and civil disobedience and sharing events, workshops, petitions, and donation pages. Overall, this study provides a rich description of how marginalized communities, especially those of the UndocuQueer community, have great agency despite their precarious situation: a counter narrative that is usually unexposed. This project finds how the UndocuQueer community face multiple marginalizations and exclusions from the state through its anti-immigrant policies, the public sphere through its misrepresentations in the media, from LGBTQ communities and organizations, and from Latinx and immigrant communities. I show how the UndocuQueer’s intersectional and coalitional subaltern counterpublic forged online as a safe haven for themselves and to engage with the public sphere. With this information, we have find better ways to be their allies, support them, and listen to their calls to action.

[pt] A tese apresentada neste trabalho direciona-se por meio da análise de quatro obras da chamada literatura marginal ou periférica, mais especificamente das obras dos autores Ferréz, Marcelino Freire, Rodrigo Ciríaco e Allan da Rosa. Tem-se por foco a construção de um olhar que privilegie o diálogo que estas obras mantêm com duas noções centrais, a de múltiplas temporalidades modernas do contemporâneo, que tem por principal característica a variedade de representações artísticas que produzem formas outras de vivência da modernidade, analisada a partir de autores como Homi Bhabha, Nestor Garcia Canclini, Paul Gilroy e Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht; e a noção de dano, formulada por Jaques Rancierè, cuja abordagem, para o trabalho que apresentamos, será necessária no exame das aproximações que as escolhas estéticas dos autores abordados têm com o campo político. Ao utilizarmos essas noções, defendemos que as obras, por advirem de um lugar não tradicional na produção cultural brasileira, geram novas perspectivas que se aproximam e se afastam do habitus literário no Brasil. Além disso, algumas reflexões sobre as principais contribuições acadêmicas para a análise do cenário montado pela literatura marginal são feitas no intuito de colaborar com futuros estudiosos que queiram abordar o tema. Procura-se, assim, encontrar as melhores ferramentas e abordagens da poética marginal contemporânea como produtora de sentido, levando-se em consideração sua origem social e como esta propõe novos enfoques para a tradição literária nacional. / [en] This dissertation analyzes four pieces of the so called literatura marginal or periférica, namely the works of authors Ferréz, Marcelino Freire, Rodrigo Ciríaco and Allan da Rosa. It focuses on the construction of a perspective that privileges the dialogue these works establish with two key notions: the multiple modern temporalities of the contemporaneity, which are characterized mainly by the variety of artistic representations that produce other forms of experiencing modernity - analyzed with the help of authors such as Homi Bhabha, Néstor García Canclini, Paul Gilroy e Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht -, and the notion of the wrong, as formulated by Jacques Rancière, whose approach will be helpful to understand the approximations that the aesthetic choices of the four authors have with the political realm. The wrong consists in the emergence of an unexpected identity-based collectivity within the community, altering the distribution of the sensible, forcing the community to redo its sites of production and of knowledge. By borrowing such notions, we defend that, since these works come from an untraditional place within Brazilian cultural production, they generate new perspectives that both approach and distance themselves from the literary habitus in Brazil, leading to a reevaluation of the contemporary Brazilian literary scene and even of the literary scenes of the past. Moreover, a couple of reflections on the main academic contributions for the analysis of the landscape designed by the literatura marginal are made with the intention to help future researchers willing to study the theme. Therefore, we have aimed to find the best tools and approaches to handle the contemporary marginal poetics as meaning-producing, taking into consideration its social origin and how it proposes new approaches to the literary national tradition.

