March 2025 sessionSeminar on Women's and Gender Studies An event organised by Research Unit 7387 DIRE co-organised by Monica Cardenas-Moreno (Hispanic Studies) and Florence Pellegry (English Studies)
‘Janelle Monae, Doja Cat and Hip Hop Feminism’ A lecture by EMILIE SOUYRI, Université Côte d'Azur
Friday, 7 March 2025 at 1:30 p.m. (Reunion Island time), 10:30 a.m. (Paris time) Remote event that will then be available as a webinar on the UNR page, ‘Les Rendez-Vous du Savoir des Humanités’ (Humanities Knowledge Meetings)
Registration link required to attend the event https://univ-reunion-fr.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_7dLBicTbRr-xHEUqCugpcQ
Image source: screenshot from the video for ‘Paint the Town Red’ on the album Scarlet, released in 2023
Summary: This presentation examines the place of women and feminism in hip hop culture. Is hip hop really more sexist than other genres? Through the songs of two American rappers, Janelle Monae and Doja Cat, we examine these artists' relationship to male domination, their rejection of the ‘politics of respectability,’ and their approach to liberated sexuality. Drawing on the work of Black American intellectuals from bell hooks to Patricia Hill Collins, Joan Morgan and Gwendolyn Pough, we attempt to shed some light on this complex and highly politicised issue.
Speaker: EMILIE SOUYRI is a lecturer in American Studies at the Université Côte d'Azur. Her research focuses on teaching methods inspired by critical race theory and critical pedagogy. She leads the European hip hop pedagogy project and recently published Souyri, Émilie. ‘Hip hop at school: practising the “fifth element” as a pedagogical tool in French schools’. Global Hip Hop Studies, edited by Justin Williams and Darren Chetty, vol. 5, no. 1 & 2, 2024, pp. 111-31, https://doi.org/10.1386/ghhs_00085_1.
Discussant: CLAUDE CHASTAGNER is Professor Emeritus of American Civilisation at the University of Montpellier Paul-Valéry. He is interested in American countercultures and popular music, and intercultural communication.
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