[van-announce] Call for papers! Community Involvement needed.

[élise recluse]

Hey all.
Some students at the Theory Centre at UWO in London, Ontario are putting together a conference for the fall on the failings and futures of identity politics. We need more papers, workshops, and presentation proposals, specifically those with a more overtly political theme. We are looking for proposals that offer a bit more a radical edge to academia and activism around these issues, and are sorely lacking proposals in certain areas, such as nationalism(s), class, race and ability. 
We have distributed this CFP in a number of places, and now I am asking you to a) read it over and submit a paper, workshop or presentation proposal if you feel so inclined or b) send this CFP to anyone you know who might be interested in participating. 
As we are located in London, and as we are a graduate student's conference, we have a limited budget and can only provide small reimbursements for travel. Thus, if it is unreasonable for you to go but you know anyone in Ontario, someone else can present you work for you. 
Also, please pass this CFP on to anyone in the vicinity of London as well.

Contact me with any questions at illusionsofidentity (at) gmail.com


 CALL FOR PAPERS: PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WILDLY
 
Illusions of Identity: resisting (beyond) identity politics
An interdisciplinary graduate conference hosted by the Centre for the Study of Theory and Criticism, University of Western Ontario, Canada

October 14-15, 2006

With the limits of contemporary leftist social movements becoming increasingly apparent, and in the face of advanced capitalism’s relentless appropriation of revolutionary discourses and the rise of the moral right in North America, we feel an urgent need to contribute to the ongoing efforts to rethink identity politics.  We imagine this conference as an opportunity to work through and disseminate new frameworks for thinking social movement and resistance.  As such, we intend to bring together students and activists whose works traverse disciplinary boundaries in an attempt to articulate some of the possibilities and pitfalls of identity categories (gender, race, nationality, class, sexuality, ability, etc.).  Coming from the point of view that the much-contested division between theory and activism is a false one, our aim is that this conference will constitute a site for the proliferation of new conceptual frameworks that will be taken up, and hopefully transformed, by
 our fellow activists/academics.

We are seeking papers and panels troubling, re-articulating, and creating theoretical frameworks addressing identity politics in areas including, but not limited to:
-    race and the racialization of identity categories;
-    First Nations and the nation-state
 -    indigenous identities
-    nationalisms and national identities
-    classed identities
-    feminist theory;
-    queer stuff;
-    trans/figurations of identity;
-    the appropriation and containment of resistance;
-    global strategies and local tactics;
-    thinking coalition-building and other political maneuvers; 
-    capitalism and identity;
-    ‘old’ thinkers, ‘new’ readings;
-    critiques of capitalism; 
-    the politics of theoretical practice;
-    trans/gressions, incoherences, destabilizations;
-    identities and legalities
-    law as constraint/law as possibility 
-    (dis)abilities and identities
-    the politics of citizenship


Please send abstracts of 250-300 words by August 15, 2006 to: illusionsofidentity at gmail.com
(Please include your academic or activist affiliation in your proposal.)

Do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

Yours truly,
Conference organizers 


 

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