Illuminating Angles (Asynchronous - Online Only)
Featured (Im)material Conditions: Approaching Abjection, Existential Wanderings, and The Door of No Return View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ikea Johnson
This study examines the metaphysical aspects of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. Most scholars discuss race, but my divergence is predicated in the Eastern (Indian/Odisha), Buddhist (Mandarin), Kemetic (African), Greek (Aristotle), and French (Sartre) influences Ellison weaves into the narrative. As is known, some founding theorists of the foundations of western philosophy often used an inverted version of Buddhist philosophy to articulate their ideas about law, being, time, and space. These seemingly primitive sites of spiritual and philosophical matters such as Dogen’s Shobogenzo of the 13th century were repositories of ancient wisdom for Kant, Hegel, Heidegger, to name a few. Also, some theories seemingly immaterial to the genre of African-American literature are considered risky. However, approaching abjection, existential wanderings, meta-legality, and dark matter consciousness forged by law and empire bring the text into a modern mode of examining the exiling nature of blackness and defragmentation of the Black mind from an African World view (Kemetic). I delve into varying spaces of the underground and “heavenly” realms of thought enacted by Ellison’s narrator’s ascent and descent through the white mist (Black erasure trope), through women, and his performative method for accessing Dionne Brand’s concept of the Door of No Return; a space in the physical gulf (transnationalism/transatlantic wanderings), Ouidah (the Gate of No Return), and the (im)material mind where matter and spirituality combine in matrixial realms of (sub)consciousness. How may the mind enact aversion to imperialism through text and performative resistance? I think alongside Fred Moten, Sarah Cervenak, and Christina Sharpe.
Featured The (Miss)Education of the Black Girl: Black Girl-Centered Collectives Impact on the Educational Resilience and Persistence to Higher Education View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Tiffani J. Smith
Black girls are sixteen percent of the female student population, but nearly one-third of all girls referred to law enforcement and more than one-third of all female school-based arrests. As the aggression and violence of Black girls have increased in United States educational institutions, there has been an increase in Black girl-centered collectives to produce social change to their current conditions. Black girl-centered collectives are groups, spaces, or organizations dedicated to the lived experiences, memories, representations, and knowledge of Black girls and young women. As the punitive policies against Black girls have increased, there has been a rise in the development of collectives and initiatives for young Black girls and women such as: SOLHOT (Saving Our Lives, Hear Our Truths), the Dancing Dolls, BlackGirlsRead, and the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women (BLSYW) Lethal Ladies. This examination employs a media content analysis on the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women (BLSYW) Lethal Ladies and the impact the collectives have on the educational resilience and higher education persistence of Black girls in the organizations. The utilization of art, dance, media, social justice, and critical mentoring allow the Lethal Ladies to develop skills to combat the various forms of violence they experience in education to go to college.
Creating, Publishing, and Reading in Digital: The Case of Comics View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Marianna Missiou, Nikolaos Tapsis
The advancement of technology has brought new perspectives in artistic expression from the initial creation to the ultimate reception. Graphic narrations, traditionally created and developed on paper, are now challenged by new technological possibilities. Digital screens connect the producer-artist with the consumer-reader, while digital social platforms, such as Facebook, Tiktok, and Instagram, give artists the opportunity to self-publish and self-distribute. Publishing houses, like Comixology, DCComics, and Marvel, have transitioned to digital as well. This paper provides an outlook of the constantly and rapidly changing digital landscape where comics are produced, published, and consumed. The following questions are discussed: - What are the digital forms of comics, their projection screens, and distribution platforms, and how have their creation and publication been affected? - What challenges does a comics reader face in encountering the various digital media and methods? As technological opportunities expand and the skills of creators increase, new forms of digital comics will continue to evolve, and thus create new demands for digitally efficient readers.
Volunteering, Altruism, and Activism: Human Citizenship and Ways of Belonging View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Rosemary Joiner
This paper is based on my practice based research study which employs the artefact-exegesis model to write a young adult novel which explores the impact of volunteering. Informed by my own experience in industry and community immersed in volunteering, altruism and activism, my study attempts to capture the impact of volunteerism through narrative storytelling. This paper explores what states of belonging can be sought and found through volunteering. Through practice based creative research, I have written a novel which attempts to fill the research gaps by telling the real stories of the impact of volunteering. In this unique time in history, when volunteering can be a radical act, what can volunteering, altruism, and activism tell us about citizenship, identity and belonging?
