Cultural Study Unit 3&4-CS is applied in the reading- “Frankenstein”

   Cultural Study

                      Unit 3&4 

This blog is written on the ground as a task assigned by H.O.D Dilip Barad sir Department of English M.K.B.U. In this particular blog  write about Cultural study is applied in the reading of the novel “Frankeinstein”. 

Cultural study

Cultural studies is an interdisciplinary field of academic inquiry that emerged in the late 20th century and encompasses a wide range of topics related to culture, society, and power. It draws on theories and methods from various disciplines, including sociology, anthropology, literary theory, media studies, and cultural anthropology, to analyze and interpret the ways in which culture shapes and is shaped by social, political, economic, and historical factors.

Cultural study is applied in the reading of the novel “Frankenstein”

Cultural Studies, as an interdisciplinary field, provides a valuable lens through which to analyze and interpret literary works such as Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein." By employing Cultural Studies in the examination of this classic novel, we can explore the intricate connections between the text and the socio-cultural context in which it was written. 

This approach allows for a nuanced understanding of the novel's themes, characters, and overall narrative, as well as its broader implications within the cultural landscape of the time.

One aspect of Cultural Studies that proves particularly insightful in the analysis of "Frankenstein" is the examination of the historical and social milieu in which Mary Shelley lived. The early 19th century was marked by significant scientific and technological advancements, as well as profound societal changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution. 

These developments deeply influenced the novel, as evidenced by Victor Frankenstein's ambitious pursuit of scientific knowledge and his creation of the creature through unconventional and morally ambiguous means.

Moreover, Cultural Studies invites us to consider the novel's engagement with broader cultural discourses of its time, including debates surrounding ethics, morality, and the consequences of unchecked scientific progress. 

Victor Frankenstein's creation of the monster raises ethical questions about the limits of human ambition and the responsibilities that come with scientific discovery. The creature's experiences and struggles, such as his alienation and quest for identity, reflect broader societal anxieties and challenges during the Romantic era.

Cultural Studies also allows for an exploration of how "Frankenstein" has been received and interpreted over time. The novel has become a cultural touchstone, inspiring various adaptations in literature, film, and other media. Analyzing these adaptations through a cultural lens enables us to understand how the themes of the novel continue to resonate and evolve within different cultural and historical contexts.

Furthermore, Cultural Studies facilitates an examination of the novel's treatment of gender roles and relationships. Mary Shelley, as a woman writing in a predominantly male literary landscape, subtly challenges and engages with contemporary gender norms. The character of Elizabeth, for instance, provides an avenue for exploring societal expectations placed on women during the Romantic era.

In conclusion, applying Cultural Studies to the reading of "Frankenstein" enriches our understanding of the novel by situating it within its historical, social, and cultural context. This approach allows us to appreciate the complexities of Mary Shelley's work and its enduring relevance, as well as the ways in which it contributes to ongoing cultural conversations about science, ethics, and human nature.

"Frankenstein, " explores Shelley's conflicted and ambivalent relationship to both her parents, one dead and the other very much alive. Knoepflmacher states: "Frankenstein resurrects and rearranges an adolescent's conflicting emotions about her relation both to the dead mother she idealized and mourned and to the living, 'sententious and authoritative' father-philosopher. She admired and deeply resented his imperfect attempts at 'moulding' Mary Wollstonecraft's two daughters."

 His psycho-biographical approach to the work widened its readership by aligning it with the psychomachias written by such canonical male romantic poets as Percy Shelley, William Blake, and even Samuel Taylor Coleridge. By seeing the novel as essentially a "war within the mind" of the central character, in this case Victor functioning as a stand-in for Mary Shelley herself, literary critics like Knoepflmacher placed the work clearly within a recognizable Romantic framework. In 1979, Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar also published their groundbreaking study of nineteenth-century women writers.

 The Madwoman in the Attic. Gilbert and Gubar interpret Frankenstein as a "Romantic 'reading' of Paradise Lost," with Victor alternately playing the roles of Adam, Satan, and Eve. The first two roles had become fairly standard topics of discussion in the criticism of the novel, but the last role, "Victor-as-Eve," was to assume a distinctly important function in the evolution of American feminist approaches to the work. 

