Solidarity as Spiritual Exercise: Accompanying Migrants at the US/Mexico Border

Abstract

This essay seeks to articulate a practical understanding of Christian solidarity as spiritual exercise that is based on Jon Sobrino's theological insights, uniquely grounded in his formation in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola and his particular witness to the martyrs of El Salvador. We then turn to an exploration of the Kino Border Initiative, a binational ministry of sociopastoral accompaniment, educational outreach, research and advocacy as an institutional attempt to pursue a praxis of solidarity.     

Using Films in Teaching About Africa

Didactic approaches to teaching about Africa are problematic for several reasons: they do not benefit students pedagogically; they cast Western academy/academics as guardians of truth about Africa; and they cast students as possible receptacles of objective knowledge of Africa. An approach based on 'border pedagogy' offers a helpful alternative. This paper outlines the advantages of using films from/about Africa to achieve this. A level 3 UK undergraduate module is outlined, and the eight films used in the module are briefly described. Finally, attention is given to students' reactions to the use of films, and some of the issues raised by these.     

Wahnsinnige Bilder – Zu einer medialen Wissensgeschichte des Psychischen um 1900

Mental Images: Towards a Media History of the Psyche around 1900. Presupposing that visual practices are inherent to the social constitution of knowledge, this article suggests juxtaposing photographs and films produced in a psychiatric environment to popular films run in theaters around 1900, thus identifying cinema’s particular “Denkstil” (Fleck). Rejecting science’s dominating paradigm of visual objectivity (Daston/Galison), the visual apparatus [dispositif] of early cinema facilitates subjective experience of unreason and irrationality and thus initiates a different epistemological approach to knowledge as self-knowledge of a modern, self-reflexive subject. This is particularly evident in early cinema’s depiction of the psyche, which does not solely focus on the physical manifestation of the ‘mad’, ‘insane’ body, but also visualizes the subject’s inner life: technical means like montage, multiple exposure or stop motion can be employed to illustrate subjective visions, fantasies or dreams. Thus, the invisible mind becomes visible as the “unthinkable within thinking” (Deleuze), while the subject is invited to participate in cinema’s “gay science” (Nietzsche).     

Himalayan border citizens: Sovereignty and mobility in the Nepal–Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) of China border zone

For over half a century, a border zone mandated by bilateral treaty has existed along the full length of the international border between Nepal and China's Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR). Since 2002, people classified as “border inhabitants” who live within 30 km of the border on both sides have been issued “border citizen cards” which allow them to cross the border without a passport or a visa, and travel up to 30 km on the other side. This article explores historical and contemporary experiences of life in the Nepal–TAR border zone for such border citizens. Their state-sanctioned cross-border mobility complicates existing work on Tibetan refugee citizenship, and expands previous models for understanding ethno-political identities and sovereignty in the Himalayan region. The legally recognized category of border citizenship between Nepal and China's TAR provides a compelling example of how states may create alternative categories of citizenship in response to practices from below, while further shaping such practices through regimes of differentiated citizenship. I argue that this form of border citizenship emerges out of non-postcolonial trajectories of state formation in the Himalayan region, which offer important contrasts with other parts of South Asia.     

战时陕甘宁边区的劳动英模运动

典型人物英雄化或先进化是中共的一项重要政治仪式。抗战时期,中共在陕甘宁边区发动了大规模的劳动英模运动,创造和发现了一大批典型人物,形成中国历史上第一个劳动英模群体。该项活动既是中共在抗战时期根据地政权建设的基本内容,又是中共中央直接领导陕甘宁边区社会建设的新型组织形式。奖励劳动英模的根本目的在于使之在群众中发生作用,组织起一个群众性运动,以达到发展生产、巩固根据地、促进各项建设事业的目标。