b) CFP Publications & Conferences || Appel à contributions pour les publications et conférences

[1] AAA Panel - Dangerous Discourse:  Activism, Resistance, and Mediation in Social Policy Mandates in Education - Deadline: Ongoing

Organizer:  Robert Whitman

Chair:  Robert Whitman

Many nations and cultures around the world have increasingly adopted social policies towards education that emphasize the economic and global, targeting those populations that historically have not realized education's promise.  Social policy mandates often largely ignore locally situated discourses that may construct the purposes of education in alternative forms.  These forms may conflict with social policy mandates and create the possibility for conflict and/or for local actors to organize and work for what they perceive as important local interests with respect to their children’s education.  This panel will bring together scholars who use ethnographic methods to study the point of contact where education mandates interact with locally constructed discourses on the ground.  In the complicated context where mandates from above connect with local discourses some of the questions that might come up could be: What happens when local actors adapt and/or preempt educational mandates?  How do actors on the ground use social policy discourses to suit their local needs?  How do local actors perceive the purpose and impact of educational policy in their own terms?  What happens when policy dictates come with high stakes consequences such as school closings or teacher firings?  How do contexts of activism arise and what role should we, as anthropologists, play when this becomes a part of the “research?”

Please send abstracts to: [log in to unmask]

[2] AAA Panel - (Proposed Session Title) Paradoxes and Complexities of Education for the Knowledge Economy - Deadline: Ongoing

Countries around the world have picked up the discourses of knowledge economy to reform their educational systems. New standards for education are introduced, new practices are pursued, and new models of teaching and learning are advocated. Most of the explorations of knowledge economy have focused predominantly on the discursive applications of this construct (e.g., Lauder et al 2012) in higher education contexts (Olssen and Peters 2005; Shore 2008, 2010). Questions remain about ways in which teachers and students in K-12 settings around the world are being re-positioned by these discourses, in what ways their activities become more visible, and what types of "knowledge" becomes (in)accessible to whom. This panel will attempt to problematize the impact of these discourses on K-12 policy-making and examine the paradoxes embedded in reforms targeting K-12 systems as

responsible for advancing or creating nations' "knowledge economies."

Possible questions that can be pursued are: What paradoxes embedded in the knowledge economy policies emerge when different actors engage with these policies? What subjectivities do they pursue to instill in the participants of educational processes? What policies or practices do these discourses become translated into? How do participants contest, struggle with, or potentially appropriate the discourses of knowledge economies in their everyday lives inside and outside of educational establishments? By bringing together presenters who work in diverse geographic and educational contexts, this panel seeks to explore the web of meanings, repetitions, and reincarnations that the knowledge economy discourses have created in K-12 settings around the world.

If you are interested in participating in this panel, please, contact Helen (Olena) Aydarova at  [log in to unmask].

[3] AAA Panel - The Expediency of Roads - Deadline: Ongoing

Across global spaces, modern road construction is typically promoted in the political economic contexts of poverty alleviation (Howe and Richards, 1984; World Bank 2006) and capacity building (Sen 1999). Today, this orientation is especially powerful throughout Asia’s mountain borderlands, where international road development increasingly proliferates in the multiple forms of state-based, transnational NGO, and community-based infrastructure strategies. While the expansion of road systems, particularly in rural environments, provides diverse community benefits including (but not limited to) increased connectivity, decreased transport costs, and new livelihood opportunities, these outcomes remain predicated on market integration and capital circulation, dynamics which invariably introduce profound forces of social and cultural change to road-affected populations.

At once both convenient and practical yet disruptive and controversial, the “expediency of roads” provides a starting point for critical engagements with the social dynamics of road development. With a view towards the paradoxical experiences of road-based mobility (Cresswell and Merriman 2012; Cresswell 2001), this panel explores and calls for new considerations on the uneven intersections (Smith 2008) of rural road development and everyday life across highland Asia. In order to expand ongoing discussions of “ roadology” (Yongming 2014)  – or the anthropology of roads – this panel strongly encourages cross-disciplinary perspectives and welcomes papers from anthropology, sociology, geography, and critical development studies, amongst others.

Please contact Galen Murton ([log in to unmask]) for more information.

[4] AAA Panel - Feelings of Familiarity and Estrangement: Exploring the Work of Affect in NGOs and Nonprofits - Deadline: April 10, 2015

The growing role of NGOs and nonprofits in humanitarian aid, immigration assistance, human rights, and public health has transformed these sectors into significant forces in the production of subjectivity, knowledge, and power. NGOs are symptoms of neoliberal fragmentation, specialization, and privatization, both embedded in the state and operating at its limits. As state surrogates, NGOs provide services and resources that authorize and produce particular kinds of subjects, whether “bare life” or “developed” (Gabiam 2012), “high-risk” or “trafficked” (Khanna 2009), while also working to de-authorize other subjects, such as combatants. However, while NGOs and nonprofits have become deeply invested in the politics of modern governance and its bureaucratic mystifications (James 2012), they are also intimately bound up in the production and circulation of certain forms of affect and emotion, operating within and through moral economies of compassion, complex interpersonal relationships, and emotional histories (Cabot 2013; Bernstein and Mertz 2011).

This panel examines the work of affect and emotion in NGO projects, policies, and practices. While many NGOs and nonprofits are regarded as providing essential “help” in a profoundly unequal global economy, they are also often criticized for neglecting context, history, and agency in service of maintaining geopolitical hierarchies. Anthropologists are increasingly attending to the complex ways that affect and emotion are being deployed in the work of NGOs, from spotlighting how many NGOs are profiting from disasters through their participation in the “affect economy” (Adams 2012) to exploring how neoliberal management practices within some NGOs are producing an “embodiment of fear” within their workers and volunteers (Uzwiak 2013). Affects are not simply products of an essential human biopsychology; in fact, as Williams (1977) suggests, emotions are only sensible within and in relation to particular ideological contexts. How are affect and emotion mobilizing and authorizing the work of NGOs and nonprofits? What kinds of new subjectivities, knowledges, ideologies, and forms of power are produced out of such emotional regimes and interactions, and what kinds of feelings become sensible within them? How is the neoliberal transformation of NGOs into “contractors” and their constituencies into “clients” or “customers” effecting the affective and emotional relationships between NGOs, the communities they serve, and their own workers?

