Black and Brown Feminisms in Hip Hop Media March 4-5, 2011

Black and Brown Feminisms in Hip Hop Media

University of Texas at San Antonio - March 4-5, 2011



Please submit a 500 word abstract to Kinitra Brooks and/or Marco Cervantes
blackandbrownfeminisms[at]gmail.com on or before November 15, 2010.



Black and Latina feminist scholars offer multiple ways of understanding
feminist cultures that transcend ideological borders and patriarchal
conventions. More recently, Black and Latina feminists have negotiated the
positionality of the woman of color in the ever-changing world of Hip Hop
since its inception. The Black and Brown Feminisms in Hip Hop Media
Conference situates Black and Latina feminist theory in the context of Hip
Hop representation to discuss ways Hip Hop music, film, and club industries
fetishize, exploit, celebrate, empower and/or disempower Black and Brown
women.



This interdisciplinary conference will feature unpublished work on women in
Hip Hop to exchange ideas, share research, and initiate a sustained
conversation by and about Black and Brown women in Hip Hop media. Vital to
this discussion is attention to the blurring lines between Black and Latina
feminist studies and a dialogue that attempts to understand an interweaving
history of objectification, struggle, and potential for agency. How do we
read Black and Brown women in Hip Hop culture? What readings of Black and
Brown women other than conventional black feminist readings and Latina
feminist analyses are cogent? What theories enable those readings? Finally,
what would an investigation into autobiographical stories of video models
yield? How would those narratives differ from that of more conventional
readings?



A select number of accepted papers will be included in a one-day, academic
conference at the University of Texas at San Antonio as a part of UTSA's
celebration of Women's History Month on March 4, 2011 with a Hip Hop
performance from local Texas as well as national hip hop artists on the
evening of March 5, 2011. This conference will be an opportunity for
presenters to share views and concerns on the growing intersections between
Black and Brown women in hip hop culture. Possible Panel Topics Include:



Interdisciplinary Approaches to Gender and Race in Hip Hop

Colorism within Hip-Hop video culture

The New Female Entrepreneur

Negotiating Sexualities

Black and Latina Diasporas

Video Vixens or Video Models?

Female Rappers

Chicana/o Rap

Alternative Models of Black Femininity

Latinas in Video Model Culture

Intersections of Video Models with Youth Culture

Performing the Black Body/ Brown Body

Reggaeton

A Case Study of Karrine Steffans

Strip Club Culture

Confessions of Video Vixens

Eroticism vs. Pornography

Women as Exchange among a Male Economy



Please submit a 500 word abstract to Kinitra Brooks and/or Marco Cervantes
blackandbrownfeminisms[at]gmail.com on or before November 15, 2010.