Intimate Colonialism: Head, Heart, and Body in West African Development Work

by Laurie L Charlés

Overview

Laurie Charlés finished her Ph.D., then took off to West Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer. Asked to create programs to help adolescent girls stay in school, she found herself enmeshed in the politics and cultural barriers that prevent these girls from creating a better life. But that was not all that was enmeshed. Charlés found love, sexual fulfillment, sexual harassment, and gender discrimination, all of which further complexified her stated mission. Her candid assessment of life and work in Africa, the intimate relationships that gave hope to the possibility of change, the emotional and physical highs and lows that affected her ability to function, all become factors affecting her success in improving the lives of African girls. This eloquent narrative should be of interest both to those doing development work and to those interested in autoethnographic exploration of the self.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781315426075
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	09/17/2016
Series:	ISSN
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	664 KB

About the Author

Laurie L. Charlés is an assistant professor of family therapy at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. She received her doctorate at Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, in 1999. Her master’s degree was conferred at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas, her hometown, in 1993. Charlés is the author of a forthcoming book on crisis (hostage) negotiation discourse, and author or co-author of numerous articles in the field of family therapy qualitative research, practice, and supervision.Charlés’ recent work focuses on how systemic family therapists can take a more global, citizen/activist, and human rights perspective to their work. She is currently tracing the migration of her ancestors, Aurelia and Alcario Charlés, to Mexican Texas from Spanish Mexico in 1894, with an emphasis on how mestiza women in Texas have balanced gender expectations throughout the past century.Charlés enjoys talking about patterns of migration across cultures and continents, teaching therapists how to learn from the resilience of people often marginalized as “other,” and studying conversations as a way to learn more about the ways we live, love, and work in contemporary society.Her hobbies include traveling in various seas of diversity (Globetrekker-style) with her husband Eric, walking for miles in the city of Boston and then sitting down to a good Italian meal (accompanied by lots of red wine) in the North End, and, most of all, laughing over coffee with her mother whenever she can find time to migrate back to San Antonio.

Table of Contents

Introduction; Chapter 1 A Question of Mentalité; Chapter 2 The Little Things That Matter; Chapter 3 One of the Crowd; Chapter 4 Back in the World of Ideas; Chapter 5 Lust, Passion, and Tactical Adoration; Chapter 6 A Change of Future; Chapter 7 Sex, Love, and Other Demanding Parasites; Chapter 8 Diplomacy au Village; Chapter 9 Togo Postscript, Five Years Later; Chapter 10 Constructing an Intimate Text;

Editorial Reviews

"Intimate Colonialism is a wonderful book, full of delights and surprises. Charlès has not only provided a superb account of her experience in Togo, she’s also given us a detailed and insightful development ethnography, centered on the only things that really matter—the people involved. She introduces us to the sounds, the smells, and most of all, the emotions that surround work in another culture." —Riall W. Nolan, Professor of Anthropology and Associate Provost and Dean of International Programs, Purdue University


"With infinite grace and graphic honesty, Laurie Charles evokes her complex life in a small village in Africa. Her deep engagement as a qualitative researcher affords her and her reader a rare view of life beyond the official role. The surprise lies in her uncanny willingness to allow us to witness her most private moments, whether joyous or painful. In doing so, she brings to life a world beyond the popular stereotype of a Peace Corps volunteer. Ironically, her desire to address the sexual oppression of young girls in Togo ignites a parallel exploration of her own sexuality as a Latina woman in a world she enters deeply and fully. As she writes, ‘Living in Africa disoriented me into wakefulness.’ Her story will do the same for her readers." —Shelley Green, Associate Professor, Department of Family Therapy, Nova Southeastern University


"Frank and unflinching…. The experiences [Charlés] details are strikingly recognizable to me, and I suspect will be to other returned Volunteers, especially women, regardless of their host country or era of service…. In Intimate Colonialism, the reader who wants more meaningful and authentic reflection on our powerful overseas years may find welcome daylight. " —Peace Corps Writers


"Armed with a freshly minted Ph.D. and boundless enthusiasm, Charles left the academe for a year-long stint with the Peace Corps in Africa. Charged with developing a program to help girls and young women stay in school, she immediately encountered the many reasons why they did not. Although she was certainly prepared academically for the differences between her Texan roots and conditions in Togo, she was not prepared for the complexity of the experience and often could not see from whence opposition came until it literally fell on her. This deeply personal narrative deals with the attitudes, traditions and practices of both cultures, their inevitable conflict, the ubiquitous nature of gender discrimination, and the ways in which individual human beings respond to being alien but not necessarily different or superior." —Book News, Inc.

From the Publisher