Dean Porfirio Goes Global

20 November 2009 | Trinidad: Gender Studies | Vincent Porfirio

My recent excursion to Trinidad and Tobago not only brought about a fruitful discussion of my Harvard research (see separate blog) but also a surprise opportunity to engage and learn about a new religion.

Heading down to the island republic allowed for me to present SA research findings at UWI (University of the West Indies). I was also able to stay with a family that hosted me for the five days that I was visiting for. The family was in the middle of getting things ready to celebrate their religious holiday and I was invited to participate in much of the events.

Yoruba, an Afro-Caribbean religion with roots in African tribal beliefs and influences of Christian practices opened my eyes to entirely new practices and customs. While in Trinidad I was invited to partake in the week-long events of “Festival” (religious observation which takes a full week). Orisha, which is defined as a spirit or deity, make up one component of Yoruba.

For more details on the religious practices of Yoruba please visit the following sites:

http://www.uiowa.edu/~africart/toc/people/yoruba.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoruba_mythology

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12 November 2009 | South Africa, Trinidad: Gender Studies | Vincent Porfirio

The travel plans have been finalized and I’m very excited to be heading down to the Republic of Trinidad. The weather reports from my faculty hosts report a sunny and hot 90 degree week ahead and, honestly, I am eagerly awaiting some much needed sunshine after the 4:30 darkness we have been getting here in Albany every afternoon (evening?).

More importantly, I’m also excited to spend some time reflecting on much of the research that I was doing while in South Africa and to combine this with the presentation that I will be doing at the University of the West Indies on Tuesday. While guest lecturing for the University of Cape Town this summer I was invited to a faculty luncheon with Manuel Castells–a world leader in global technology and communications. This fit perfectly into the research that I was conducting (technology integration within educational settings) and allowed for me to broaden my research to a scope that would allow for me to look at technology as a tool used by the general population. In South Africa the main tool of communicating was cell phones and this truly shocked me. The internet boom has yet to sufficiently hit the country and the people there (due to economic reasons and the mass number of citizens living in townships with little or no electricity. However, cell phones are the norm. This technology also crosses a number or classes and truly works to break down the classism that is still within the social construct of the country.

I digress…Castells was able to open my eyes to this wonderful world of cell phones and to the added objectification of virtual space–this being places where new identities could be created via “Mxit” and other social networking spaces that are electronically hosted (not necessarily by the internet or other well known American outlets: Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc.). With my upcoming presentation and my continued work on my Ph.D. in Media Studies from UCT I wanted to reflect more on Castells and present here yet another link to some of this man’s fascinating research. By way of my own research I was pointed in the direction of a paper Castells’ (and a few others) had created in 2004. Although dated (I’m writing Nov. 2009) the implications, framework, and overall thesis of the paper remains surprisingly relevant, valid and topical.

Castells uncovers the world of cell phone usage within a global context. He traces how many consumers are eating-up minutes in the US, Europe, Africa, and in Asia. He takes us on a tour of the international airwaves that direct billions of communications daily (dare I say hourly!). For additional reading on Castells’ paper “Social Uses of Wireless Communications: The Mobile Information Society” (2004) can be found at:

http://arnic.info/workshop04/MCS.pdf

This paper (along with many of his sources) will become the lens in which I begin my research–taking Harvard’s technology integration in the classroom and expanding it to the society as a whole.

Trinidad will prove a positive jumping off point to begin articulating my ideas and blending the SA research with ideas of my own having to do with a number of “isms”: Classism, Marxism, Capitalism, Racism, Sexism, etc.

So now I say, Bon Voyage! I will be sure to plug back in while I’m abroad to upload additional narratives and reflections. As always, thank you for taking the time to read the ramblings of an absentminded researcher…

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13 October 2009 | Trinidad: Gender Studies | Vincent Porfirio

The Institute of Gender and Development Studies Presentation Abstract:

Presentation Date(s):

(Monday, November 16 and Tuesday, November 17, 2009)

Title:

“Women and Media: Gender, Consumerism, & Marketing in the Developing World”

Abstract:

The main trajectory of the presentation will analyze how female image(s) are represented through media in developing nations. Moreover, I will question whether or not the image shares an equal footing with that of power and eroticism. This subject (image) is a physical object or person that is reproduced and in many ways manipulated by the technology which records it. We see these images via adverts, sitcom characters, music videos and women’s roles in film. Through the concept of the female image we can pose several important questions. How does the image work to represent sex/gender/sexuality within the constructs of media and more specifically, branding? How does an image work within our perception of eroticism as a form of power or desire? How is this “power” and its link to the image acting in an idiosyncratic, masochistic, misogynistic, subversive, or erotic way? Within this same vein, are these images omnipresent in the sense that they are re-supplying themselves? Are the images negated in some way? Are there specific emblematic aspects or portions of the images excluded from their “selves”? Is this excision (lack or negation) of the image shoring up a social or cultural order? How can we trace this splitting (and/or blurring) of the bereft image from its whole? Are there images (plenary or refracted) in which “sexuality” is always inscribed on the body, or conversely, are there “desexualized” bodies represented? This presentation will open up questions to wrestle with, particularly concerning the manifestation of “female masculinity,” emasculation/“remasculinization,” and artificiality, all of which enact and inscribe interminably within the female image and her presence in developing nations. By placing a critical lens over adverts and “caricatures” of the female from third-world and developing nations, I will argue that shifts (or in some cases, formalized “loops”) have occurred. These shifts are affecting our interpretation of power and eroticism, as well as how they are represented by the image in various modalities.

 Bio:

Vincent Porfirio is currently acting Assistant Dean of Students at The Sage Colleges in New York, USA. He attended the University at Albany for an English Honors degree and a Masters degree in English and Film. He then went on to spend the last four years teaching English 101 and English 220 at The Sage Colleges. While working at Sage he received a second Masters degree in English Education. He is currently pursuing an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership with the Sage Graduate School  and a Ph.D. in Film and Media Studies with the University of Cape Town in South Africa. Vincent is the recipient of the Presidential Award for Undergraduate Research, a Broughton Fellow, Albert N. Husted Fellow, and more recently a Harvard Research Fellow who completed extensive work in South Africa. Vincent’s research has focused on branding and marketing, technology integration, and gender and identity. Vincent currently resides in Albany, New York.

Photo:

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