This ethnographic study on Nigerian street prostitution in Italy transforms the understanding of the phenomenon of prostitution, questions the impact of European and Italian migration and prostitution laws on human rights, and investigates the legal, political and socio-economic conditions that create a permissive environment for trafficking. Precious first-person accounts by Nigerian women give a privileged perspective on tortures and inhumane treatment prevalent in the migratory route from Africa to the European “promised land”, culminating in the daily experience of self-destruction in Italy. Neither the Palermo Protocol nor the current European, Italian and Nigerian prosecution and protection policies, still based on gender-imbalanced philosophies, are able to restore the requisite freedom and rights. This book is the result of research mainly conducted in the migration landmarks of the Sicilian capital: namely, the port, nightlife streets, refugee camps, hospitals, African churches, Nigerian ghettos, and the prison. Sicily, the world capital of the mafia, is the main European docking area of the current African migration wave and represents the geopolitical middle-ground between the opulent and the plundered world.

One of the major issues this book examines is what the African experience and identity have contributed to the debate on citizenship in the era of globalisation. The volume presents case studies of different African contexts, illustrating the gendered aspects of citizenship as experienced by African men and women. Citizenship carries manifold gendered aspects and given the distinct gender roles and responsibilities, globalisation affects citizenship in different ways. It further examines new forms of citizenship emerging from the current era dominated by a neoliberal focus. The book is not exclusive in terms of theorisation but its focus on African contexts, with an in-depth analysis taking into consideration local culture and practices and their implications for citizenship, provides a good foundation for further scholarly work on gender and citizenship in Africa.

The historiography of African religions and religions in Africa presents a remarkable shift from the study of 'Africa as Object' to 'Africa as Subject', thus translating the subject from obscurity into the global community of the academic study of religion. This book presents a unique multidisciplinary exploration of African Traditions in the Study of Religion, Diaspora, and Gendered Societies. The book is structured under two main sections. The first provides insights into the interface between Religion and Society. The second features African Diaspora together with Youth and Gender which have not yet featured prominently in studies on religion in Africa. Contributors drawn from diverse African and global contexts situate current scholarly traditions of the study of African religions within the purview of academic encounter and exchanges with non-African scholars and non-African contexts. African scholars enrich the study of religions from their respective academic and methodological orientations. Jacob Kehinde Olupona stands out as a pioneer in the socio-scientific interpretation of African indigenous religion and religions in Africa and the new African Diaspora. This book honours his immense contribution to an emerging field of study and research.

New Criticism and Pedagogical Directions for Contemporary Black Women Writers is a collection of critical and pedagogical essays that shed new light on the creative depths of Black women writers. On the one hand, some Black women writers have been heavily anthologized, they have more often than not been restricted by critical metanarratives. Some of their works have been lionized while others remain neglected. On the other hand, some Black women writers have been ignored and understudied. This collection corrects the gaps in our critical thinking about Black women writers by introducing them to a new generation of undergraduate and graduate students, and by presenting pedagogical essays to our colleagues currently working in the field.

Why read Sustaining Seas? It is as simple as this: the seas sustain all life. This edited book emerges from conversations across several disciplines, and including practitioners of different specialities (artists, writers, planners, policy makers) about how to sustain the seas, as they sustain us. Sustaining Seas: Oceanic space and the politics of care aims to build a better understanding of what it means to care for aquatic places and their biocultural communities. The book is truly interdisciplinary and brings together a wide range of authors including, academics from diverse fields (architecture, science, cultural studies, law), artists, fisheries managers, and Indigenous Traditional Owners. It provides readers with new theoretical framings, as well as grounded case studies with a wide geographical and cultural breadth. This book assumes that understanding complexity, including social, cultural, ecological and economic interconnections, is crucial to any solution. Sustaining the seas is one of the most pressing global challenges for the planet and all her inhabitants. How to do justice to this challenge is an exigency for all scholars, and how to represent the oceans is a guiding theme in the book that is addressed by scholars, artists, and practitioners.

Singing the Body Electric explores the relationship between the human voice and technology, offering startling insights into the ways in which technological mediation affects our understanding of the voice, and more generally, the human body. From the phonautograph to magnetic tape and now to digital sampling, Miriama Young visits particular musical and literary works that define a century-and-a-half of recorded sound. She discusses the way in which the human voice is captured, transformed or synthesised through technology. This includes the sampled voice, the mechanical voice, the technologically modified voice, the pliable voice of the digital era, and the phenomenon by which humans mimic the sounding traits of the machine. The book draws from key electro-vocal works spanning a range of genres - from Luciano Berio's Thema: Omaggio a Joyce to Radiohead, from Alvin Lucier's I Am Sitting in a Room, to Björk, and from Pierre Henry's Variations on a Door and a Sigh to Christian Marclay's Maria Callas. In essence, this book transcends time and musical style to reflect on the way in which the machine transforms our experience of the voice. The chapters are interpolated by conversations with five composers who work creatively with the voice and technology: Trevor Wishart, Katharine Norman, Paul Lansky, Eduardo Miranda and Bora Yoon. This book is an interdisciplinary enterprise that combines music aesthetics and musical analysis with literature and philosophy.

The particular experience of enslaved women, across different cultures and many different eras is the focus of this work.