Gilbert and Gubar's theory about the anxieties that plague a woman writer informs their approach to Frankenstein as "a waking dream . .. a Romantic novel about- among other things Romanticism, as well as a book about books and perhaps, too, about the writers of books." With this approach, the specter of Mary Wollstonecraft - a woman plagued by her attempts to reconcile the needs of her mind with her body  begins to haunt their account: "For this orphaned literary heiress, highly charged connections between femaleness and literariness must have been established early, and established specifically in relation to the controversial figure of her dead mother." 

Gilbert and Gubar coined the term "bibliogenesis " to capture their sense of Shelley's  "fantasy of sex and reading," that she brought herself to birth not through a human mother, but through the reading and consumption of books which" functioned as her surrogate parents."

Cite : 

Open AI. "Chat GPT-3.5".

Cultural Study Unit 2- New Historicism

 Cultural Study

Unit 2

Welcome readers! This blog post is a response to a thinking activity assigned by Dilip BArad Sir from the Department of English at MKBU. This blog is about New Historicism. 

                                           New Historicism

New Historicism, a literary theory influenced by Stephen Greenblatt and Michel Foucault, asserts that understanding literature requires examining both the historical context of the author and the critic. It acknowledges the reciprocal influence between a work of literature and the circumstances of its creation, as well as the impact of the critic's environment, beliefs, and biases on their interpretation.

In the New Historicist approach, literature is scrutinized within a broader historical framework, exploring how the author's era shaped the work and, conversely, how the work reflects the spirit of its time. New Historicists emphasize that a critic's analysis is inevitably influenced by their contemporary cultural context.

For Example ,  when assessing Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice for potential anti-Semitic undertones. Instead, it insists on evaluating the play within the historical context in which it was written. 

Moreover, New Historicists argue that studying the play can unveil cultural history, particularly in terms of power dynamics, social class marginalization, and their dispersion within the work. The reciprocal relationship between studying history and the text is emphasized, revealing insights about both.

The New Historicist also acknowledges that his examination of literature is "tainted" by his own culture and environment. The very fact that we ask whether Shakespeare was anti-Semitic   a question that wouldn't have been considered important a century ago, reveals how our study of Shakespeare is affected by our civilization.

New Historicism, then, underscores the impermanence of literary criticism. Current literary criticism is affected by and reveals the beliefs of our times in the same way that literature reflects and is reflected by its own historical contexts. New Historicism acknowledges and embraces the idea that, as times change, so will our understanding of great literature.

By examining the interplay between literature and history, New Historicism has contributed to a more nuanced understanding of both literary works and the societies that produced them. However, it has also faced criticism for its tendency to downplay the individual agency of authors and its potential for overlooking the aesthetic aspects of literature in favor of historical and political considerations.

 New Historicism is a literary theory and critical approach to the study of literature that emerged in the late 20th century, particularly in the 1980s. It is closely associated with the work of scholars such as Stephen Greenblatt, Michel Foucault, and Hayden White. New Historicism rejects the idea of separating literature from its historical and cultural context, emphasizing the interconnectedness of literature and the social, political, and cultural forces of its time.

A work of art is a part of material practices within society. It states that a work of fiction cannot be totally detached from non-fiction. It further states that a fictional entity is attached to history.

New Historicism fundamentally is defined as a theory that analyzes a text in connection with political and historical realities. Thus New Historicism is the opposite of New Criticism. While New Criticism focused only on the purity of the text, on the other hand, New Historicism rejects the idea of text as an isolated, pure concept.

New Historicism states that a text is not divorced from external agents of influence such as economics, societal influences, and material circumstances. New Historicism also proposes that there is no absolute boundary between fiction and history.

The emphasis of New Historicism is on the external agents surrounding a text. Stephen Greenblatt’s discourse on Shakespeare has led to a breakthrough in the field of New Historicism in which Greenblatt has proposed to rewrite Shakespeare’s legacy through interaction with political, cultural, material, social, economic and historical themes.

For Example ,  Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest, at a certain point was only read as an artistic work. But New Historicism has given a chance to read the play through a post-colonial lens. Some of the scholars associated with New Historicism are Stuart Hall, Raymond William, and Stephen Greenblatt.

Characteristics of New Historicism 

Contextualization: New Historicists argue that literary works are embedded in the historical circumstances of their creation and reception. They seek to understand literature by examining the social, political, and cultural contexts that shaped it.