Other possible areas of inquiry include: interpersonal relationships within NGOs and nonprofit organizations; interpersonal relationships between NGO workers and their constituents; structures of feeling in NGO practices; unearthing affect and emotion in NGO policies; the role of affect and emotion in NGO fundraising; and the affective and emotional states and experiences of NGO staff and volunteers. Panelists are encouraged to consider the everyday uses and expressions of affect and emotion in NGOs and nonprofits (such as hunches, grudges, passions, sensitivities, resentment, alienation, and embarrassment) as productive of NGO work rather than simply as its effects.

Please contact Anna Jaysane-Darr ([log in to unmask]), and Casey Miller ([log in to unmask]) with topics and/or abstracts as soon as possible, and no later than April 10th.

[5] AAA Panel - Estranging the Familiar: Racism, Immigration, and Nation Making in the Everyday - Deadline: April 10, 2015

Organizers: Susanna Rosenbaum, City College of New York Center for Worker Education—CUNY and Devin T. Molina Bronx Community College—CUNY

Mass migrations from the global “South” have resulted in widespread and coordinated efforts to curb immigration to industrialized nations.  As Lisa Lowe argues, the imperatives of “abstract labor” directly conflict with those of “abstract citizenship,” the need to maintain a national citizenry bound by race, language, and culture” (1996: 13).  Situated at this intersection, contemporary states increasingly grapple with the meanings of migration, difference, and national belonging.  In the United States, for example, moral panics about the “Hispanicization” or “Latino-ization” of the country have led a multitude of organizations, politicians, journalists, and pundits to clamor for the restriction of ostensibly non-white migration. In Europe, concerns about immigration and its perceived impacts on the nation have coalesced into broad political movements including the rise in power of nationalist parties such as the National Front in England and in France.  Similarly, Australia has begun to detain all asylum seekers in offshore camps.  And yet, anti-immigrant efforts and policies are not restricted to the global “North.” In the Dominican Republic, recent legislation, tied to the effort to restrict the flow of Haitians across the border, has effectively defined the Dominican as white in contrast to a Haitian blackness. Viewed comparatively, anti-immigrant policies appear to be the result of sustained efforts to craft and defend racialized nationalisms at the intersections of the state and the nation, the local and the global. And while there is a growing body of literature on the efforts of powerful institutions to stem non-white immigration, there is less comparative work on the everyday expressions of white nationalism.

This panel explores race-centered reactions to migration in comparative perspective. Though each paper may focus on localized trends, together the papers will examine how individuals and nations remake themselves in the face of these racialized “threats.”  We seek papers that examine a range of responses that reinforce and/or challenge prevailing notions of race and national identity at the intersections of the state/nation/public, the local/global, and the familiar/strange. What do these seemingly disparate efforts have in common? What are the differences that set them apart? How, and where, are national borders made and remade in response to the presence of immigrants? How does immigration call attention to national and/or racial privilege and simultaneously render it uncomfortable?  When and how does this discomfort motivate some to protest immigration while others seek to deny their own privilege?  How do anti-immigrant and nationalist efforts construct racial categories to deny access to citizenship and national belonging? How do anti-immigrant and nationalist efforts seek to craft national memory and evoke nostalgic fantasies of national identity in ways that construct a collective past/future while eliding alternative renderings?  How do these processes render the familiar strange and the strange familiar?

Please send all submissions to Devin T. Molina ([log in to unmask]) by Friday, April 10. Submissions should be no longer than 250 words and should include a title and keywords. If accepted, all panelists will need to register for the 2015 meetings by April 15th.

[6] AAA Panel - Toward an Intersectional Analysis of Neoliberalism in Education - Deadline- April 10, 2015

SESSION ORGANIZER: Kysa Nygreen

ABSTRACT (draft): The effects of neoliberalism on education in the US have been amply documented and rigorously theorized. Educational anthropologists have produced an impressive body of critical scholarship that de-centers the logic of neoliberalism, making “strange” the many “familiar” neoliberal policies and reforms that shape educational structures and practices. Much of this literature documents the impact of neoliberal reforms on students of color, especially Black and Latino students, and students in high-poverty disinvested schools. Although the intersections between neoliberalism and structural racism have been explored (e.g. Lipman 2011; Giroux 2004), much critical educational scholarship still analyzes neoliberalism and racism as separate, albeit mutually-reinforcing, political-economic-discursive processes. The same can be said of analyses incorporating gender and sexuality with a critique of neoliberalism. This session aims to deepen the conversation about neoliberal education reform by integrating an intersectional analysis of neoliberalism. Rather than positioning neoliberalism as a (non-racial) socioeconomic process with racial implications (Roberts & Matani 2010), or as a (non-gendered) socioeconomic process with gendered implications, an intersectional analysis frames racism, sexism, heterosexism, and neoliberalism as integrated, mutually-constitutive processes.

Educational anthropologists have long embraced a commitment to intersectionality. However, the “familiar” idea of intersectionality remains, to some extent, “strange” within educational scholarship on neoliberalism. It is one thing to declare the importance of intersectionality but quite another to operationalize an intersectional analysis that goes beyond simply acknowledging the significance of race, gender and class. How do we take intersectionality seriously in ethnographic studies of educational neoliberalism? What does this analysis look like, and what new understandings does it afford us? How might an intersectional lens contribute more nuanced and complex understandings of racism, sexism, heterosexism, and neoliberalism as manifested in education? How might this lens inform or generate new forms resistance? These are the overarching questions that this session will engage.

