[URBANTH-L]CFP: New Marxian Times

[Vincent Lyon-Callo]

Final Call For Papers
RM09: New Marxian Times

Extended Deadline of August 15, 2009

RETHINKING MARXISM: a journal of economics, culture & society is
pleased to announce its 7th international conference, to be held at
the University of Massachusetts in Amherst on 5-8 November 2009.

RETHINKING MARXISM's six previous international conferences have
each attracted more than 1000 students, scholars, and activists.
They have included keynote addresses and plenary sessions, formal
papers, roundtables, workshops, art exhibitions, video
presentations, activist discussions, and cultural performances.
Similar events are planned for the upcoming international conference.
RM09: New Marxian Times includes a plenary on Marxism and Nationalism
with Halil Berktay and Partha Chatterjee, the Martha Rosler Library and an 
address by Martha Rosler on Artistic Agency and Politics, an opening night 
roundtable on Marxist Perspectives on the Current Economic Crisis with 
Ric McIntyre, Susan Feiner, and Rick Wolff, a series of panels on 
Community/Alternative Economies, and many similiar events.

RM09: New Marxian Times is dedicated to exploring the possibilities
and challenges of Marxism for understanding and engaging with the
contemporary world.  Neoliberal capitalism, long criticized by
Marxists and others on the Left, is now going through its own long-
term economic and social crises. What new possibilities do these
crises create for Marxist and other progressive ideas and visions?
How does Marxism, and left-wing thought more generally, need to be
rethought to respond to these challenges?

Decades of declining real wages with rising levels of exploitation
and economic inequality, increasingly unaffordable energy costs, and
a loss of the illusion of middle-class status characterize large
parts of the world, in the North as well as the South.  Declining
state support for social welfare programs, privatization and
deregulation, record levels of migration of people, growing urban
slums, and increasingly authoritarian state interventions in the
lives of ordinary citizens have become the norm in the past two
decades.  Concurrently, multiple environmental crises (from climate
change and global warming to increasing food insecurity, water
shortages and health challenges) have been receiving increased
attention.  From the anti-elite sentiments expressed in response to
the bailout of the financial industries to emerging anti-immigrant
and nationalist efforts and ethnic and religious-based movements,
average people are feeling both angrier and more insecure in
response to current conditions.  And the elites have few if any
answers to the economic and social crises that beset the existing
national and international orders.

Perhaps coalescing in the financial crisis acknowledged in the
autumn of 2008, these dynamics represent both a significant crisis
for currently constituted capitalism and modes of governance as well
as a set of challenges and possibilities for all of us concerned
with working towards a non-exploitative and more equitable world.
In that light, we are seeking intellectual, political, and cultural
works that address the possible contributions that Marxist ideas and
forms of analysis can make in responding to the challenges of these
new times.  Human rights, democracy, environmental concerns, new
organizing movements in South America and elsewhere throughout the
globe, the growth of social activisms represented as anarchist, anti-
imperialist, or in response to globalization, workers subjectivities
and movements, contradictions within emerging and transitional
economies, emergent nationalisms, and debt and the credit crises all
represent possible areas for contributions to new thinking about the
role of Marxist theories, cultures, and politics in today's world.
We strongly encourage papers that address these topics in relation
to the global south.

Of course, we also understand the vital importance of analyzing
history in order to help us to understand and respond to
contemporary conditions.  To understand the new, we must reflect
upon and learn from the old.  In that light, we are also interested
in panels and papers that emphasize historical analysis such as the
history of Marxism(s), labor history, historical analysis of
academia, histories of social movements and political practices, the
historical development of Marxist/Socialist feminism, imperialisms,
and the historical relationships between class and race- based
movements.

