The writing of women's history has witnessed a huge increase in recent decades. In the past, the focus of some of this work was the representation of the “heroine” or the “grand dame”. Recent theoretical writing, particularly as relating to historical anthropology, has focussed on a more “rounded” view of women’s historical representation and experience, however. This book explores aspects of Western visual culture and the cultures of so-called “marginal” groups, groups which have, as yet, seen little light shed on them. By analysing the discursive and “hidden” histories of a range of women artists who worked on the periphery of “mainstream” society or whose representational subjects were deemed “marginal” (Travellers, Roma (Gypsies and Circus people)), it is possible to come to some new conclusions regarding the historical relationships that have existed between different cultures and peoples. Such a process can generate a better understanding of the shifting power dynamic as between diverse historical phenomena. It is through such explorations also that we can enable the historical recovery and emergence of new identities in an increasingly multicultural world.

The writing of women's history has witnessed a huge increase in recent decades. In the past, the focus of some of this work was the representation of the â oeheroineâ or the â oegrand dameâ . Recent theoretical writing, particularly as relating to historical anthropology, has focussed on a more â oeroundedâ view of womenâ (TM)s historical representation and experience, however. This book explores aspects of Western visual culture and the cultures of so-called â oemarginalâ groups, groups which have, as yet, seen little light shed on them. By analysing the discursive and â oehiddenâ histories of a range of women artists who worked on the periphery of â oemainstreamâ society or whose representational subjects were deemed â oemarginalâ (Travellers, Roma (Gypsies and Circus people)), it is possible to come to some new conclusions regarding the historical relationships that have existed between different cultures and peoples. Such a process can generate a better understanding of the shifting power dynamic as between diverse historical phenomena. It is through such explorations also that we can enable the historical recovery and emergence of new identities in an increasingly multicultural world.

The Willow's Whisper brings the voices of 35 poets from the Irish and Native American communities together in one compilation. This collection of poems provides an aesthetic commentary on the potential which is beyond and within the everyday. From Gabriel Rosenstock and Biddy Jenkinson to N. Scott Momaday and Karenne Wood, mother-earth comes to life through each sound and syllable, and reawakens our senses to the world at its most beautiful and evocative. This volume will aid us to reconnect ...

The book considers the persistent tendency to represent the “Middle East” as a region enclosed in less permeable boundaries. This perspective of enclosure haunts Middle Eastern Studies and is part of ongoing cultural debates on cross-border circulation, currently challenged by spectacular outbursts of violence along resurfacing lines of division. This critical study analyses selected works of four contemporary Anglophone migrant writers from the Middle East (namely, Rabih Alameddine, Diana Abu-Jaber, Laila Halaby and Elif Shafak) to demonstrate that, in spite of the forceful lines that remain after religious, ethnic and political disputes, this region does not exist as a rigidly delimited place in the writing of migrants who reclaim it back from beyond its boundaries. Rather than being a permanent location, it is constructed as a place that flows into other places and is constantly reshaped by a variety of personal stories, migrant trajectories, departures and returns.

Migrant Representations pairs twenty-four carefully selected histories in order to compare how migrants themselves – Irish labourer, Lithuanian refugee or Indian doctor – and their social investigators capture in words and images defining private and historical moments. These comparative case studies from the 1780s to the 2000s explore how migrants constructed their own narratives of mobility and settlement through procedures of reflecting, remembering and recording. Moreover, these studies examine how speech, writing, and picture were used, for instance, by a missionary, social scientist or activist to make ‘outside’ representations of the migrant. Such life-stories, social surveys, and pictures emerge as alternative archives. Leese’s transnational, cultural history considers life-story forms and their uses; the tension between external surveillance and self-observation; the power of narratives to afford legibility and acknowledgement. Leese argues that, historically and in the present, first-person migrant stories and outsider investigations create a continuous charged exchange of views where both migrant and observer negotiate position, authority, authenticity, and potential advantage. Within the history of migrant representations this exchange generates a persistent, subversive strain of opposition and critique. Such self-observations, observations of others, and images never settle.

A unique comparative study of immigrant and diaspora literatures in America

How can biography and reflexivity become integral processes of an inquiry? How do we apply these processes to our research and to our accounts of ourselves? Presenting studies by migration scholars who are migrants themselves, Migrant Scholars Researching Migration illustrates the creative and affective function of embedding one's research in subjectivity, reflexivity, and personal biography. The book shows that linking personal experiences and biographies with research practices and agendas can be instrumental to the development of knowledges and new methodologies. The authors demonstrate, for instance, how their migration backgrounds have affected what kind of research they ‘should’ conduct. They also describe how their research findings have changed their understanding of their personal positionings as migrants and scholars. This book debunks the dogma of separating the researcher from their investigation by placing the researchers' experiences and multi-layered reflections at the center of their scholarly work. It sheds light on the importance of reflexivity and subjectivity as processes and assets in research rather than obstacles. Migrant Scholars Researching Migration will appeal to researchers and students interested in methodology, biographical research, theories of knowledge, and scholars of migration and diaspora studies. Chapters: Chapter 14 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license.