abstract: Following harsh economic and political reforms in the 1990s, Peru became a model of a neoliberal state based on natural resource extraction. Since then social and environmental conflicts between local communities and the extractive industry, particularly mining corporations, have multiplied resulting in violent clashes and a shared perception that the state is not guaranteeing people's rights. At the crossroads of the struggle between mining corporations and local communities lay different ways of living and relating to nature. This research concerns water conflict in an urban mining setting. More precisely, this research critically analyzes water conflict in the city of Arequipa as a backdrop for revealing what water injustices look like on the ground. With one million inhabitants, Arequipa is the second largest city in Peru. Arequipa is also home to the third largest copper mine in Peru. On June 2006, social organizations and political authorities marched in protest of the copper mine's acquisition of additional water rights and its use of a tax exemption program. In the aftermath of large protests, the conflict was resolved through a multi-actor negotiation in which the mine became, through a public-private partnership, co-provider of urban water services. Through a unique interdisciplinary theoretical approach and grounded on ethnographic methods I attempt to expose the complexity of water injustice in this particular case. My theoretical framework is based on three large fields of study, that of post-colonial studies, political ecology and critical studies of law. By mapping state-society-nature power relations, analyzing structures of oppression and unpacking the meaning of water rights, my research unveils serious water injustices. My first research finding points to the existence of a racist and classist system that excludes poor and marginal people from water services and from accessing the city. Second, although there are different social and cultural interpretations of water rights, some interpretations hold more power and become hegemonic. Water injustice, in this regard manifests by the rise in power of the economic view of water rights. Finally, neoliberal reforms prioritizing development based on the extractive industries and the commodification of nature are conducive to water injustices. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Justice Studies 2012

CoordenaÃÃo de AperfeiÃoamento de Pessoal de NÃvel Superior / Analisar as migraÃÃes de trabalhadores de espaÃos subalternizados para os espaÃos de atraÃÃo de mÃo de obra no Brasil, bem como a reproduÃÃo do trabalho escravo contemporÃneo no paÃs e o papel que o MaranhÃo tem nesse processo. Para essa pesquisa, apoio-me na dialÃtica marxista para proceder a investigaÃÃo do modo de produÃÃo no contexto da totalidade. Fizemos revisÃo de literatura, atrelada a busca por dados em fontes secundÃrias. TambÃm Fizemos pesquisa de campo em municÃpios de AÃailÃndia, PeritorÃ, Santa Helena, EsperantinÃpolis, CodÃ, PalmeirÃndia, CoroatÃ, realizando entrevistas com secretÃrios municipais, assistentes sociais das prefeituras, coleta de relatos de trabalhadores migrantes e resgatados e participaÃÃo em eventos organizados por entidades e organizaÃÃes de trabalhadores rurais em Bacabal, Balsas e Pedreiras. A discussÃo acerca da migraÃÃo e do trabalho escravo nos remete a existÃncia de espaÃos subalternizados, onde o deslocamento de mÃo de obra decorre da vulnerabilidade da populaÃÃo migrante para atividades degradantes ou para serem aliciados para o trabalho escravo contemporÃneo. O MaranhÃo tem se evidenciado como um dos grandes emissores de mÃo de obra escrava no Brasil, apresentando dados que o colocam em primeiro lugar como exportador de trabalhadores que sÃo aliciados. Essa prÃtica de repressÃo da forÃa de trabalho evidencia uma das contradiÃÃes da mobilizaÃÃo da forÃa de trabalho por atividades em regiÃes de expansÃo do capital que aparecem como sÃmbolo da modernidade no Brasil. Este tipo de trabalho significa o cerceamento da liberdade da mÃo de obra que tem sua forÃa de trabalho liberada pela apropriaÃÃo capitalista dos meios de produÃÃo. Ele à parte da modernidade do capitalismo contemporÃneo, sendo necessÃrio à sua reproduÃÃo, sobretudo no capitalismo dependente brasileiro. O trabalho escravo contemporÃneo expÃe o capitalismo como modo de produÃÃo que se apropria de formas nÃo-capitalistas para se reproduzir e expandir. / Analyze the migration of workers from subordinate spaces to labor attraction spaces in Brazil, as well as the reproduction of contemporary slave labor in country and the role that MaranhÃo has this process. For this research, support me in Marxist dialectics to carry out investigation of the mode of production in the context of the whole. We do literature review, linked to search for data on secondary sources. We Also field research in the municipalities of AÃailÃndia, PeritorÃ, St. Helena, EsperantinÃpolis, CodÃ, PalmeirÃndia, CoroatÃ, conducting interviews with municipal secretaries, social workers of municipalities, collection of migrant workers and rescued reports and participation in events organized by entities and organizations of rural workers in Bacabal, Balsas and Pedreiras. The discussion of migration and slave labor refers to the existence of subaltern spaces, where labor displacement stems from the vulnerability of the migrant population to degrading activities or to be recruited for the contemporary slave labor. The MaranhÃo has shown to be one of the great slave labor issuers in Brazil, presenting data that place it first as exporter of workers who are recruited. This practice of the labor force crackdown highlights one of the contradictions of the mobilization of the workforce by activities in areas of capital expansion that appear as a symbol of modernity in Brazil. This type of work means the curtailment of freedom of hand work that has its workforce released by the capitalist ownership of the means of production. It is part of the modernity of contemporary capitalism, it is necessary for breeding, especially in the Brazilian dependent capitalism. The contemporary slave labor exposes capitalism as a mode of production that appropriates non-capitalist forms to reproduce and expand.