The session brings together ethnographic papers that apply an intersectional analysis of neoliberalism in education. The papers explore different contexts and distinct aspects of neoliberal education reform.  [Add detail about the papers here where the session is filled]

If you are interested in joining this session, please submit abstracts to me by Friday April 10. I also welcome emails from anyone who is interested in helping me organize it. Thanks! [log in to unmask]

-Kysa Nygreen

(UMass-Amherst)

[7] AAA Roundtable - ‘Studying through’ in Anthropology Roundtable: Tips, Tools, and Strategies for Emerging Policy Scholars - Deadline: April 10, 2015

Originating from the 2014 AAA meeting in Washington, DC, this roundtable addresses the need for collaboration and discussion among emerging policy scholars.  Specifically, this roundtable will consider the methodological, practical, and ethical components of conducting anthropological policy research. Essential to policy investigations, our dialogue will highlight both the familiar and strange facets of doing multi-sited ethnography.  Within this discipline, scholars have employed concepts, such as ‘studying through’, which follow the policy and its processes—from actors engaged in the policy cycle to those in the public for which they intend to influence (Wright and Reinhold 2011).  With particular attention to the dynamics of (unequal) power and knowledge, this approach gives priority to the conflicting narratives produced by policy. Anthropologists have explored the role of policy in multiple contexts: disaster recovery efforts, human health interventions, immigration and migrants, land use and development, financial sectors, education and outreach, natural resource management, environment and energy.

This roundtable invites advanced graduate students and emerging scholars to share methodological insights with ‘studying through’ the policy process, including tips, tools, and strategies while engaged in the field. The objectives of this roundtable are to identify practical recommendations for emerging scholars, discuss common ethical dilemmas, and to establish an emerging policy scholar network for future collaborations. In addition to providing a brief overview of their research, roundtable participants will address the following questions: How did you make key contacts and cultivate relationships while in the field?  What particular strategies worked for you and what did not?  How did you manage (or muddle through) with unexpected circumstances and/or events that impacted the nature of your research?  What are common misconceptions students have regarding conducting research on the policy process?  What advice do you have for students interested in engaging in anthropological policy research?  In addition to engaged dialogue between panelists and the audience, audience participants will be provided with an anthropology of policy bibliography assembled by roundtable panelists. As an important conversation needed to support policy scholars in all stages of their research, this roundtable seeks to stimulate discussions on policy process research with an emphasis on conceptualizing diverse research topics across multiple field sites.  

We welcome submissions from advanced graduate students, recent graduates, and post-docs. If interested, please submit a proposal title, an abstract up to 250 words, full name, and affiliation to [log in to unmask] (Fayana Richards) and [log in to unmask] (Valoree Gagnon) by Friday, April 10th.

[8] AAA Roundtable - “Black Lives Matters” - Deadline: April 10, 2014

We are soliciting participation for a round table focused on what perspectives and strategies members have used to incorporate the recent social movement(s) surrounding “Black Lives Matter” in their teaching, service, research, writing and other creative activities. We are interested in how panelists situate and recruit such approaches as ways to prepare and

mentor anthropologists at the margins through various stages of their career.

           If you are interested in participating in the roundtable, please send a brief abstract of no more than 150 words (or less) of how your work in one (1) of the areas of service, teaching, research, writing and/or creative works accomplishes the strange yet familiar work of dismantling racialized and other forms of social exclusion. We would like representation

from early and mid -career individuals as well as senior scholars to get cross and intergenerational perspectives. Please forward your abstract to roundtable co-organizers and co­chairs Sonya Maria Johnson at [log in to unmask] and Nicole Truesdell at

[log in to unmask] no later than Friday, 4/10/15 at 5pm. Please see the

draft abstract below: “This Too is Ferguson”: Denaturalizing Race in Service, Teaching, Mentoring and the Production of Knowledge by Anthropologists at the Margins.

Roundtable Abstract Proposal for the 114th Annual Association of American Anthropologists, Denver, CO

Sonya Maria Johnson & Nicole Truesdell, co-organizers & co-chairs

           This roundtable will focus on how to effectively incorporate activities emanating from the “Black Lives Matter” social movement(s), into anthropological practice. We use the phrase “This Too is Ferguson” as a way to highlight how service, research, writing and other forms of knowledge distribution within the discipline offer strategies for challenging and dismantling racialized and institutional violence against Black bodies within U.S society and beyond.

We have been here before; the place of friction wherein current social movements expose the reality of the strange yet all too familiar and redundant ways in which race and racism are critical components of how we approach ‘ways of knowing’ in socializing and mentoring anthropologists at the margins. This round table presents how ABA members have grappled with, linked, and/or drawn critical perspectives from current iterations of social movements for racial justice, sparked by the uprising in Ferguson.

[9] AAA Panel - Counter-narratives: Challenging Dominant Discourse in Rights and Justice - Deadline: April 12, 2015

In human rights and justice-related anthropological inquiries, often binaries are created, whether it be “us” versus “them” or grassroots versus government. Political and legal anthropology research across post-colonial and post-conflict scenarios stands to impact application in the field, as practitioners in rights and justice endeavors may have different goals and objectives than communities they serve. Similarly, on-the-ground needs can be significantly disparate from theoretical understandings of human rights dialogues that include use of alternative justice models, access to healthcare and resources or acknowledgement of Indigenous identity. Creation of dichotomous categories risk essentializing or homogenizing sociopolitically and socioculturally complex scenarios, and nuanced information that challenges the field both theoretically and methodologically can be lost. When analyzing issues of rights and justice, frequent dialogues ask which stakeholders’ voices matter and which do not. This panel goes further to instead present findings that challenge dominant discourse, showcasing counter-narratives drawn from various regions and contexts. In this sense, the familiar, or prevailing theories and perspectives are set aside, and the strange, or underrepresented perspectives that generate critical reflections, are showcased. It is in this arena of the “strange” that new questions arise and deeper insight into the politics of rights and justice issues is gained. Analyses presented here include the underexplored Indigenous perceptions of transitional justice on the ground in Canada, an emergent theory of the origins of Cherokee identity that counters existing assumptions, participant perceptions of restorative justice goals in the San Francisco Bay Area, and Ukranian patient perspectives in the context of the Movement for Global Mental Health. In each of these forms of counter-narrative, the strange--the conflicting perceptions, the underrepresented voices, and burgeoning theories--task anthropologists with challenging the familiar.