Power Dynamics: New Historicists often explore the power relations inherent in literature and society. They are interested in how power operates, who wields it, and how it is reflected in literary texts. Michel Foucault's ideas about power, discourse, and knowledge have been particularly influential in this regard.

Interdisciplinary Approach: New Historicism draws on insights from various disciplines, including history, anthropology, sociology, and cultural studies. Scholars often use a wide range of historical documents, visual arts, and other cultural artifacts to supplement their literary analysis.

Textuality and Discourse: New Historicists focus on the language and rhetoric of both literary and non-literary texts. They explore how language constructs meaning and how certain discourses contribute to the perpetuation or subversion of cultural norms.

Instability of Meaning: New Historicists reject the idea of fixed or universal meanings in literary texts. They argue that meanings are contingent on historical and cultural contexts and are subject to change over time.

Historical Imagination: The approach encourages readers to engage with the historical imagination of a text, considering how it reflects and responds to the historical moment in which it was produced.

Fragmentation and Multiplicity: New Historicists often embrace the idea that there are multiple, sometimes conflicting, interpretations of a text. They acknowledge the plurality of voices and perspectives in literature and history.

New historicism - critical approach 

New historicism is a critical approach which disrupts the extremity of purely formal and linguistic critical canon and dogmatism of close textual analysis of a work at the expense of extrinsic value embedded implicitly in its intrinsic part. These purely formal approaches lay emphasis on the fact that since text is the ultimate reality with the reader, he need not go beyond that and should try to find out finer meaning by locating the free play of signs and signified or the process of signification to ascertain aesthetic Value. 

On the other hand, New Historicists opine that to locate solely linguistic and textual features of a piece of writing is to see one side of the coin, rather a text can find proper interpretation if the conditions of its production are also previewed because “New Historicism is an approach to literary criticism and literary theory based on the premise that a literary work should be considered a product of its time, place and circumstances of its composition rather than as an isolated creation of genius” New historicists consider any texts as cultural construct, whether that text is literary or non literary belonging to other disciplines of knowledge rather than a creation coming into existence due to divine power of genius as S.T. Coleridge suggests in his Biographia Literaria. 

Moreover, New Historicism aims at rehistorization of text whether literary and non-literary and ascribes due significance to the cultural condition of its production, meaning, impact, its interpretation and evaluation, that is, a literary text is produced and actualized in cultural conditions, not in vacuum. 

It should not be taken as a return to traditional school of Historicism “for the views and practices of the New Historicism differ markedly from those of former scholars who had adverted to social and intellectual history as ‘background’ against which to set work of literature as a independent entity, or had viewed literature as a reflection of the world view characteristic of the period”. Unlike old school of Historicism, New Historicism “operates by fusing ‘linguistic turn’ of post structuralism and deconstruction and a return to historical readings”. 

New historicism offers a substantial methodology to study literature as a text as it assimilates linguistic turn of Post Structuralism and indeterminate nature of literary text propounded by deconstructionists which always remain under erasure. These approaches tend to close textual analysis of a work; however, the nexus between New Historicism and these linguistic approaches cannot be undermined because literature also carries its own historicity.

Cultural Study Unit 1 - Power in Cultural study

                                       Cultural Study 

                                Unit 1 

Welcome readers! This blog post is a response to a thinking activity assigned by Dilip Barad sir , from the Department of English at MKBU. This blog is a part of our thinking activity. 

                                Power in Cultural Studies

What is Cultural Study ?

Cultural studies is an interdisciplinary field that examines and analyzes the ways in which culture, including popular culture, media, literature, art, and everyday practices, shapes and is shaped by society. It emerged as a response to traditional academic disciplines that tended to focus on isolated aspects of culture, such as literature, history, or sociology.

Cultural studies often draws on theories and methods from sociology, anthropology, literary theory, media studies, and other disciplines to explore the complex relationships between culture and society. Scholars in cultural studies are interested in understanding how power dynamics, identity, ideology, and social structures intersect and play out in cultural expressions.

What is  Power in Cultural Studies? 

In cultural studies, the concept of power is a central and foundational idea. Power is understood not just in terms of political or institutional authority, but also as a pervasive force that operates in various social contexts, shaping relationships, identities, and cultural practices.

