[URBANTH-L]call for participation: merida 2010

[Debra Rodman]

With apologies for cross listing!!!!!!

Call for Participation

SfAA 2010 Merida

Dear Colleagues,

Please find below our session proposal for SfAA, on anthropological
contributions to the immigration question, especially immigration
reform and accompanying debate .  We would be grateful if you could
also forward this along to any and all colleagues and listservs who
you think would be interested.


Session Proposal:

The Disconnect Between Migrant Lived Experiences and Public Policy:
Anthropological Contributions to Migration Reform

Session Organizers:

Debra H. Rodman (Randolph-Macon College)
James Loucky (Western Washington University)

Anthropologists, in their goal for cultural relativism are sensitive
to the problems of reifying the ”other”.  In studying migration,
anthropology questions the power of place in establishing cultures as
bounded and territorialized and is able to explore it’s own critique
of the discipline by creating news ways of understanding cultural
processes that are not bound by an “us” and “them”. One way to think
about cultural difference is to explore the processes of the
production of difference in a culturally, socially, and economically
interconnected world. Anthropologist’s interest in transnational
migration comes from this shift away from looking at cultures as
distinct entities and emphasizes the interconnectedness of a global
world. Anthropology attempts to turn from a project that sees cultures
as separate and discrete to one that explores the construction of
difference.  Studying immigration illuminates the process of the
production of difference. Anti-immigrant discourse and immigration
policy perpetuate hegemonic ideals of nationhood and identity while
disempowering the “other.” How can anthropology research and its
attendance to the migrant's lived experiences assist in developing
just and humane migration policy?


Please submit abstracts to Debra Rodman: drodman at rmc.edu by September 30, 2009.
Note: SfAA deadline for paper abstracts: October 15, 2009.



--
Debra H. Rodman, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Anthropology and Women's Studies
Randolph-Macon College
cell    (804) 878-5475