If anyone is interested in participating on this panel, please contact organizer, Jaymelee J. Kim ([log in to unmask]) by April 12, 2015. The panel is not restricted by region, but rather is a theme-based session.

[10] AAA Panel - To Promote the Well-Being of Humanity Throughout the World”: NGOs, The Rockefeller Foundation, and Humanitarian work in Asia, Africa, The Americas -Deadline: April 12, 2015

Call For Papers: American Anthropological Association Panel- Fall 2015

I am assembling an AAA panel loosely organized around research on Rockefeller Foundation humanitarian projects. Please see the general panel abstract below, which will be updated to reflect the content of the abstracts that are included. If you would like to submit an abstract

for possible inclusion, please email it to me no later than April 12th. Abstracts should be around 250 words in length. The final panel and papers must be submitted to the AAA by April 15th. Anne M. Galvin’s email address is: [log in to unmask]

Tentative Panel Title and Abstract: “To Promote the Well-Being of Humanity Throughout the World”: NGOs, The Rockefeller Foundation, and Humanitarian work in Asia, Africa, The

Americas.” This panel anthropologically explores NGOs, with particular focus on

the Rockefeller Foundation’s strategies in relation to efforts to eradicate disease, create

Economic opportunity, and population resilience across the globe. Founded in 1913 the Foundation is currently one of the most influential NGOs in the world, having launched public health and agricultural initiatives that transformed approaches to the containment and treatment of Communicable and pest-borne illnesses and agricultural techniques that ushered in The Green Revolution. The Rockefeller Foundation¹s projects were Developed along side the discipline of anthropology for much of the organization’s history, with the founding of the Social Science Research Council.

Inclusive of both historical and contemporary efforts, the papers on this panel seek to understand how the foundation¹s philanthropic activities defined and planned the promotion of ³well-being² at various times and in varied global localities. Programs simultaneously promoted a strongly western influenced development agenda while utilizing agents on the ground to “localize” strategies that had been designed and tested in particular cultural and geographical spaces.

[11] AAA Panel - Learning Technologies: Active Learning and Ethnocomputing in Higher Education - Deadline: April 13, 2015

Collaborative active learning models, particularly those involving computational technologies, have profoundly influenced higher education in fields as diverse as medicine, art, and engineering. This panel investigates the tensions and pedagogical practices that arise from technologies and the cultures in which they are embedded.

Ethnocomputing (Tedre and Eglash 2008) (in its examination of situated cultural/computational nexuses) is a particularly useful way to examine the techno-pedagogical practices of fields that use models such as problem-based learning (initiated in medical education) and project-based learning. These and other constructivist collaborative models are increasingly popular ways to challenge the banking model of education in science and engineering higher education departments (Barton 1998; Bronet & Layne 2010) because they encourage reciprocity among participants that creates a space for deliberation. This panel seeks participants who use a sociocultural perspective to examine the effectiveness of these and other active learning models both face-to-face and virtual, in higher education classrooms, laboratories, and field sites.

The literature on the usefulness of these pedagogies is equivocal:  some studies find little use (Neville, 2009) and several others indicate positive findings in both developmental and social realms (Kuhn 2015; Dumas et al. 2014; Koh et al. 2008). The social construction and requirement for analysis and evaluation embedded in collaborative active learning models require participants to make verbal or visual representations and explanations for other group members. These representations encourage reflection and enable the development of adaptive expertise. Such learning both “sticks” and forms the basis for further knowledge production (Vygotsky 1978; Brown, Collins, & Duguid 1989). However, the ways that collaborating participants use verbal and visual technologies to develop conceptually and culturally remains something of a black box.

We are especially interested in papers that address active learning models in higher education medical, technology, engineering, mathematics, and science departments and the ways in which these pedagogies are responsive to both situated culture and curriculum. Please send a short abstract to Carol Thompson ([log in to unmask]) and Michael Lachney ([log in to unmask]) by April 13th.

[12] AAA Roundtable: Racing the Anthropocene: Critical perspectives on racism and inequality in a new geological epoch - Deadline: April 13, 2015

As environmental justice scholars have long pointed out, black and brown communities have disproportionately borne the social and material burdens of environmental risks and uncertainties as the bodies most directly exposed to unhealthy, toxic, and violent ecologies around the world. Yet, the Anthropocene is often framed in scientific language that neutralizes or disregards the politics of racial difference and  inequality. The ways in which the Anthropocene, and its re-framing of human-environment relations, intersects with critical scholarship on structural racism, environmental injustice, and environmental change/disaster thus remains unclear. What new ecologies of risk or uncertainty emerge, and for whom, alongside the establishment of new scientific facts that equivocate or conflate the social and the geological? Does a focus on the agency and volatility of the Earth eschew or provide new routes towards theorizing what structural racism is and how it operates? To what extent does the ‘naturalization’ of racial and social hierarchies enable the Anthropocene to gain purchase in the social and physical sciences? These questions reflect the need for more critical discussions on the political and ethical dimensions of the Anthropocene as a geological epoch and as a potential framework for theorizing the politics of life on an increasingly dynamic planet.

In the spirit of conversations begun at the 2014 AAAs on the Anthropocene as well as recent events in the US highlighting the perseverance of racism as a structuring force of social life, this roundtable investigates the possibilities and potential limitations of bringing a critical focus on racism towards how we think and theorize the Anthropocene in anthropology. In what ways does the Anthropocene as a conceptual and material phenomenon potentially intersect with critical conversations about racism and inequality? How might this change the ways we do research on race and the environment, or race and the ‘hard’ sciences (biological, physical, etc)?

