Tag Archives: colonialism

FEATURED
Shepard ’09 Dresses Hanson ’12 in Carmen Miranda Drag, Takes Photos

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How about a little tropical flair to warm up your winter-like Spring Break?

Annie Shepard ’09 is the founder and main mamacita of the fashion photography website Neon Mamacita, and her latest project is a fabulous photoshoot featuring none other than Harry Hanson ’12. With photographer Aaron Colussi, they dressed Hanson in a pretty spot-on spoof/homage of Brazilian film and stage actress and singer Carmen Miranda— well, if Miranda had a beard. The bright surroundings are courtesy of the Bronx Zoo, where I’m sure random passerby gave a few confused stares at the trio before continuing on their merry way.

That signature tutti-frutti hat, which you have most definitely seen before, was famously part of Miranda’s outfit in the trippy, bizarre, but sort of awesome 1943 Busby Berkeley-choreographed musical, The Gang is All Here. And notably, her image was also co-opted for the weirdly colonialist and male-gaze-tastic “Chiquita Banana” commercials (which rhyme “equator” with “refrigerator” in a tune sung by Miranda, who plays the role of an animated banana. It’s so perfectly 1940s).

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FEATURED
A Wesleythanksgivleying Salute

Hunkering down on campus? Read this. Don’t read this.

Happy Thanksgiving, Weszzleyan. We encourage you to celebrate the day with an old classic, “Tryptophantasm.” Starring Sam Korda ’13, Solomon Billinkoff ’14, Eliza Forman ’13, and Stephan Stansfield ’13, it’ll have you feeling like you’re suspended in a sea of cranberry sauce for eternity in no time. Though you may feel that way anyway by the time you read this…

Staying on campus over break? Good for you, you studious studier. The Thanksgiving Break dining schedule is your friend. Consult it wisely. There isn’t much food to be had between now and Saturday (both WesWings and Red & Black are also closed until then), but Main Street is only a scant few blocks from your dorm. So is Marco’s Deli. Choose wisely.

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EVENT
BEYOND THE BOUNDARIES: Fields, Methods, Sources, and Questions in Atlantic History

Russell House, five hours from now:

A lecture by Professor James H. Sweet, Professor of History, University of Wisconsin.

Professor Sweet’s research and teaching center on Africans and their descendants in the broader world. He teaches courses on comparative slavery, race and nation in the Atlantic world, comparative world history, the history of Brazil, and the history of South Africa. His research has concentrated on the social and cultural histories of Africans in the Atlantic world. His next book will focus on the international dimensions of slavery in the United States, and he has begun several research projects related to South Africa.

Selected Publications:

  • *Domingos Álvares, African Healing, and the Intellectual History of the Atlantic World. Chapel Hill, NC:
    University of  North Carolina Press, 2011.
  • *(ed. with Tejumola Olaniyan) The African Diaspora and the Disciplines. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University
    Press, 2010.
  • * “Mistaken Identities? Olaudah Equiano, Domingos Álvares, and the Methodological Challenges of Studying
    the African Diaspora.” The American Historical Review 114 (2009): 279-306.
  • *Recreating Africa: Culture, Kinship, and Religion in the African-Portuguese World, 1441-1770. Chapel Hill, NC:  University of North Carolina Press, 2003.
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EVENT
HAPPENING RIGHT NOW: Gabe Paquette History Lecture on Imperialism w/ Really Long Name

William Pinch, Chair of the History Department wrote in a couple of days ago, informing us about a couple of events that are happening in the Department today.

Unfortunately, we totally missed the email ’til right about now, and as such the History Department Open House Pizza Lunch that took place earlier today at noon came and went like an absurd seagull. (Sorry Prof!) Still though, you should totes go tap up Prof. Pinch or any other History professor if you’re interested in the major. Added benefits of being a History major includes: being mad cool, being mad old-school educated, and being mad seksi. But I’m not speaking from experience, so I can’t say for certain.

STILL. There’s one more event for the department THAT’S HAPPENING LIKE ALMOST NOW.

Former Wes Grad and History major, Gabriel Paquette ’99, now Assistant Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University, is here to drop knowledge bombs with a lecture called, “Empire and its Discontents: Regional Rebellions, Slave Revolts, and Political Conspiracies in Brazil, 1800-1850.”

Date:   Feb. 22
Time:   4.30PM – 5:30 PM (ish)
Place:  Albritton 311

Fo’ mo’ info’ on the department, go here.