This thesis is a multidisciplinary endeavor that draws on theories from Visual Culture Studies, Subaltern Studies and Critical Theory. The discourses of these areas interact in various ways in order to analyze representations of subaltern groups in National Geographic magazine. We see these representations as multimodal cultural texts that mobilize historical, sociological, political, economic, aesthetic and philosophical elements. We do close reading of the visual and verbal texts that the magazine produces on the subaltern in order to show that we get to know more about the Western conceptual world through these representations than on the Other since the conceptual categories National Geographic uses are culture specific and not universal. We show that both the discourse of the magazine and that of the researcher doing the analysis are products of their locus of enunciation and its historical context. We finally emphasize the importance of admitting the power of mediation when we talk about anthropological representations. The magazine uses an apparently scientific discourse in order to validate the truthfulness of its representations. However, its science is formed by concepts expressive of the Western cultural hegemony which seeks to construct knowledge that is rooted in power. / Esta tese é um projeto multidisciplinar, que se baseia em teorias de Cultura Visual, Estudos Subalternos e Teoria Crítica. Os discursos dessas áreas interagem de várias maneiras com o objetivo de analisar as representações de grupos subalternos na revista National Geographic. Vemos essas representações como textos culturais multimodais que mobilizam elementos históricos, sociológicos, políticos, econômicos, estéticos e filosóficos. Fazemos uma leitura dos textos visuais e verbais que a revista produz sobre o subalterno, a fim de mostrar que acabamos sabendo mais sobre o mundo conceitual ocidental através dessas representações do que sobre o Outro, uma vez que as categorias que a National Geographic usa são específicas da cultura ocidental e não universais. Mostramos que tanto o discurso da revista quanto o do pesquisador que faz a analise das representações são produtos de seu locus de enunciação e seu contexto histórico. Finalmente, enfatizamos a importância de admitir o poder de mediação quando falamos sobre representações antropológicas. A revista usa um discurso aparentemente científico, a fim de validar a veracidade de suas representações. No entanto, sua ciência é formada por conceitos da hegemonia cultural ocidental, que procura construir conhecimento que está enraizado no poder.

Nos últimos anos, o Brasil tem testemunhado o surgimento de uma produção literária com características muito próprias do nosso tempo: seus autores são periféricos (favelados), sua forma e conteúdo derivam do momento de extrema violência que assola grande parte da população. Exemplar desta produção, o livro de Ferréz, Capão Pecado é primeiramente publicado em 2000. O objetivo desta dissertação é analisar o romance, compreendendo-o dentro de um escopo maior, que abarca outros setores, da arte e da política. Para isso, a teoria pós-colonial, assim como um estreito diálogo com uma parte da tradição crítico-literária brasileira são utilizadas. / In the last few years, Brazil has witnessed the appearance of one type of literary production whose characteristics are typical or our times: its authors are from the suburbs (the slums), its form and content derive from the extreme violence imposed to a great part of the population. An example of this literary production, Ferrézs book, Capão Pecado is first published in 2000. This dissertation aims at analyzing the novel, understanding that it belongs to a greater scope, that comprehends other spheres of the arts and politics. In order to do so, the post-colonial theory will be used, as well as a great deal of the Brazilian literary theory tradition.

