897
Views
2
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Original Articles

Diasporic reasoning, affect, memory and cultural politics: An interview with Avtar Brah

&
 

Abstract

This interview explores the intellectual contours of Stuart Hall's work through the insights of Professor Avtar Brah, Emerita, Birkbeck College, whose feminist post-colonial voice has shaped generations of scholarship on diaspora thinking, achieving public intellectual status. Her Cartographies of Diaspora (1996) received international acclaim, challenging nationalist feminisms to engage diasporic cultural politics. The longest standing member of the Feminist Review editorial collective, Brah's intertwining of feminist theorisation with transformative pedagogies is well known. It is rare that feminists of colour or diasporic feminists are celebrated as ‘public intellectuals’, even when they are exceptionally accomplished in multiple spheres of intellectual life. Thus, we have chosen to interview Professor Avtar Brah, whose transnationally recognised work both owes a debt to and extends Hall's work in some surprising directions. Our interview explores some questions together as a ‘we’ and others individually to respect and highlight our own respective theoretical, socio-political and transnational experiences. This approach to interviewing acknowledges our different voices, as well as our affinities through this collaboration.

Notations for interview transcript
AH:=

Questions asked by Annette Henry

LGR:=

Questions asked by Leslie G. Roman

AH & LGR:=

Grouped questions in which one of us sparked the other to ask additional related questions

AB:=

Responses and reflections of Avtar Brah

T:=

Questions asked together from a shared perspective

Notations for interview transcript
AH:=

Questions asked by Annette Henry

LGR:=

Questions asked by Leslie G. Roman

AH & LGR:=

Grouped questions in which one of us sparked the other to ask additional related questions

AB:=

Responses and reflections of Avtar Brah

T:=

Questions asked together from a shared perspective

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Avtar Brah is Professor Emerita at Birkbeck College, University of London. She is a member of the Academy of Social Sciences, UK and the Editorial Collective of Feminist Review. She was born in India but grew up in Uganda. Since then, she has lived and worked in Britain and the USA. She is committed to intersectional politics of equality and justice. She is the author of Cartographies of Diaspora, Contesting Identities (1996), and co-author of Thinking Identities: Ethnicity, Racism and Culture (1999); Global Futures: Migration, Environment, and Globalization (1999); and Hybridity and Its Discontents: Politics and Science and Culture (2000). Her most recent article co-authored with Aisha Gill, “Interrogating cultural narratives” about ‘honour’-based violence’ is published in the European Journal of Women's Studies 21(1), May 2014.

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.