 Cultural studies draws on the insights of various theorists, including Michel Foucault, to analyze the ways in which power operates and influences the production and reception of cultural texts.

Definition of Power by Oxford University 

• power to do something He has the power to make things very unpleasant for us.

• power over somebody/something The aim is to give people more power over their own lives.

• The government wields enormous power over the economy.

•  In those days the king exercised real political power.

Forces which are holding Power: 

1) Physical

2) Wealth

3) State Action

4) Social Norms 

5) Numbers ( Quantity)

6) Ideas

Laws of Power : 

Power is like a water

Power is never static

Power compounds 

Michel Foucault's 'Knowledge and Power'

Michel Foucault

Michel Foucault French philosopher and historian, one of the most influential and controversial scholars of the post-World War II period. Michel Foucault was born to a solidly bourgeois family. He resisted what he regarded as the provincialism of his upbringing and his native country, and his career was marked by frequent sojourns abroad. A distinguished but sometimes erratic student, Foucault gained entry at the age of 20 to the École Normale Supérieure (ENS) in Paris in 1946. 

There he studied psychology and philosophy, embraced and then abandoned communism, and established a reputation as a sedulous, brilliant, and eccentric student.

He chose to watch his reputation grow from a distance at the University of Tunis in Tunisia and was still in Tunis when student riots erupted in Paris in the spring of 1968. In 1969 he published L’Archéologie du savoir. In 1970, after a brief tenure as director of the philosophy department at the University of Paris, Vincennes, he was awarded a chair in the history of systems of thought at the Collège de France, France’s most prestigious postsecondary institution. The appointment gave Foucault the opportunity to conduct intensive research.

Michel Foucault's 'Knowledge and Power'

Foucault's most notable contribution is the idea that power and knowledge are inseparable; they form a complex and mutually reinforcing relationship. In other words, power produces knowledge, and knowledge facilitates the exercise of power.

Institutions, practices, and discourses are key sites where power/knowledge is produced. These can include schools, hospitals, prisons, and various forms of social and cultural discourse.

Foucault argued that power operates through discourse, which encompasses language, symbols, and cultural representations. Discourse shapes how we understand and talk about the world, influencing what is considered normal or deviant.

One of Foucault's famous concepts is the panopticon, a prison design where a central observer can see all prisoners without them knowing whether they are being observed. This metaphor represents a form of surveillance and self-regulation that is characteristic of modern disciplinary power.

The panopticon serves as a model for understanding how power operates in society by inducing self-discipline and conformity through the constant possibility of being observed.

Foucault introduced the concepts of bio-power and governmentality to describe how power operates on a societal level. Bio-power involves the regulation and control of populations, particularly in relation to health, sexuality, and life itself.

Governmentality refers to the way governments exercise control not only through laws and institutions but also through various techniques of governance, including statistics, planning, and surveillance.

Digital Humanity

 Digital Humanities

This blog is a task assigned by Dilip Barad sir. In this particular blog I am going to discuss Digital Humanities.  

Introduction

The definition of the digital humanities is being continually formulated by scholars and practitioners. Since the field is constantly growing and changing, specific definitions can quickly become outdated or unnecessarily limit future potential. 

The second volume of Debates in the Digital Humanities (2016) acknowledges the difficulty in defining the field: "Along with the digital archives, quantitative analyses, and tool-building projects that once characterized the field, DH now encompasses a wide range of methods and practices: visualizations of large image sets, 3D modeling of historical artifacts, 'born digital' dissertations, hashtag activism and the analysis thereof, alternate reality games, mobile makerspaces, and more. In what has been called 'big tent' DH, it can at times be difficult to determine with any specificity what, precisely, digital humanities work entails."

What is Digital Humanities? 

Digital Humanities is a mix of technology and humanities. It uses computers to study and understand things like literature, history, and culture. People in this field digitize old books, analyze large amounts of text using computers, create visual charts, and make online collections of historical stuff. They also work together on projects and use technology to tell stories in new and interactive ways. Digital Humanities helps us explore and learn about human culture using modern tools.

Examples of Digital Humanities (ChatGPT)

1. Using computer programs to analyze large sets of historical documents, identifying patterns or trends in language or themes.

Digital Archives:

2. Creating online databases that store and provide access to historical photographs, manuscripts, or letters, making them available for researchers and the public.