The roundtable is open to all participants whose work and interests dwell within or between critical race studies, environmental anthropology, science and technology studies, critical social theory, and beyond. The session is deliberately opened-ended and will be geared towards the specific topics/interests presenters bring to the table. All four fields and scholars in cognate disciplines are encouraged to participate. If you would like to participate, please email the roundtable organizer ([log in to unmask]) with a few words about what you would like to speak about by Monday April 13th. Further questions and suggestions are welcome.

[13] Conference - IV Congreso Latinoamericano de Antropología - Mexico City - October 7-10, 2015 - Deadline: April 30, 2015

www.ala.iia.unam.mx

Call for Papers

Deadline: April 30, 2015.

We invite anthropologists and colleagues to present paper proposals at IV Congreso Latinoamericano de Antropología that will take place October 7-10, 2015 in downtown Mexico City.

People interested in presenting a paper can ask to add his proposal to one of the ACCEPTED PANELS (se below) or they can ask for a complete list writing to: [log in to unmask].

To propose a paper, please fill a FORM in the webpage of the conference (see below), where we ask for title, abstract, and name and number of the panel in in which you want to participate, in case your paper is not already accepted in any panel. Also, we ask for personal information: name, institution, academic degree and e-mail. You can also ask for a paper proposal file if you write to [log in to unmask].

Deadline: April 30, 2015.

Panel List One: http://www.ala.iia.unam.mx/index.php/congreso-internacional/simposios-aprobados

Panel List Two: http://www.ala.iia.unam.mx/index.php/congreso-internacional/simposios-aprobados-2o-periodo

Paper Participation Form: http://www.ala.iia.unam.mx/docus/formulario_para_la_presentacion_de_ponencias.docx

[14] Conference - Globalization: The Urban Crisis and Economic Democracy - University of Toledo, June 12-14, 2015 - Deadline: May 10, 2015

GLOBALIZATION: THE URBAN CRISIS AND ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY

The University of Toledo

Toledo, OH

June 12 - 14, 2015

Sponsored by: College of Languages, Literature, and Social Sciences, President's Commission on Global Initiative, and Center for International Studies and Programs

To submit a 100-word abstract or a panel idea, send it in the body of an email to Jerry Harris at[log in to unmask] by May 10, 2015. Please include your full name and affiliation. All presentation topics will be considered.

See more information at http://www.net4dem.org/mayglobal

FRIDAY

Special Film Screening of Shift Change

Following discussion with directors Mellissa Young and Mark Dworkin

Race and Class in the Solidarity Economy

Jessica Gordon Nembhard

Michael Peck

Rob Witherell

Economic Democracy as Political Strategy

Carl Davidson

Francis Shor

Jerry Harris

SATURDAY

Keynote Presentation

Gar Alperovitz

Globalization and the Urban Industrial Crisis: Detroit, Chicago and Gary

Frank Hammer

Ruth Needleman

Dan Swinney

From Protest to Resistance and Visionary Organizing​: Boggs Center

[15] Conference Sessions - NGO-graphies (As part of the AAA 2015) - Denver, Colorado - November 17-18- Deadline: May 15, 2015

“NGO-graphies” – the Second NGOs and Nonprofits Conference

November 17-18, 2015, Metropolitan State University of Denver, Colorado

Call for Session Proposals and Save the Date

[Note: a complete version of this Call is available at

http://www.aaanet.org/sections/ngo/2015-conference/]

As non-governmental organizations (NGOs) take on roles and responsibilities that were traditionally in the hands of national governments, power has become increasingly denationalized and embedded in new configurations. While the scales of these mediations, service provisions, and representations have typically been categorized as local-regional-national-international, networks of NGOs now connect organizations at the grassroots directly to large-scale, transnational systems. Yet as Bebbington (2004) notes, the conditions of poverty that development NGOs seek to address have been created through preexisting structures of colonial extraction, capitalist expansion, and consumption and production; a legacy that leaves these NGO networks unevenly dispersed, clustering in areas of perceived need and becoming sparse in regions without the infrastructure required to support them. The term “NGO-graphy” (Sampson and Hemment 2001) calls for a critical ethnographic approach to understanding non-governmental organizations and nonprofits. It also suggests a topographic image of NGO networks that both interact with and create human landscapes.

The purpose of this second NGOs and Nonprofits conference is to engage one another in thinking broadly about the patterns of NGO practices as they point to the role of coordination within networks and the factors that direct global flows of resources and knowledge. Together, we will examine how these networks are constituted through the personal interactions, cultural practices, and shifting discourses that give them meaning. Considering the power relations that shape and create NGO-graphies also allows us to problematize the ever-present methodological question of how researchers and practitioners can and should interact with NGOs, which become sources of information about local communities, points of entry, sources of income, and fieldsites themselves. We invite proposals for sessions from anthropologists, related interdisciplinary scholars, and practitioners on topics including but not limited to the following questions:

·       How do we think beyond a “case-based” approach to conceive of broader geographies of NGO intervention?

·       How do NGOs’ particular requirements in providing services create landscapes of need?

·       Where do resources and knowledge originate geographically and how do they travel?

·       Where are the “centers” of international NGOs and how do they interact with the “peripheries”?

·       In what ways does examining how NGO work unfolds geographically contribute to shifting our perspective from viewing NGOs as entities (“nouns”) to viewing NGOs as processes (“verbs”)?

·       How do “NGO cultures” draw from or feed back into the ethnic, national, and social mechanisms traditionally observed in anthropological research?

·       How are the forms of knowledge valued by NGOs (technical knowledge, local knowledge, cultural knowledge, linguistic knowledge) linked to or detached from geographic contexts?

·       How do indicators produced by distinct aid organizations in disparate locations create and reinforce overlapping notions of sociopolitical need, human rights, and value?

·       How do NGO practitioners position themselves as experts with useful knowledge and relationships within organizations?

·       What perspectives can practitioners and activists bring to academic theorizing regarding how NGO networks operate?

·       How can deeper understandings of non-governmental organizational structures aid in developing effective NGO practice?

Bebbington, Anthony (2004) "NGOs and uneven development: geographies of development intervention." Progress in Human Geography 28(6):725-745.

