Collisions: History, home and storytelling

Abstract

Home is a central and contested emotional, imagined and physical location that is meaningful for every person. Using personal narratives and scholarly essays, this special issue works through the negotiations of history and belonging with topics from sexuality, immigrant status, ethnicity, and religion to class. The volume features personal reflections by Évelyne Trouillot, Lisa Outar, and Isis Semaj-Hall and critical essays by April Shemak, Lyneise Williams, Belinda Deneen Wallace, and Tanya L. Shields. Each contributor considers the implications of complicated homes, identities, and geographies—particularly the Caribbean and US South—and provides new shadings on this always relevant issue by juxtaposing the personal and the academic.