3. Developing interactive maps that show the geographical distribution of cultural or historical events, helping researchers and students better understand spatial relationships.

4. Applying markup language to encode a literary work, enabling scholars to study and analyze specific elements or characteristics of the text in a structured way.

5. Digital Storytelling:

Creating a multimedia website or presentation that combines text, images, and audio to tell a historical or cultural story in a compelling and interactive manner.

6. Studying trends in language and discourse on platforms like Twitter to understand public reactions and discussions around cultural or social events.

3D Modeling of Historical Sites:

7. Using digital tools to create virtual reconstructions of historical buildings or archaeological sites, allowing researchers and the public to explore them in a virtual environment.

8. Collaborating with scholars from different locations on a shared online platform to collectively work on a research project, facilitating interdisciplinary collaboration.

9. Digital Exhibits:

Curating an online exhibition that showcases artifacts, documents, and multimedia elements related to a specific historical or cultural theme.

10. Augmented Reality in Cultural Heritage:

Developing an augmented reality app that overlays historical information or virtual artifacts onto the physical environment when users explore a cultural heritage site.

Key concepts of Digital Humanities :

Digitization: Converting analog materials into digital formats to make them accessible and searchable.

Text Mining and Analysis: Using computational methods to analyze large volumes of text data, identifying patterns, themes, and trends that may not be immediately apparent through traditional methods.

Data Visualization: Creating visual representations of data to aid in the interpretation and communication of complex information. This can include graphs, charts, maps, and other visualizations.

Geospatial Analysis: Examining the geographic aspects of humanities data, such as mapping historical events, cultural movements, or literary settings.

Digital Archives and Repositories: Building and maintaining online repositories of digital materials, allowing scholars and the public to access and explore cultural and historical resources.

Text Encoding and Markup: Applying markup languages like XML or TEI (Text Encoding Initiative) to add structure and metadata to texts, enabling more nuanced and detailed analysis.

Collaborative Research: Facilitating collaborative projects among scholars, often across different disciplines and institutions, to address complex research questions.

Digital Storytelling: Using digital tools to create interactive and multimedia narratives that engage audiences in new ways.

Digital Humanities is a dynamic and evolving field that leverages technology to enhance traditional humanistic inquiry. Scholars in Digital Humanities may come from diverse backgrounds, including literature, history, computer science, information science, and more. 

The interdisciplinary nature of Digital Humanities allows researchers to explore and gain insights into various aspects of human culture and history by combining traditional scholarly approaches with cutting-edge digital methods.

The Future of Postcolonial Studies

   Thinking activity

 The Future of Postcolonial Studies

This blog is a task assigned by Dilip Barad sir. In this blog I am going to deal with Ania Loomba's two articles, and try to summarise and describe my overall understanding here in this blog. Here I describe my understanding in Postcolonial Studies, Globalization and The Future of Postcolonial Studies.

What is Postcolonial Study?

Postcolonial studies is an interdisciplinary field of academic inquiry that emerged in response to the historical legacies of colonialism and imperialism. This field examines the social, political, economic, and cultural implications of colonial encounters and seeks to understand how colonial histories continue to shape contemporary societies and identities.

 Postcolonial studies originated primarily in the context of literature but has since expanded to encompass a wide range of disciplines, including history, anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, and more.

Key Figures in Postcolonial Studies:

Edward Said: His work "Orientalism" (1978) is a foundational text in postcolonial studies, exploring how the West has constructed and represented the East.

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak: Known for her essay "Can the Subaltern Speak?" (1988), Spivak discusses the challenges of representing the voices of marginalized groups within academic discourse.

Homi K. Bhabha: His concept of "hybridity" and ideas about cultural identity have been influential in postcolonial theory.

Postcolonial studies continue to evolve, incorporating insights from various regions and disciplines. It provides a framework for understanding the complexities of the postcolonial world and engaging with issues of power, representation, and social justice.

Globalization and the future of postcolonial studies (Ania Loomba 2nd edition of colonialism and postcolonialism)

This article begins by addressing the events of September 11, 2001 (9/11), the Global War on Terror, and subsequent US military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq. These occurrences pose a challenge to the conventional perspective of the world solely through a postcolonial framework. However, there is an argument that these events are also integral to the broader phenomenon of globalization.

