Opening Up Space: A Lovely Technofeminist Opportunity

Intercultural Considerations

Cultural Liminality

Cultural liminality involves what's between cultures, and what happens when identity may become pulled between various cultural actions and beliefs. Victor Turner officially theorizes on the concept of "liminality" as "being neither here nor there..." (Turner) In fact, the theory is expanded in detail as an individual goes through different stages being pulled away from their original culture, and eventually returning to it. You could use the term "culturally liminal" to say that an identity is "ambiguously" (Turner) somewhere in between cultural norms, values, and society.

Contact Zones

This is where cultures interact. Contact zones could easily produce cultural liminality. A "contact zone" is a term in scholarly literature that refers to the figurative place where different cultures meet. (Pratt) In fact, this could be in many different circumstances. A war is one, for example. Perhaps trade is another. Colonization certainly. More simply: the time that you tried a friend's best homemade dish — that you had never heard of before. It exists often when contemplating American history specifically, the context where our selections are kept, as colonization brought white settlers to native communities, and the slave trade informed interactions between white European peoples and African peoples.
 

Double-Consciousness

It is possible in the large spectrum of identity and self-determination of course, to recognize the self as part of different communities and groups. Maybe this could be your acknowledgement as self in a workplace and then self outside of it for example. In our general context, some cultural groups can see themselves as Latinax, and also as indigenous. So mixed ethnicities are another example of oneself juggling between the different cultural spaces. This term was well developed by W.E.B. DuBois, who explained the African American experience as continuously framing oneself in the eyes of another — in place of self acknowledgement. (DuBois) Which is why our text here is created as a place for listening primarily. Romeo García's discussion of self in relation to our community stories is an inspiration. (García)

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