Browsing by Author "Tolmacheva, Marina"

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U.S. African studies in the shadow of politics
(Талком, Київ, 2018-03) Tolmacheva, Marina
The Year 2010 marked the passage of 50 years since the Year of Africa in 1960. For the world, and especially for Africans, 2010 became the year of soccer, the year of the Cup. For Africanists in the United States, located mostly at Universities, the celebration of half-a century of African independence was clouded by concerns about the state and future development of African studies teaching and Africa research. Since 2008, the economic downturn resulted in reduced funding for academic programs in university Area Studies and foreign-language scholarship support. At the same time, the creation of AFRICOM (United States Africa Command) and emergence of the “whole-government” integrated U.S. operations policy toward Africa presented new quandaries to U.S. Africanist scholars and their professional organizations. This paper provides a brief overview of the field of African studies in the United States over decades of development in a complex intellectual environment conditioned by domestic and international political affairs.
Women's history month 2018: of arts and politics
(Талком, Київ, 2019-05) Tolmacheva, Marina
March 8 is globally the International Women’s Day; in some countries it is noted, even celebrated, but it is not a civic holiday in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, unlike the post-Soviet countries of Eurasia where it is a national holiday. In Canada, it corresponds to the celebration of Persons Day on October 18 since 1929. The month of March is the “annual declared” Women’s History Month in the United States, following February as the Black History Month3. Preceded by a decade of Women’s History Weeks, since 1988 the celebration of Women in History in America is accompanied by a Presidential Proclamation and has its own website4. The Wikipedia article, last updated on March 30, 2018, notes that “The Women's Progress Commission will soon conduct hearings to promote interest in preserving areas that are relevant in American women's history.” If 2018 marks a 40-year mark of such highlighting of women’s contributions to history and contemporary society, it has been 55 years since the 1963 federal report produced by the Commission on the Status of Women. That was the first comprehensive federal report on women, and it took until March 2011 for it to be followed by another when the Obama administration released a report on Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being.