This new issue of The Scholar & Feminist Online, edited by Kim F. Hall and Christine Cynn, brings together a fantastic and diverse set of work that contributes to the growing field of Africana Studies (the multidisciplinary study of Africa and the Black Diaspora) with a focus on gendered perspectives within this field. Organized by the three themes of history, politics and the academy, “Rewriting Dispersal: Africana Gender Studies” draws together a broad range of work from specialists in fields ranging from politics and activism to the arts and the academy.
How is gender expressed differently in diasporic contexts? How can we move to have women, gender and sexuality be integral to a basic understanding of processes of diaspora instead of ancillary or additive? These are among the questions that Hall and Cynn ask in the introduction to the issue, as they explain the dire need for a focus on gender within Africana Studies, and as they specify the particular contribution that this issue makes towards that goal. Relatively new programs like Africana Studies are at an exciting moment of possibility in that their rethinking of the goals and assumptions of their fields creates a space to rethink their relationship to gender and to transform notions of diaspora. New programs, however, particularly those like Africana Studies that challenge traditional organizations of knowledge, tend to be the first to suffer attacks on academic freedom, making journal issues like this one ever more urgent.
This issue of our webjournal was made possible by generous funding from the Ford Foundation’s Difficult Dialogues project and the Virginia C. Gildersleeve Fund from the Barnard College Provost’s Office.
