Full Program, Presentations and Remarks
Event Title
Remarks by Estelle Disch about the life and work of her partner, Rita Arditti
Location
Special Collections Research Room, Joseph P. Healey Library, UMass Boston
Start Date
22-4-2013 5:10 PM
End Date
22-4-2013 5:20 PM
Description
Professor Emerita of Sociology at UMass Boston and Rita Arditti's partner, Estelle Disch, speaks about the life and work of her partner.
Disch discusses Arditti's thoughts after the publication of the Spanish-language version of her book, Searching for Life/De por vida: "[Rita] described it as 'an apprenticeship with the Abuelas, who had enormous patience in educating me about the multiple and complex aspects of their work. It was an apprenticeship that changed me as a person and the book is the result of all that learning, thanks to them.'"
Disch describes Arditti's thoughts on the parallels between her work and the work of the Abuelas: "Some of you may or may not know that [Rita] edited a book called Test-Tube Women: What Future for Motherhood?, about reproductive technologies. That book's out in 1986, she meets the Grandmothers the same year, and here's what she says: 'At that time, I was dealing with the ethical issues of the new reproductive technologies. With women's control of their own fertility. With the relationship of the family and the state. And with the theme of identity. The Abuelas were also dealing with those issues and I realized that we had become concerned about some of the same things, coming from very different places.'"
Disch describes Arditti's interest in the Abuelas' use of science: "Rita also was very interested in the politics of science. She had co-edited Science and Liberation ... She was very excited about the Grandmother's work with scientists. They worked with Dr. Mary-Claire King from Stanford to develop a test of grandparenthood. What if they found a baby, they're trying to convince a judge that this baby belongs to a different family ... What? We need DNA testing here! We need a 99.9% probability! ... And they didn't trust the Argentines to do it, because so much was corrupt. Mary-Claire King goes down there and they get the tests together, working with the Argentine scientists. Then, Clyde Snow, a forensic anthropologist from Texas, goes down there and works with the Argentine team to teach them what to do with bones from no-name graves."
On Arditti's interest in memory and impunity, Disch quotes from a talk by Arditti in Argentina in October 2000: "Recovering the identities of disappeared children is really an essential step in the construction of a democratic society in which truthful memory exists. [...] The repression in Argentina damaged at least three generations: the parents of the disappeared, the disappeared, and the children of the disappeared. Impunity is, in a certain sense, an act of violence that perpetuates the effects of the repression in the present and prevents the settling of unfinished business stemming from the corrupt past."
Disch's own thoughts about this archive project: "I believe that this archive supports the work of the Grandmothers to not obliterate history, and to expose impunity so that perpetrators can be brought to justice."
Remarks by Estelle Disch about the life and work of her partner, Rita Arditti
Special Collections Research Room, Joseph P. Healey Library, UMass Boston
Professor Emerita of Sociology at UMass Boston and Rita Arditti's partner, Estelle Disch, speaks about the life and work of her partner.
Disch discusses Arditti's thoughts after the publication of the Spanish-language version of her book, Searching for Life/De por vida: "[Rita] described it as 'an apprenticeship with the Abuelas, who had enormous patience in educating me about the multiple and complex aspects of their work. It was an apprenticeship that changed me as a person and the book is the result of all that learning, thanks to them.'"
Disch describes Arditti's thoughts on the parallels between her work and the work of the Abuelas: "Some of you may or may not know that [Rita] edited a book called Test-Tube Women: What Future for Motherhood?, about reproductive technologies. That book's out in 1986, she meets the Grandmothers the same year, and here's what she says: 'At that time, I was dealing with the ethical issues of the new reproductive technologies. With women's control of their own fertility. With the relationship of the family and the state. And with the theme of identity. The Abuelas were also dealing with those issues and I realized that we had become concerned about some of the same things, coming from very different places.'"
Disch describes Arditti's interest in the Abuelas' use of science: "Rita also was very interested in the politics of science. She had co-edited Science and Liberation ... She was very excited about the Grandmother's work with scientists. They worked with Dr. Mary-Claire King from Stanford to develop a test of grandparenthood. What if they found a baby, they're trying to convince a judge that this baby belongs to a different family ... What? We need DNA testing here! We need a 99.9% probability! ... And they didn't trust the Argentines to do it, because so much was corrupt. Mary-Claire King goes down there and they get the tests together, working with the Argentine scientists. Then, Clyde Snow, a forensic anthropologist from Texas, goes down there and works with the Argentine team to teach them what to do with bones from no-name graves."
On Arditti's interest in memory and impunity, Disch quotes from a talk by Arditti in Argentina in October 2000: "Recovering the identities of disappeared children is really an essential step in the construction of a democratic society in which truthful memory exists. [...] The repression in Argentina damaged at least three generations: the parents of the disappeared, the disappeared, and the children of the disappeared. Impunity is, in a certain sense, an act of violence that perpetuates the effects of the repression in the present and prevents the settling of unfinished business stemming from the corrupt past."
Disch's own thoughts about this archive project: "I believe that this archive supports the work of the Grandmothers to not obliterate history, and to expose impunity so that perpetrators can be brought to justice."