Inscriptions Decoding Politics, Gender, and Culture in Epistemologies and Praxis

Abstract

The irony was not lost that Toronto’s Colony Hotel was the site of the
AMSS’ tribute to the late Edward Said, “Inscriptions: Decoding Politics,
Gender and Culture in Epistemologies and Praxis,” held on November 27,
2004. The first regional Canadian conference, cosponsored by the AMSS’ Canadian chapter and the University of Toronto’s political science department,
featured eight sessions. A wide breadth of papers incorporated his
intellectual legacy, either directly through his critical frameworks, or indirectly
through critiques developed from them. Gender, neo-conservativism,
development, legal works of body, and Qur’anic hermenuetics were just
some of the issues discussed.
Welcoming and opening remarks were offered by Jasmin Zine and
Maliha Chisti, the conference’s cochairs; Paul Kingston, of the political science
department; and Beverly McCloud in absentia. Participants then split
into two groups to attend concurrent sessions. Said’s legacy was presented
by Nahla Abdo (Carleton University, Canada), who discussed epistemology,
diaspora, and identity, and Sedef Arat-Koc (Trent University, Canada),
who examined imperial inscriptions, diasporic identifications, and visions
for peaceful coexistence. The concurrent session, “Afghan Women, War,
and Ideologies of Conflict,” featured papers on ground realities in
Afghanistan and the neo-conservative agenda that drove American political
decisions.
Maliha Chisti (University of Toronto, Canada) and Chesmak
Farhoumand-Sims (York University, Canada) examined the trends and
impact of the transnational movement and global sisterhood on programming
for Afghani women. Relating their experience with capacity-building
programs for Afghani women, they conveyed how larger aid agencies used
stereotypical epithets that ignored the long legacy of indigenous women’s
activism and prioritized formally educated, westernized women. Faiza
Hirji (Carelton University, Canada) examined the perpetuation of stereotypes
of Muslim women in The New York Times (US), The Globe and
Mail (Canada), and Dawn, Pakistan’s largest English daily. While the two
western papers conveyed tropes of veiled Muslim women in need of rescue,
Dawn, due to its proximity to Afghanistan, flagged that country’s
sociopolitical and religious complexities by situating women, Islam, and
the Northern Alliance. James Esdail (McGill University, Canada) examined
the neoconservative movement in American foreign policy and concluded
that although no longer overt, imperialism and Orientalist tropes
still permeate this movement ...