“I am very happy and curious getting this position at Linköping University in Sweden. It is a chance for me to do my research from a different geographical angle of the world, I will get new perspectives on my research in global affairs. I believe this position in Europe can make me find new important aspects at these global systems in my writing; the US is not the only place to look at the world from.”
Neferti X. M. Tadiar works at Barnard College, Columbia University in the Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies department, in New York. She has worked there for 18 years, ten years as departmental chair and in other directorial positions at the University. She teaches about gender and power, political economy and culture, globalisation, empires, and gender. Now she will take a break from that, during her year as the visiting professor in the name of Moa Martinson.
“I did not know about Moa Martinson before, but I am a literature person, so I am looking forward to learning about her and reading some of her books. I have learned that she is an important working class literary persona and that she was a feminist, so this is perfect for me, I am very honoured.”
Neferti M. X. Tadiar has published four single-authored books. She has spearheaded the foundation of institutional programs in race and ethnic studies and Asian diaspora studies at Barnard College, and helped to establish a research center for the study of social difference at Columbia University. She is also in charge of an independent community library in the Philippines, a kind of a cultural centre where they organize exhibitions, film screenings and art workshops. As the founding director of the library, she has organized many cultural programs, and has also published books by local authors. She is very proud of what she has achieved, and she loves her work, but still, she is grateful for this opportunity to take a break.
During the year she will be writing on some projects that have already been launched. For example, a historical follow-up on her recently published book, Remaindered Life, tracing contemporary creative networks of survival in the Philippines to past centuries of Spanish colonialism and US colonialism. She will begin a new project on environmental transformations under colonialism. She will also arrange seminars.
“I'm going to lead a faculty and PhD student seminar that is based on my last book and another one that is a conversation with Black feminist, indigenous, postcolonial, and queer theory. I will also lead a film seminar series about colonialism, migration and environment with Professor Jonathan Beller, who is my husband and a visiting professor at REMESO during this year. He works in media studies. The plan is to show the films at CNMA with open discussion sessions afterwards.”
Neferti M. X. Tadiar has been in Sweden a few times before. When this interview took place, she had been in Norrköping for two weeks. So far she likes it here; she finds the people very welcoming and nice.
“They have been very welcoming in a different way than in New York, where everybody is paying attention to their own matters. I also find Sweden very spacious, which is very privileged for the people living here. In my cities, New York and Manila, it is very dense, and people fight over space. Even if you go to the park, it can be hard to find a place to sit. Norrköping has a more relaxed atmosphere than those large urban environments.”