Sampson, Steven and Julie Hemment (2001) “NGO-graphy: the critical anthropology of NGOs and civil society.” Double panel, organized for the 100th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Washington DC, November 2001.

LOCATION & COST

The conference will take place in Denver on the day before and the first day of the 2015 AAA meeting: from 8am on Tuesday, November 17th until 4pm on Wednesday, November 18th. We will primarily be located across the road from the AAA convention center on the campus of Metropolitan State University. We aim to make “NGO-graphies” as accessible and affordable as possible and are pursuing sponsorship and in-kind support to keep costs low. We will finalize our fee structure within the coming months, but right now we can guarantee that registration costs will not exceed $75. Accommodation is available at the Springhill Suites Marriott, an affordable option that is part of the MSU campus.

SESSION PROPOSALS

At this time, we are soliciting session proposals that speak to the above outlined themes and questions directly or indirectly. Both traditional paper sessions and alternative format sessions are welcome.

The deadline to submit session proposals is May 15th. Please note that sessions do not need to be completely filled with participants by this date. After the session review process (as outlined below), sessions with open slots will be asked to recruit further participants from our wider membership.

Anyone with an interest in the ethnographic study of NGOs (broadly including nonprofits, third sectors, voluntary organizations, etc.) may submit a session proposal. Session organizers will work with the conference planning committee to develop lines of discussion connected to our NGO-graphies theme. Session activities should offer a variety of forums that stimulate discussion, including but not limited to panel sessions, workshops, and roundtables. Each organizer will design a 1.75 hour session with themes broad enough to intrigue a diversity of people working in NGO studies or the NGO sector, yet specific enough for both scholars and practitioners to engage one another concerning their specializations.

Proposals should include:

Theme Definition (200 words): The proposal should explain why the chosen theme is timely and relevant to NGO-graphies and NGO studies. This information will appear in the general CFP and should describe the issues that will focus presentations and discussions in the session.

Structure / Format (100 words): We aim to facilitate conversations and collaborative analyses, so we strongly encourage proposals that employ innovative presentation formats, such as roundtables, break-out sessions and informal lunchtime conversations, in addition to traditional panels and paper presentations. See http://www.aaanet.org/sections/ngo/2015-conference/session-formats/ for ideas on how you can structure your session, or work with the planning committee to design an effective format.

Prospective Participants (150 words): Session organizers may recruit participants from their own networks and/or fill slots with submissions solicited through our forthcoming Call for Papers. Please provide names and planned contributions of potential/confirmed participants (be as specific as possible).

Proposals should be submitted as .doc attachments to [log in to unmask]. Questions may also be directed to this email address.

GENERAL PARTICIPATION

Session organizers will be notified of requested revisions and acceptance by May 22nd. At this time we will also send out a Call for Papers for sessions with space open for additional papers. All sessions must be finalized by July 10th. We anticipate notifying all participants and opening up conference registration by August, shortly after AAA submission notifications. A brief survey requesting participants’ availability, AV needs, and confirmation of participation will be distributed at this time. The final deadline for registration will be in October.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

For a full version of this announcement—including further details of our theoretical approach, aims, and innovative format ideas—please visit: http://www.aaanet.org/sections/ngo/2015-conference/

Sponsored by Metropolitan State University of Denver, the AAA Association for Legal and Political Anthropology, and Northern Illinois University

Conference Coordinating Committee: Rebecca Mantel, Siobhan McGuirk, Rebecca Nelson, Misha Quill, Mark Schuller, Aviva Sinervo, Christian Vannier, Kim Walters

For information regarding conference registration, facilities, scheduling, and other matters please contact [log in to unmask].

[16] Conference - Affect Theory Conference - Ware Center - Millersville University - October 14-17, 2015- Deadline: May 18, 2015

Affect Theory Conference Millersville University's Ware Center

Lancaster PA October 14 - 17, 2015

A) CALL FOR PAPERS TO STREAMS:

250-word PAPER ABSTRACTS – oriented to the accepted stream proposals –can now be submitted. ALL PAPERS MUST BE SUBMITTED THROUGH THE CONFERENCE WEBSITE at [log in to unmask]. The final deadline for submissions is MONDAY, MAY 18. The conference website will keep a master file of all submissions to the various accepted streams.

To aid with proper routing, PLEASE INCLUDE THE STREAM # and/or NAME OF THE STREAM in the subject-line of your emailed paper submission. The email attachment of your abstract should be in Word or pdf. Abstracts can be single-authored or co-authored.

Stream #13 – Engaging religious and secular affect

Sophie Bjork-James ([log in to unmask]), Postdoctoral Scholar, Anthropology Department, Vanderbilt University and Yunus Dogan Telliel (Grad Center – CUNY)

Paralleling contemporary challenges to secular states in Europe, India, the United States, and Turkey, recent critical studies have problematized the perceived boundaries between the religious and the secular. This scholarship highlights, rather, the mutual construction of the religious and the secular in modern politics, law, education, or medicine. While this body of work has brought forth a heightened awareness of secularism’s discursive architecture and regulative mechanisms, the pre-discursive life of the secular remains much less explored (with notable exceptions, such as William Connolly, Talal Asad, and Saba Mahmood). This stream aims to facilitate a conversation about possible new pathways into the study of religious and secular affects by inviting panel and paper proposals around three sets of questions.

1) What does the secular look like when we consider its emotional registers, visceral energies, and embodied commitments? Can we speak of secular affect as a distinct kind? What are the possible sites of comparison between secular and religious affects? Sara Ahmed suggested that affect is generated in the circulation of emotions between bodies, signs, and objects. In what ways are secular and religious economies of affective circulation organized differently? The focus on affective economies can help us consider religion not simply as a matter of believing in a transcendent power, but an effect of various entanglements between persons and things. Can affect theory offer new ways of thinking about the secular and secular entanglements?

