From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Tue Sep 29 2009 - 16:54:04 EDT
TNJN - The Tennessee Journalist
Professor presents rich portrait of Eritreans
By Jessica Warren
published: September 29 2009 02:15 PM updated:: September 29 2009 03:07
PM
Tricia Redeker Hepner, UT assistant professor of anthropology and board
member of the Center for the Study of Social Justice, passionately
recounted a passage from her Eritrean monograph, which portrayed a
vignette of her time spent with Seyoum, a guerilla fighter with the
Eritrean People's Liberation Front.
Hepner's newly published monograph Soldiers, Martyrs, Traitors and
Exiles: Political Conflict in Eritrea and the Diaspora details her work
in Eritrea and its United States based diaspora.
According to Hepner, the book shows a few key findings: Eritrea is a
transnational entity, which has been so since the inception of the
nationalist movement; and that transnationalism is limiting, repressive,
disabling and prevents as much as it enables. The latter is what she
calls the dark-side of transnationalism.
Hepner concluded that the reality of a diasporic citizenry that has
constituted itself into a non-territorialized public sphere is
recognized by the state as both necessary for it's continuing
sovereignty while at the same time its greatest liability.
Hepner is Chair of the Migration and Refugee Studies Division of the
CSSJ. The impetus behind starting the center was learning that many
people at the university share lots of common interests, and their work
oftentimes are interrelated, but each person was unaware of the
connections, according to Hepner.
"CSSJ has become a clearinghouse for all of us to share our ideas," said
Hepner. "We can know what other people in the University are doing, and
we can collaborate."
Hepner indicated that her current work builds directly on the findings
discovered in her previous fieldwork.
Hepner is developing a service-learning component to her undergraduate
courses through Bridge Refugee Services in Knoxville. This will give
undergraduates an opportunity to gain experience, according to Hepner.
"I'm trying to get people to interact in a local sense with these issues
that are of global significance," Hepner said.
Editor: Miriam Kramer
http://tnjn.com/2009/sep/29/professor-presents-rich-portra/