Collaborative Projects—Service and Servitude

Collaborative Research Interest Group Projects (RIGs)

“Service and Servitude” is designed to strengthen feminist intellectual inquries and interdisciplinary collaborations on the historical and contemporary nature of care work in the Americas. This project brings together members from three RIGS—Américas, U.S. Third-World Feminisms; and Law, Culture and Society. The RIGs plan two symposiums for the coming academic year. “Place and Displacement in African American Literature” is scheduled for March 2012 and is being coordinated by Courtney Thorsson, English. “Domestic Slavery and Servitude in the Americas” is scheduled for May 2012, and is being coordinated by Michele McKinley, Law. Events and activities will examine the gendered nature of domestic work, the class and ethnic dynamics between servants and mistresses, the enduringly racialized character of the care economy, the impact of globalization on ‘women’s work,’ and the state’s role in criminalizing and facilitating sex and care work.