Storytelling and co-authorship in feminist alliance work: reflections from a journey

Abstract

If all writing is fundamentally tied to the production of meanings and texts, then feminist research that blurs the borders of academia and activism is necessarily about the labor and politics of mobilizing experience for particular ends. Co-authoring stories is a chief tool by which feminists working in alliances across borders mobilize experience to write against relations of power that produce social violence, and to imagine and enact their own visions and ethics of social change. Such work demands a serious engagement with the complexities of identity, representation, and political imagination as well as a rethinking of the assumptions and possibilities associated with engagement and expertise. This article draws upon 16 years of partnership with activists in India and with academic co-authors in the USA to reflect on how storytelling across social, geographical, and institutional borders can enhance critical engagement with questions of violence and struggles for social change, while also troubling dominant discourses and methodologies inside and outside of the academy. In offering five ‘truths’ about co-authoring stories through alliance work, it reflects on the labor process, assumptions, possibilities, and risks associated with co-authorship as a tool for mobilizing intellectual spaces in which stories from multiple locations in an alliance can speak with one another and evolve into more nuanced critical interventions.

Si toda escritura está fundamentalmente ligada a la producción de significados y textos, entonces la investigación feminista que desdibuja los límites entre lo académico y el activismo trata necesariamente sobre el trabajo y la política de movilizar la experiencia para fines pacíficos. La coautoría de historias es una importante herramienta por la que los y las feministas que trabajan en alianzas a través de las fronteras movilizan experiencias para escribir contra las relaciones de poder que generan la violencia social, y para imaginar y actuar sus propias visiones y su ética del cambio social. Dicho trabajo demanda un compromiso serio con las complejidades de la identidad, la representación y la imaginación política, así como un repensar los supuestos y posibilidades asociados con el compromiso y el conocimiento experto. Este artículo se basa en 16 años de asociación con activistas en India y con coautoras académicas en los EE.UU. para reflexionar sobre cómo la narración de cuentos a través de fronteras sociales, geográficas e institucionales puede enriquecer el compromiso crítico con cuestiones de violencia y luchas para el cambio social, a la vez que perturbar los discursos y metodologías dominantes dentro y fuera de la academia. Ofreciendo cinco “verdades” sobre los cuentos de coautoría a través del trabajo en alianza, se reflexiona sobre los procesos laborales, supuestos, posibilidades y riesgos asociados con la coautoría como herramienta para la movilización de espacios intelectuales en los que las historias de lugares múltiples en una alianza pueden dialogan entre ellas y evolucionar en intervenciones críticas más matizadas y efectivas.

如果所有的书写在根本上皆与意义和文本的生产紧密相连，那么模糊学术与社运分野的女性主义研究，便必然与为了特定目地动员经验的劳动与政治相关。共同创作故事是女性主义跨界结盟的主要工具，藉此动员经验、以书写的方式反抗生产社会暴力的权力关系，并想象和启动她们自身对于社会变迁的愿景与伦理。此般工作必须深刻涉入认同、再现与政治想象的复杂性，并重新思考有关涉入以及专业知识的预设及可能性。本文运用与印度社会运动参与者以及在美国共同著作的学者之间长达十六年的伙伴关系，反思跨越社会、地理与制度疆界的说故事行动，如何得以促进对于社会变迁的暴力与斗争问题的批判性涉入，并扰动学术界内、外部的支配性论述与研究方法。本文藉由提供五个透过结盟工作所共同著作的“真相”，反思有关共同著作的劳动过程、预设、潜能与风险，其中共同著作做为动员知识空间的工具，在该空间中来自各地的故事结盟后得以相互对话，并发展出更为细致且有效的批判性介入。

Keywords:

• storytelling
• co-authorship
• alliance work
• truth
• accountability
• trust

Keywords:

• narración de cuentos
• coautoría
• trabajo en alianza
• verdad
• responsabilidad
• confianza

Keywords:

• 说故事
• 共同著作
• 结盟工作
• 真相
• 可究责性
• 信任

Acknowledgements

I warmly thank the Department of Geography at the University of Arizona for inviting me to deliver the Jan Monk Lecture in Tuscon and at the 2012 Annual Meetings of the Association of American Geographers in New York, and to Sarah Moore for her role in organizing these events. This article owes its origins to an interview on Transnational Feminisms and Praxis that Ozlem Aslan, Nadia Hasan, Omme-Salma Rahemtullah, Nishant Upadhyay, and Begum Uzun conducted with me in Toronto in February 2011 for Kultur ve Siyasette Feminist Yaklasimlar (Feminist Approaches in Culture and Politics, www.feministyaklasimlar.org), an online e-journal published quarterly in Turkey since October 2006. The article has benefitted immensely from David Faust's insightful reading of its multiple versions at various stages of its evolution, from the stimulating critiques and rigorous comments provided by Patricia Connolly and two anonymous reviewers, and from the enthusiastic engagement of the editors of Gender, Place, and Culture. Last but not least, I thank Jan Monk for her inspiration and intellectual generosity and for making these conversations possible.

Notes

1. NSY is the pseudonym used by Sangtin writers for the NGO, which employed seven of the nine authors of Sangtin Yatra.

2. See endnote no. 1.

3. Kisaan Bahi is a form of administrative land record that determines a peasant household's access to fertilizer.

4. A mild stimulant, gutka is made from crushed betel nut, tobacco, catechu, paraffin, lime, and sweet or savory flavorings. Bidi is a cigarette made with tobacco flake and rolled in tendu leaf.