[OPE-L] CFP: How Class Works - 2008 Conference

From: glevy@PRATT.EDU
Date: Fri Apr 20 2007 - 07:29:27 EDT


At the 2006 conference last summer OPE-L member, John Milios,
was scheduled to speak but was denied entry into the country
by a repressive and reactionary state. / In solidarity, Jerry
================================================================




PLEASE POST AND FORWARD TO ALL INTERESTED


HOW CLASS WORKS - 2008
CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS

A Conference at SUNY Stony Brook
June 5-7, 2008


The Center for Study of Working Class Life is pleased to announce the How
Class Works - 2008 Conference, to be held at the State University of New
York at Stony Brook, June 5 - 7, 2008. Proposals for papers,
presentations, and sessions are welcome until December 17, 2007 according
to the guidelines below.  For more information, visit our Web site at
<www.workingclass.sunysb.edu>.

Purpose and orientation: The conference seeks to explore ways in which an
explicit recognition of class helps to understand the social world in
which we live, and ways in which analysis of society can deepen our
understanding of class as a social relationship. Presentations should take
as their point of reference the lived experience of class; proposed
theoretical contributions should be rooted in and illuminate social
realities. Presentations are welcome from people outside academic life
when they sum up social experience in a way that contributes to the themes
of the conference.  Formal papers will be welcome but are not required.
All presentations should be accessible to an interdisciplinary audience.

Conference themes: The conference welcomes proposals for presentations
that advance our understanding of any of the following themes.

The mosaic of class, race, and gender. To explore how class shapes racial,
gender, and ethnic experience and how different racial, gender, and ethnic
experiences within various classes shape the meaning of class.  Special
focus: the legacy of Theodore W. Allen's work on the invention of the
white race and its implications in the new racial and ethnic mix of 21st
century U.S. society.

Class, power, and social structure. To explore the social content of
working, middle, and capitalist classes in terms of various aspects of
power; to explore ways in which class and structures of power interact, at
the workplace and in the broader society.

Class and community. To explore ways in which class operates outside the
workplace in the communities where people of various classes live.

Class in a global economy. To explore how class identity and class
dynamics are influenced by globalization, including experience of
cross-border organizing, capitalist class dynamics, international labor
standards.

Middle class? Working class? What's the difference and why does it matter?
To explore the claim that the U.S. is a middle class society and contrast
it with the notion that the working class is the majority; to explore the
relationships between the middle class and the working class, and between
the middle class and the capitalist class.

Class, public policy, and electoral politics. To explore how class affects
public policy, with special attention to health care, the criminal justice
system, labor law, poverty, tax and other economic policy, housing, and
education; to explore the place of electoral politics in the arrangement
of class forces on policy matters. Special focus: class, health, and
health care.

Class and culture: To explore ways in which culture transmits and
transforms class dynamics.

Pedagogy of class. To explore techniques and materials useful for teaching
about class, at K-12 levels, in college and university courses, and in
labor studies and adult education courses.

How to submit proposals for How Class Works - 2008 Conference

Proposals for presentations must include the following information: a)
title; b) which of the eight conference themes will be addressed; c) a
maximum 250 word summary of the main points, methodology, and slice of
experience that will be summed up; d) relevant personal information
indicating institutional affiliation (if any) and what training or
experience the presenter brings to the proposal; e) presenter's name,
address, telephone, fax, and e-mail address. A person may present in at
most two conference sessions. To allow time for discussion, sessions will
be limited to three twenty-minute or four fifteen-minute principal
presentations. Sessions will not include official discussants.  Proposals
for poster sessions are welcome.  Presentations may be assigned to a
poster session.

Proposals for sessions are welcome. A single session proposal must include
proposal information for all presentations expected to be part of it, as
detailed above, with some indication of willingness to participate from
each proposed session member.

Submit proposals as hard copy by mail to the How Class Works  - 2008
Conference, Center for Study of Working Class Life, Department of
Economics, SUNY, Stony Brook, NY 11794-4384 or as an e-mail attachment to
<michael.zweig@stonybrook.edu>.

Timetable:  Proposals must be received by December 17, 2007. Notifications
will be mailed on January 16, 2008. The conference will be at SUNY Stony
Brook June 5- 7, 2008.  Conference registration and housing reservations
will be possible after February 15, 2008. Details and updates will be
posted at http://www.workingclass.sunysb.edu.

Conference coordinator:
Michael Zweig
Director, Center for Study of Working Class Life
Department of Economics
State University of New York
Stony Brook, NY 11794-4384
631.632.7536
michael.zweig@stonybrook.edu


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