Plenary 3: A Multidisciplinary Lens

• Main Authors: Anderson, Joyce Rain, Hartsfield, Jennifer, Kalish, Kevin
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Virtual Commons - Bridgewater State University 2014
• Subjects: Attawapiskat; Canada; Harper; Spence
• Online Access: https://vc.bridgew.edu/may_celebrations/2014/session2/21

Joining the Round Dance: Rhetorical Indigenous Bodies of Protest Dr. Joyce Rain Anderson In Western thought the mind/body split denies some in subordinate positions “space to produce knowledge about the body” (Kohishi et.al) and is contrary to Indigenous worldviews of the body connected to whole of life. As a result, Indigenous bodies have been subjected to physical/psychological trauma since contact. Idle No More (INM) began in Canada as direct response to Bill-C45, growing into a movement about sovereignty and bringing attention to the high number of missing and murdered Native women. Coinciding with INM, Attawapiskat Chief Teresa Spence went on hunger strike until Prime Minister Harper and Governor General David Johnson, agreed to meet with her. INM involves peaceful flash-mob round dances and teach-ins. With human blockades of highways and railways, INM quickly grew globally. I explore the historical trauma of Indigenous bodies and how the INM movement positions the Indigenous body as a protest instrument and as a survivance strategy. Diagnosing the Past, Consequences for the Future: Incarcerated Native American Women Dr. Jennifer Hartsfield The last decade has seen an increase in the literature related to the traumatic childhoods of incarcerated women. The current study builds upon this research to include adolescent and adult trauma in contributing to the experience of symptoms of depressions while incarcerated. Specifically, this study utilizes the technique of counting adverse events in creating a scale of experiences that spans childhood and adulthood. This measure, Lifetime Adverse Experiences, is assessed in relationship to a sample of incarcerated women and their current reporting of symptoms related to depression. Furthermore, using a framework of intersectionality, Native American women’s lifetime adverse events and symptoms of depression are discussed separately to highlight the different context in which Native American women enter and experience prison. Translating Eve’s Voice: An Imagined Speech from a Late Antique Greek Homily on Cain and Abel Dr. Kevin Kalish In the Biblical story of Cain and Abel, the first murder and first fratricide comes immediately after Adam and Eve are expelled from Paradise. The Biblical account of the story is quite short and sparse in its details. Eve, their mother, says nothing. But this did not stop other writers from imagining what Eve might have said. This paper explores one such attempt to imagine Eve’s voice. A fifth-century homily from the collection of Greek texts attributed to St. Ephrem the Syrian expands upon the brief Biblical narrative and gives Eve a chance to speak. Based upon the translation of the text that I completed with the support of a CARS Summer Grant (2013), this paper discusses how the homily uses rhetorical devices to imagine Eve’s voice.