2) What role(s) do emotions play in secular criticism? Defining itself against religion’s ‘zeal’, secular criticism often presupposes a self that is impervious to emotional intensities (e.g., Muslim sensitivities concerning visual representation of Muhammad) that may cloud public reasoning and judgment. What are the affective conditions of the production of this image of an autonomous secular self? How are secular subjectivities reshaped in the flows of life, wherein diverse energies and forces disrupt the religious/secular divide (e.g., unexpected spiritual experiences, capitalism’s enchantments, or solidarities between religious and non-religious groups)?

3) How might paying attention to secular and religious affect change the way researchers approach the study of religious communities? How can we think of, for instance, an ‘atheist’ ethnographer who finds herself drawn by the charismatic oratory and emotional ambiance of a congregation while repulsed by references to Biblical condemnation of homosexuality? The academic study of religion often considers such predicaments as a reflection of an insider/outsider dilemma, focusing on the conceptual stakes of research encounters. This often overlooks what roles visceral contacts (via wonder, apathy, or disgust) play in academic knowledge-production. In what ways can a researcher communicate such affective experiences to her audience? How might engaging with the affective dimension of religious practice elucidate the persistence of religious mobilizations within secular modernity?

[17] Articles - Deliberate: The Experiences of Women of Colo(u)r Graduate Students - Deadline: June 15, 2015

Deliberate: The Experiences of Women of Colo(u)r Graduate Students is an anthology that collects academic and creative texts to document the experiences of WOC graduate students. The anthology takes its title from a quote attributed to Audre Lorde that constantly surfaces in spaces of black and feminist thought and is used as a rallying cry in response to challenges to personhood: “I am deliberate and afraid of nothing.” Deliberate will collect together testimonies of what occurs in spaces that have traditionally and continually marginalised and problematized the presence of women of colour scholars.

The intention for Deliberate is to produce a document of witness, to speak deliberately, collectively, and loudly about the singular experiences of WOC graduate students in the academy, and the possibilities that exist due to and through our presence in these institutions. Contributions by women of colour current, former, and prospective graduate students in all research fields are invited in the form of:

academic research (scholarly articles, research notes, responses, literature surveys, etc.)

non-fiction (first-person narratives, journalistic works, personal essays, etc.)

creative texts (poetry, plays, non-traditional prose, etc.).

The topics below are meant to serve as suggestions for some of the possible themes and topics that are of interest within the context of women of colour undertaking graduate studies:

 Presences and absences

Re-defining and re-creating community/ies

On survival

Possibilities for radical action

Intersections of, with, and beyond sexuality/class/culture/spirituality/ability/etc.

Definitions and presentations of truth

WOC bodies, academic spaces

Researching WOC/researching as WOC

Decision-making in completing or not completing a graduate degree

Social and familial relationships

Resiliency

Celebration

Ceremony

Information for Contributors

Please email manuscripts in .docx or .rtf format to [log in to unmask]

All manuscripts should be double-spaced and include a cover page with the title of the piece, author’s name, contact information, and a short bio (max. 150 words)

Simultaneous submissions accepted, but please notify us immediately if your work will be published elsewhere. Contributions should be a maximum of 15,000 words, and formatted according to MLA guidelines; there is no minimum word count. Queries are welcome – please include an abstract or proposal that takes into account deadlines.  Completed submissions are due June 15, 2015. Publication date: TBD. Artwork contributions will be considered for the cover - please email a lo-res file or link (preferred)

For more information and to keep updated on the progress of the anthology, please visit www.wearedeliberate.com

2. FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES AND AWARDS || PRIX ET BOURSES

[1] Postdoctoral Positions - CUMORE(CULTURAL MOBILITIES RESEARCH) - University of Leuven - Deadline: See links

RECRUITING POSTDOCTORAL TALENT AT CUMORE (CULTURAL MOBILITIES RESEARCH)

Have you finished (or are you about to finish) your doctoral degree and are you thinking about your next 'move' within academia?

Then we kindly invite you to consider spending some time at CuMoRe as a postdoctoral researcher.

Cultural Mobilities Research stands for a vibrant group of young anthropologists conducting innovative research on the sociocultural meanings of the boundary-crossing mobilities of people, things and ideas.

Funding can be obtained from two sources:

(1) Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships

http://ec.europa.eu/research/mariecurieactions/about-msca/actions/if/index_en.htm

If you want to come to CuMoRe, the University of Leuven offers extra information and support for applicants:

https://www.kuleuven.be/english/research/EU/f/extra/msca/msca-if-support

(2) Pegasus

This call will be launched in September

http://www.fwo.be/en/press/press-releases/2015/fwo-gets-63-million-euros-european-support-for-[pegasus]%C2%B2-programme/

Are you interested?

Do not hesitate to check out the CuMoRe website (http://soc.kuleuven.be/cumore) and to get in touch with any question you may have.

[2] Postdoctoral Fellow in Ethnographic Design - Communication - Social Sciences - University of California San Diego - Deadline: May 12, 2015

Title of the position: Postdoctoral Fellow in Ethnographic Design

Institution: University of California San Diego

School or Division: Social Sciences

Academic Department: Communication

Disciplinary Specialty of Research: This fellowship focuses on ethnographic design, a topic of interest to a wide spectrum of academic disciplines.  While we expect most candidates to come from the social sciences, we will entertain applications from the arts and humanities, and other disciplines if they demonstrate an engagement with and dedication to ethnographic method.

Description of the Position: The Studio for Ethnographic Design at the University of California, San Diego invites applications for a postdoctoral fellow who will contribute to developing a new initiative for ethnographic inquiry. This initiative, the UC Collaborative for Ethnographic Design (CoLED), is an interdisciplinary project that is housed at UCSD and links six University of California campuses (Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Santa Cruz, and San Diego), tying together scholars from a wide variety of disciplinary backgrounds who are thinking critically about the practice of ethnography as a method, and the changing conditions of its production, forms and techniques. The collaboratory will also serve as a means to improve pedagogical agendas for graduate student training in ethnographic practice.

