Join us in our first Fall session of the 2012/2013 Janey Annual Workshop.

Friday November 30th, 12pm, History Conference Room 529

Janey Fellows Maria Cabrera Arús & Javier Fernández Galeano will present their most recent work based on the 2012/2013 Janey Summer Fellowship they were awarded. See titles and abstracts below:

Maria Cabrera Arús: Material Culture and Socialism: Cuba, 1976-1989

Abstract: The socio-historical narrative of twentieth century in Cuba generally comes to a halt at the doors of what has been called the quinquenio gris (the grey five-years period), from 1970-1975, only to reappear in the 1990s, ignoring the decades of Soviet-style state socialism and creating a sharp divide both between before and after the triumph of the rebels and the seizure of power by Castro, and between before and after the Special Period, without describing how exactly the 1970s and 1980s looked from the perspective of the common citizen, or what micro dynamics sustained power along those years. A material culture perspective appears especially suitable to understand some of these dynamics, as consumer goods and material practices acquired far-reaching meanings along the past fifty years in Cuba, also carrying a political connotation. Along this time, both North American mid-twentieth century and socialist modern mass consumer goods materialized two different conceptions of modernity and politics, coexisting and contrasted with makeshift objects invented to counter shortages. My presentation will discuss some of the dynamics that emerged out of them, focusing on everyday objects of the domestic environment during the period from 1976 to 1989 in Cuba, and placing the discussion in the context of cultural modernity, which early-twentieth century Cubans seemed very fond of.

Javier Fernández Galeano:  Homosexuality and the Army during the Argentinean Last Dictatorship: the Trials of Soldiers’ ‘Dishonest Acts’

Abstract: My research project focuses on Argentina during the seventies and eighties and deals with gay activism, repressive measures against homosexual practices, and the discourses on which these measures were based. As part of this project, the chapter I am going to present is an approach to the understandings and representations of sexuality by those who had seized power after the coup d’état in 1976. During the years of the last Argentinean dictatorship, Article 765 of the Military Justice Code penalized homosexuality in the army. The juridical records produced in the application of that article provide a unique insight into the ideological and theoretical apparatuses through which the army’s highest ranks categorized homosexual practices and discussed the judgment they deserved. In particular, specialists in military law were much concerned about the questions of who should be considered homosexual, how to explain this conduct (in other words, why were there homosexual soldiers, or soldiers who maintained homosexual relationships), and how to evaluate the gravity of this crime. By presenting these debates, I intend to historicize, and thus defamiliarize, assumed notions on sexuality, showing how different social agents intervene in their definition.