STRUCTURE OF THE CONFERENCE

RM09: New Marxian Times will be held over four days, beginning on
Thursday evening, 5 November 2009 and ending on Sunday afternoon, 8
November 2009. In addition to two plenary sessions and an art
exhibition, there will be concurrent panels, workshops, and art/
cultural events. We invite the submission of organized sessions that
follow traditional or non-traditional formats (such as workshops,
roundtables, and dialogue among and between presenters and audience)
as well as individual presentations. Since Marxism covers a wide
variety of fields, from literature to public health and forms of
political practice, from environmental organizing to opposing global
inequality and envisioning new economic and social practice, anyone
engaging with Marxism in any discipline or form of activism is
encouraged to submit paper and panel proposals. We encourage those
working in areas that intersect with Marxism, such as critical race
theory, feminism, political economy, anarchist studies, cultural and
literary studies, queer theory, working-class and labor studies,
postcolonial studies, geography and urban studies, psychoanalysis,
social and natural sciences, philosophy, and around issues of class,
race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexuality, and disability, to
submit proposals. We also welcome video, poetry, performance, and
all other modes of presentation and cultural expression.

SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS

Proposals for papers, films, or other formats should include:
* Paper title
* Presenter's name and contact information (mail, email, phone,affiliations)
* Brief abstract (no more than 200 words)
* Technology needs for presentation

Proposals for panels should include:
* Panel title
* Name, contact information, and paper title for each presenter
* Brief abstract (no more than 200 words) explaining the panel's focus
* Brief abstract for each paper (no more than 200 words)
* Names and contact information for any discussant(s) or respondent(s)
* Technology needs of presenters
* Title, contact, and address for any sponsoring organization or journal

The appropriate preregistration fee must accompany all proposal
submissions. Unfortunately, any proposal not accompanied by the
appropriate preregistration fee cannot be considered. Proposals that
are not accepted will have their preregistration fees returned in
full. If you are submitting a proposal for an entire panel, please
make sure the preregistration fee for all members of the panel is
paid.

The deadline for proposal submission is 15 August 2009.

To submit a proposal and to pay the preregistration fee,
follow the instructions on the conference website:

 http://rethinkingmarxism.org/conf


REGISTRATION RATES

 ______Full Regular Rate $100 (at conference $115)
 ______Full Low-Income Rate $45 (at conference $55)
 ______Two-day Regular Rate $80 (at conference $95)
 ______Two-day Low-Income Rate $35 (at conference $45)
 ______One-day Regular Rate $60 (at conference $75)
 ______One-day Low-Income Rate $25 (at conference $35)

 LOGISTICS

The conference will be held on the campus of the University of
Massachusetts in Amherst.
Detailed information on lodging, travel directions, and childcare
will be provided on the conference website.

TECHNOLOGY

Conference presentations will take place in the Campus Center at the
University of Massachusetts Amherst.  The majority of the rooms now
have projectors available, but those wishing to project images or
slides will need to provide their own laptop computers.  Please
indicate on your registration form if you will need the use of a
projector in order to facilitate the proper scheduling of rooms.

PUBLICATIONS

Selected papers, poems, art, and other forms of presentation from
 the conference may be published in RETHINKING MARXISM and/or in
separate edited volumes of contributions.

 CONFERENCE WEBSITE
All information pertaining to the conference, including paper and
panel submission instructions, preregistration and on-site rates,
lodging suggestions, travel directions, possible childcare
arrangements, cultural events, the conference program, and much else
will be posted on the conference website when details become
available. The web address is:
http://www.rethinkingmarxism.org/conf


VENDORS AND ADVERTISEMENTS

Literature tables and display areas are available to groups,
vendors, and publishers at reasonable rates. Ad space in the conference program
 is also available at reasonable rates. All ads must be camera-ready.

Inquiries concerning the conference can be addressed to:

Vincent Lyon-Callo
Department of Anthropology, Moore Hall
Western Michigan University
Kalamazoo MI 49008
Vincent.lyon-callo at wmich.edu


--
Vin Lyon-Callo
Associate Professor
Department of Anthropology
Western Michigan University
Kalamazoo MI 49008
269-387-3964