Globalization has profoundly transformed the world, leading many proponents and critics to assert that the historical context of European colonialism is no longer as central for analysis. 

There is a suggestion to explore globalization by focusing on transnational networks, international flows, and the erosion of geographical and cultural boundaries. While these concepts are familiar to postcolonial critics, they are now being employed to advocate for a shift away from traditional narratives of colonialism and anti-colonialism.

Hardt and Negri view the United States as an imperial power acting for global interests, not just its own. However, worldwide protests against wars suggest that many don't support US actions, seeing it as both ultra-nationalist and imperialist.

Nationalism remains a strong force, shaping conflicts worldwide alongside multinational corporations. Rather than viewing the new global order versus national ideologies, it's better to see them forming alliances and conflicts.

Countries like North Korea and India developed nuclear programs against US influence, but this doesn't necessarily signify progress. India, for example, is repressive within its own borders in regions like Kashmir, yet collaborates with multinationals. Additionally, various forms of nationalism have risen, fueling movements against multinationals and sometimes opposing the US, but often associated with backward social and ideological views.

Certainly! Globalisation is apparent in various media forms, such as television advertisements and films. Here are some examples:

Coca-Cola Advertising

Coca-Cola, as a global brand, uses TV advertisements to showcase its products worldwide.

Commercials often feature diverse settings, people, and languages to connect with a global audience.

During festive seasons, ads incorporate cultural celebrations from different countries to emphasize unity and happiness.

Online Streaming Services:

Platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+ have expanded globally.

They offer content catering to diverse audiences, producing original series and movies in multiple languages.

Shows like "Money Heist" and "Squid Game" gained global popularity due to their accessibility and appeal across cultures.

In media, particularly in TV ads and movies, globalization is evident through a deliberate effort to reach diverse audiences by embracing cultural diversity, using multiple languages, and incorporating themes that transcend geographical boundaries.

Hollywood Movies:

Hollywood films exemplify globalization in the entertainment industry.

Produced with global appeal, these movies are distributed and marketed internationally.

They feature diverse casts, blend different cultures, and incorporate themes resonating across borders.

                THE FUTURE OF POSTCOLONIAL STUDIES

Rob Nixon criticizes American environmental writing for glorifying wilderness while neglecting the history of colonized peoples and non-American geographies.

Ken Saro Wiwa, leading MOSOP in Nigeria, protested against oil drilling's environmental devastation, with Shell Oil later admitting involvement in his execution.

Chittaroopa Palit from NBA notes the limitations of international factors and supports the significance of grassroots movements in environmental protests.

Resistance against forest exploitation in Central India involves Maoist guerrillas, facing opposition from the police and army.

Dipesh Chakrabarty, after extensively studying various theories for 25 years, found himself unprepared to analyze the global environmental crisis of climate change.

Environmental activist Vandana Shiva links colonialism with environmental destruction, emphasizing the exacerbation of damage by capitalism and transnational corporations.

Feminist environmentalists stress the interconnectedness of ecology and human culture, particularly in third-world countries, where environmental conservation should consider community needs.

Arundhati Roy highlights India's post-independence policies aligning with global conglomerates, depriving tribal populations of traditional rights.

David Harvey redefines primitive accumulation, pointing out its persistent presence in capitalism's historical geography, with features like displacement, privatization, and suppression of alternative forms of production.

Paula Chakravartty and Denise Ferreira da Silva question Harvey's oversight on the impact of blackness and Latinidad in turning homes into precarious traps, especially in the subprime mortgage crisis, questioning how racial and cultural differences contributed to profiting from unpayable loans.

Susie O'Brien and Imre Szeman highlight that postcolonial studies have uniquely emphasized the connections between cultural forms and geopolitics over the last four decades. However, they urge for a deeper engagement with historical work to better understand the relationship between culture and geopolitics. They argue that focusing narrowly on the present obscures our understanding of the world and stresses the importance of comprehending pre-colonial histories for a more sophisticated approach to the present.

Ania Loomba concludes by pointing out new avenues for postcolonial studies, including environmental concerns, indigenous histories, premodern cultures, and the ongoing impacts of global capitalism on territories and communities. These areas demand a fresh reevaluation of colonial history, freedom, racial hierarchies, gender dynamics, and community structures.

Thank You… .