Ann Russo

Explores accountability as a framework for building movements to transform systemic oppression and violence What does it take to build communities to stand up to injustice and create social change? How do we work together to transform, without reproducing, systems of violence and oppression?In an age when feminism has become increasingly mainstream, noted feminist scholar and activist Ann Russo asks feminists to consider the ways that our own behavior might contribute to the interlocking systems of oppression that we aim to dismantle. Feminist Accountability offers an intersectional analysis of three main areas of feminism in practice: anti-racist work, community accountability and transformative justice, and US-based work in and about violence in the global south. Russo explores accountability as a set of frameworks and practices for community- and movement-building against oppression and violence. Rather than evading the ways that we are implicated, complicit, or actively engaged in harm, Russo shows us how we might cultivate accountability so that we can contribute to the feminist work of transforming oppression and violence. Among many others, Russo brings up the example of the most prominent and funded feminist and LGBT antiviolence organizations, which have become mainstream in social service, advocacy, and policy reform projects. This means they often approach violence through a social service and criminal legal lens that understands violence as an individual and interpersonal issue, rather than a social and political one. As a result, they ally with, rather than significantly challenge, the state institutions, policies, and systems that underlie and contribute to endemic violence. Grounded in theories, analyses, and politics developed by feminists of color and transnational feminists of the global south, with her own thirty plus years of participation in community building, organizing, and activism, Russo provides insider expertise and critical reflection on leveraging frameworks of accountability to upend inequitable divides and the culture that supports them.

Disrupting Violence and Transforming Power

Feminist Accountability

Chandra Talpade Mohanty

Lourdes Torres

"The essays are provocative and enhance knowledge of Third World women's issues. Highly recommended... "Â —Choice "... the book challenges assumptions and pushes historic and geographical boundaries that must be altered if women of all colors are to win the struggles thrust upon us by the 'new world order' of the 1990s." —New Directions for Women "This surely is a book for anyone trying to comprehend the ways sexism fuels racism in a post-colonial, post-Cold War world that remains dangerous for most women." —Cynthia H. Enloe "... provocative analyses of the simultaneous oppressions of race, class, gender and sexuality... a powerful collection." —Gloria Anzaldúa "... propels third world feminist perspectives from the periphery to the cutting edge of feminist theory in the 1990s." —Aihwa Ong "... a carefully presented wealth of much-needed information." —Audre Lorde "... it is a significant book." —The Bloomsbury Review "... excellent... The nondoctrinaire approach to the Third World and to feminism in general is refreshing and compelling." —World Literature Today "... an excellent collection of essays examining 'Third World' feminism." —The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory These essays document the debates, conflicts, and contradictions among those engaged in developing third world feminist theory and politics. Contributors: Evelyne Accad, M. Jacqui Alexander, Carmen Barroso, Cristina Bruschini, Rey Chow, Juanita Diaz-Cotto, Angela Gilliam, Faye V. Harrison, Cheryl Johnson-Odim, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Ann Russo, Barbara Smith, Nayereh Tohidi, Lourdes Torres, Cheryl L. West, & Nellie Wong.

Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism

Cheris Kramarae

Paula A. Treichler

A Feminist Dictionary

Gail Dines

Robert Jensen

Bob Jensen

This volume traces the modern critical and performance history of this play, one of Shakespeare's most-loved and most-performed comedies. The essay focus on such modern concerns as feminism, deconstruction, textual theory, and queer theory.

The Production and Consumption of Inequality

Pornography

Sandra Jackson

Sixteen contributions by Jackson and Russo (both DePaul U.) and other feminist scholars, writers, and activists describe how they have resisted being defined and pigeonholed by the dominant culture. Drawing upon her own life experience, each writer shows how women can create their own alternative constructions of identities and realities. The volume does not contain an index. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Women Negotiating the Media Across Cultures

Talking Back and Acting Out

Ann Russo

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