February 02, 2011

cfp: “Filipino Studies and its Diaspora”

The Philippine Study Group Student Association (PSGSA) welcomes abstract submissions for the second annual symposium “Filipino Studies and its Diaspora” to be held at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor on Friday, March 25-26th, 2011. PSGSA seeks scholars to present the latest cutting-edge research on Philippine and Filipino American studies and engage with the scholarly community at the University of Michigan.

This symposium will provide a space to assess the state of the field and its future directions. We endeavor to explore questions such as: What methods, resources, and epistemologies inform contemporary scholars of Filipino studies? Considering the major regional, ethnic, religious, and class inequalities in the Philippines and among diasporic Filipinos, in what ways has “Filipinoness” become an internal and nationalist imperial project unto itself? What racialized, gendered, sexualized, classed, and other discourses justified or supported oppressive policies in U.S.-Philippine relations?

Please submit abstracts to Sony C. Bolton at jcbolton@umich.edu. Abstracts should be no longer than 250 words. Please submit abstracts no later than February 20th, 2011. Topics may include but are not limited to:

- Philippine and Filipino American Literature
- Archives and Knowledge Production
- Gender & Sexuality
- Pre-colonial Philippines
- Visual and Cultural Studies
- “Hispanic” Philippines
- Economy and Development
- Islam in the Philippines and the Diaspora
- Race and Indigeneity
- U.S. Empire and Migration
- Religion and Spirituality
- Public Policy and International Relations
- Politics of Language
- Diaspora Studies
- The Philippine-American War and World War II
- Settler Colonialism and Militarism

Any questions or concerns can be sent to jcbolton@umich.edu.

February 01, 2011

cfp: “Race and Immigration in the American City"

Call for Papers
University of Chicago
Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture

“Race and Immigration in the American City: New Perspectives on 21st century Intergroup Relations”

May 20, 2011

The Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture at the University of Chicago solicits paper proposals for a day-long conference to be held on the Chicago campus on May 20, 2011, on “Race and Immigration in the American City: New Perspectives on 21st century Intergroup Relations.” Our keynote speaker will be Professor Jennifer Lee of the sociology department at the University of California, Irvine.

“Race and Immigration in the American City” seeks to explore themes of intergroup dynamics within multi-racial and multi-ethnic contexts across a range of urban arenas. As the post-1964 immigration wave has transformed the face of American cities, these new polyglot demographics introduce new forms, experiences, and dynamics of intergroup relations. How newcomers “fit
into” contemporary contexts of urban daily life, how current residents receive them, and how structural factors may influence these encounters prompt a number of avenues of analytic examination that help shed light on our contemporary experience of race and immigration in the American city.

Of particular interest are the dynamics that play out between African Americans and Latinos. Although racially and ethnically diverse urban contexts are long the hallmark of the American urban experience, the persistence of racial inequality and racial consciousness starkly shapes the urban context into which today’s immigrants—the majority of whom are Latino and categorized as non-white by dominant racial ideology—arrive. A primary focus of scholarly attention has been on the competition effects that emerge between African Americans and Latinos under such circumstances, especially in the labor market. We welcome such inquiry but also encourage comparative examination of other modes of engagement between groups.

Conference papers might explore: other dimensions of difference that mediate race and nativity, such as gender or class; the ways in which new configurations of racial and ethnic inequality have emerged in multiracial contexts; the ways in which new arrivals and/or prior residents adapt, contest, and reshape the experience of “race” in America; new forms of collaboration between groups; the persistence or shift in the “color line” given the ethnoracial diversity of
contemporary urban demographics. Substantively, we are interested in any number of topics that examine the contemporary urban condition such as employment, housing, neighborhood change, local politics, and social mobilization. Methodologically, the conference will emphasize comparative rather than group-specific research.

Paper proposals of two (2) pages maximum, plus a two (2) page curriculum vitae should be sent to Virginia Parks vparks@uchicago.edu and Ramón Gutiérrez rgutierrez@uchicago.edu by Friday, March 25, 2011.