Esta pesquisa estuda o comportamento dos meios impressos de comunicação, denominado inação midiática, em relação às manifestações populares subalternas. Aborda algumas características da mídia impressa hegemônica e seu papel de informar com o objetivo de colaborar na construção de uma sociedade que valorize seus diversos bens culturais. O estudo analisa, como exemplo, as singularidades de dois importantes veículos da mídia impressa paulista, os jornais Folha de S.Paulo e O Estado de S.Paulo. A tese que aqui se apresenta propõe o aprofundamento epistemológico da relação entre a mídia impressa, a sociedade por meio de ações de políticas públicas adequadas e a cultura popular subalterna, agrupando-as em dois eixos fundamentais de reflexão: a relação mídia e sociedade globalizada, articulando conceitos de cidadania e cultura, e a relação mídia e novas tecnologias, investigando os efeitos globalizantes e os benefícios provenientes dos novos protagonistas midiáticos para a cultura subalterna. / This research studies the behavior of the print media, termed media inaction, in relation to subaltern popular manifestations. Discusses some characteristics of the hegemonic print media and its role of informing in order to collaborate in building a society that values its various cultural goods. This study analyses, for example, the singularities of two major newspapers of São Paulo: Folha de S.Paulo and O Estado de S.Paulo. This thesis suggests a epistemological deepening of relation between the print media, society through appropriate actions of public policies and subaltern popular culture, grouping them into two main axes of reflection: the relation media and globalized society, articulating concepts of citizenship and culture, and the relation media and new technologies, investigating the globalization effects and the benefits from the new media protagonists for the subaltern culture.

[pt] O presente estudo tem como objetivo analisar as manifestações literárias produzidas pelos autores pertencentes à Literatura Marginal, buscando compreender as principais características textuais e políticas deste movimento. Nessa perspectiva, os produtos discursivos marginais serão vistos como manifestações contra-hegemônicas, resultantes de um esforço em produzir uma imagem própria sobre a vivência marginalizada, silenciando, assim, qualquer outro discurso produzido fora do espaço periférico. Para tanto, foi utilizado um arcabouço teórico que possibilita ler as formas de agenciamento político produzidas por este grupo. Além do exame do objeto literário, é realizada uma aproximação destas narrativas com o movimento Hip-Hop, mais precisamente com o RAP, colocando em relevo as muitas semelhanças quanto à estrutura textual das formas poéticas e as formas de veiculação de um discurso que almeja a conscientização dos leitores/ouvintes. Por se tratar de uma experiência literária pouco comum, a presença de escritores marginais em nossa série literária também apresenta novos questionamentos sobre a função e o papel do intelectual. Se outrora era o intelectual quem desempenhava a função de portavoz destes grupos, agora são os próprios marginais que rompem com a passiva posição de objeto e passam a figurar como sujeitos. Ao lançar um olhar crítico sobre esta disputa discursiva é possível identificar as tensões que o movimento de autores periféricos inaugura. / [en] The present study aims to analyze the literary work of authors who are part of the Literatura Marginal (Literature from the Outside) as a way to understand the chief aspects of this movement’s writing style as well as its main political characteristics. From this perspective, the productions of the periferia discourse will be understood as counter-hegemonic manifestations that originate from an effort to produce a specific view that reflects the marginalized experience, thus silencing any other discourse produced outside of the periferia space. To this end, we developed a theoretical outline that brings an understanding of the kinds of political engagement produced by this group. In addition to examining the literary product itself, this study considers the parallels between this type of narrative and the Hip-Hop movement, more specifically Rap, highlighting the many similarities between them as they relate to the structure of the writing and the way the discourse is disseminated, aiming at the conscientization of readers/listeners. Because this relates to an uncommon literary experience, the presence of periferia writers in our literary series also raises new questions about the role of the intellectual. If before it was the intellectual who acted as the spokesperson for these writers, now the outsiders themselves break with the passive role of objects and claim their place as protagonists. In bringing a critical view to this debate it is possible to identify the tensions that the periferia authors bring to this discussion.