Exciting, really, that we have a contract with a leading university press about something so close to the Global Spark mission. Please pass along to any colleagues and others who might contribute!

CALL FOR BOOK CHAPTER PROPOSALS:  Short abstracts due March 1, 2013

Working Title — Screams from the Battered Frontier: Violence and the 21st Century American Indian Woman

Contributors/Editors: Nancy Van Leuven, Ph.D., Danielle Newton, M.F.A.,  Deniz Zeynep Leuenberger, Ph.D

An interdisciplinary, edited anthology that examines the cultural, religious, economic, and legal aspects and ramifications of violence against American Indian women.

________________________________________________________________________

American Indian women face the highest rate of violence (sexual and domestic abuse) of any group in America, three and a half times greater than the national average.  In addition, women in a reservation community face institutionalized sexism and discrimination, including from Bureau of Indian Affairs law enforcement officials on reservations. While traditional studies link violence against American Indian women to drug and alcohol abuse among American Indian men and women, researchers increasingly point to deeper issues of identity and forced assimilation, lack of formal education, limited access to resources, both financial and legal, and scant protection under the Violence Against Women Act (2012), which acknowledges domestic and sexual violence against women as a public health issue and a human rights issue.

Key Words: Regardless of the topic or disciplinary approach, special emphasis should be placed on topics of culture, economics, law enforcement, the legal system, social services, social justice, and religion within American Indian lives. Proposal may take a variety of empirical or theoretical perspectives.

Submissions: Proposals should be between 300-500 words and the deadline for abstract submissions with a timely CV is March 1, 2012. Please submit all submissions and queries to nancyvanleuven@gmail.com. This will be a competitive selection process. After selection of proposals, full chapters (each approximately 20-25 pages in length) will be due by July 1, 2013. Authors who would like to discuss chapter ideas are encouraged to contact the editor. The estimated publication date of the volume is Spring 2014.

Here are three sample abstracts to guide your submissions:

NO WOMEN ALLOWED: THE MURDER OF ANNA MAE PICTOU AQUASH

This chapter examines the death of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, and the timeline of events from 1973 to 1975 that led to Aquash’s murder. Connecting to research on violence against women that suggests women are most often physically abused and murdered by those closest to them, this chapter hypothesizes that the ‘hit’ put on Aquash by AIM leadership was the final act in many that terrorized and brutalized Anna Mae Aquash from 1973 to her death in 1975.

BAD BLOOD or REAL? Claiming “Indian-ness” As Legal Identity

This chapter explores today’s stories, such as matriarchy and the Massachusetts “blood feud” about who can operate a tribal casino, as well as the BEAR (Blackfeet Enrollment Amendment Reform) women who seek to eliminate the tribe’s blood quantum requirements.  The same laws that once devalued indigenous heritage now dilute the status of women who have already been conquered, assimilated, and are now warring amongst themselves in order to conform to colonial mandates for family security

TRIBAL COLLEGES AND THE DILEMMA OF FEMALE LEADERSHIP

The purpose of this paper is to recognize the need for support for female governance in tribal colleges, the necessity for creating safe spaces for females in tribal college leadership, the recognition that violence and bullying come in many forms even at the highest level in academia, and the eroding function of decision-making that takes into account the values intrinsic to Native cultures, and thus, to tribal colleges.