The fellow’s primary responsibilities include conceptualizing, programming and developing proposals for a public conference on the future of ethnographic research scheduled for fall 2016. Fellows will also participate in the initiative’s ongoing schedule of activities, which include thematic practicums elaborating various aspects of ethnography – from initial project design and collaboration in research to critical consideration of the publics with whom and for whom we conduct our research. Teaching is not required, leaving the fellow with time to work on independent projects, which ideally will overlap with the mission of the initiative. This position will afford the candidate latitude to conduct a wide range of activities related to the practice of ethnography; it will also place the candidate at the center of a network of scholars at the forefront of ethnographic design. For more information on the Studio for Ethnographic Design (SED) and the UC Collaborative for Ethnographic Design (CoLED) please visit our webpage at http://sed.ucsd.edu/.

Qualifications Required and Preferred Academic Background: Applicants must hold a PhD or equivalent and be able to demonstrate a sustained engagement with innovative ethnographic methods, as both practice and object of analytical inquiry. Useful experience might include event planning and successful grant writing. Again, discipline is not as important as focus on ethnographic method and design.

Salary: $42,840/yr with benefits. For information on benefits package, see http://postdoc.ucsd.edu/benefits-and-services/index.html.

Appointment Length: 18 months with the possibility of extension. While collaboration and research would begin on July 1, 2015, we would not expect the fellow to be in residence in San Diego until September 1, 2015.

Application Procedure: Send applications via email to Elana Zilberg at [log in to unmask]. Please use “SED Postdoc Application” in the subject line.

All applicants should submit:

(1) a CV (maximum five pages),

(2) a cover letter that briefly explains your research and its relationship with ethnography, demonstrated organizational skills, and successful proposal writing experience (maximum 3 pages),

(3)  a statement discussing the practice of ethnography both as theory and as a method, and your contributions to current innovations in advancing the method  to meet the challenges of the changing conditions of field based research (maximum 2 pages)

(4) one writing sample that demonstrates the applicant’s use of and engagement with ethnography, and

(5) a statement detailing how their presence would contribute to diversity on UCSD’s campus. (For information on this statement, see http://facultyexcellence.ucsd.edu/c2d/)

Letters of Recommendation: The candidate should request letters of recommendation from two referees. These letters should be sent via email to Elana Zilberg at [log in to unmask]. Please ask your reviewers to use “Recommendation for candidates full name” in the subject line.

Application Closing date: 05/12/2015

Job Posting Expiration: 05/12/2105

[3] APLA GRADUATE STUDENT PAPER PRIZE - Deadline: July 1, 2015

APLA Announces 2015 Graduate Student Paper Prize

Committee: Jennifer Curtis, Sarah Hautzinger and Gabrielle Hosein

APLA (Association for Political and Legal Anthropology) is pleased to announce that the 2015 Student Paper Prize is open for submissions. The committee will select five finalists; each finalist will be assigned a mentor who shares substantive interests, to offer feedback. APLA will also sponsor a session at the AAA meetings in Denver with the finalists and their mentors.

The APLA Board invites individuals who are students in a graduate degree-granting program (including M.A., Ph.D., J.D., LL.M., S.J.D. etc.) to send stand-alone papers centering on the analysis of political and/or legal institutions and processes. Topics may include citizenship; colonialism and post-colonial public spheres; cosmopolitanism; cultural politics; disability; environment; globalization; governance; humanitarianism; medicine, science, and technology; multiculturalism; nationalism; NGOs and civil society; new media; immigration and refugees; resistance; religious institutions; security, policing, or militarism; sexualities; social movements; human and civil rights; sovereignty; war and conflict.  We encourage submissions that expand the purview of political and legal anthropology and challenge us to think in new ways about power, politics and law.

APLA awards a cash prize of $350.00, plus travel expenses of up to $650.00 if the prize winner attends the 2015 annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association (Denver, CO) to receive the prize in person. The prize winner will be announced in Anthropology News, and the winning paper will be published in the peer-reviewed journal of the Association for Political and Legal Anthropology, PoLAR: The Political and Legal Anthropology Review. Authors must be enrolled in a graduate program through at least May 1, 2015. Papers should not exceed 8,000 words (including notes and references) and should follow the style guidelines of PoLAR, which are detailed in the American Anthropological Association Style Guide. Please submit papers as PDF attachments to Sarah Hautzinger ([log in to unmask]) by July 1. Link: http://politicalandlegalanthro.org/2015/04/03/apla-announces-2015-graduate-student-paper-prize/

3. EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES || OFFRE D'EMPLOI (in addition to/ en plus de http://www.cas-sca.ca/latest-jobs)

[1] Visiting Assistant Professor - Medical Anthropology - Miami University, Oxford, Ohio - Deadline: April 17, 2015

Miami University is searching for a medical anthropologist for a one-year visiting assistant professor position. Please review the attached advertisement and circulate it as widely as possible. Visiting Assistant Professor to teach introductory courses in anthropology, and an upper-division  course in medical anthropology in 2015-2016 academic year. Full course load, undergraduate only. Require: PhD in anthropology by date of appointment, teaching experience; MPH preferred, regional expertise open.

To apply, please go to https://miamioh.hiretouch.com/job-details?jobID=511&job=visiting-assistant-professor-instructor

4. Requests and queries from members of the CASCA Student Network (reply directly to the poster) ||  Requêtes des étudiant(e)s pour obtenir des conseils ou ressources (les réponses seront envoyées directement à l'étudiant(e) en question).

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5. EVENTS || ÉVÉNEMENTS & SUMMER COURSES  || COURS D'ÉTÉ

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Submissions: All members of CASCA's Student Network as well as graduate program directors who have events or opportunities of interest to our members are invited to contact the moderators ([log in to unmask]). Links to detailed posting guidelines: in English and French.

Tous les membres du réseau des étudiants de CASCA ainsi que les directeurs de programmes d'études supérieures qui ont des événements ou des possibilités d'intérêt pour nos membres sont invités à contacter les modérateurs ([log in to unmask]). Voir ci-dessous pour directives sur les affectations détaillées: en anglais et français.