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Call for Papers
"Transforming Race"
Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts
Volume 4, Number 3 (Spring 2011)
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This issue of Race/Ethnicity will build on themes pursued in the
Kirwan Institute’s Spring 2010 conference, “Transforming Race: Crisis
and Opportunity in the Age of Obama.” The three thematic tracks for
the conference are racial dynamics and systems thinking; race talk;
and race, recession, and recovery. Some thought the election of
Barack Obama confirmed the end of race as an issue worthy of national
discussion, much less policy debate. Subsequent events -- Henry Louis
Gates, Sonia Sotomayor, the “birthers” phenomenon, Joe Wilson ("You
lie!"), Van Jones, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh – have proven that
conclusion premature.
Of course, the challenges race presents in the United States at the
present moment go well beyond the high-profile incidents involving
these individuals and even beyond its implication in crucial
developments such as the economic recession and the debate over
health care. Sadly, many old standbys of concern – residential and
school racial segregation, criminal injustice, wealth inequities,
immigration, and more – have hardly passed us by. At the same time,
this is a new administration and a new day. With crisis comes
opportunity, if only we can recognize it and muster the insight and
will to see our way forward.
Some ideas to consider for addressing crisis and opportunity include
but are not limited to:
- What systems maintain the status quo and what systems might
change it?
- Who says race no longer matters and why?
- How do we engage policymakers and others in matters of racial
equity?
- What policy reforms are needed to ensure a more equitable
distribution of benefits and burdens?
- What opportunities does the current economic crisis provide for
addressing inequities?
- How do we talk about race in light of recent less-than-civil
public discourse?
- How might “systems thinking” and “thinking in systems” be
applied to create a more sustainable, equitable society?
- How has the advent of the nation’s first African American
president complicated or simplified the place that race occupies in
the nation’s collective sensibility? In the ways that people talk
about race?
- What implications do emerging research and thinking about
implicit bias, frames, symbolic attitudes, values, and persuasion
have for practical communications about race?
- How has our nation’s racial dialogue impacted the economic
recovery efforts? How does it affect our long-term national
potential?
- In what ways has the national and global economic downturn
created crisis and/or opportunity for marginalized communities in
such areas as education, health, employment and housing?
- How can programs be designed and structured to help those most
in need? Broadly, how can we make sure the needs of the most
marginalized Americans are addressed?
- What kinds of innovative institutional and policy reforms are
needed to ensure a more equitable distribution of benefits and
burdens in the future?
- What kinds of advocacy strategies are needed to effectively
push those reforms?
Papers must be received by July 15, 2010 to be considered for
publication in this issue.
Please send manuscript submissions to the editor:
[email protected]
See Style Guidelines to prepare your document in accordance with the
style guidelines of Race/Ethnicity:
http://www.raceethnicity.org/styleguide.html
We particularly welcome the viewpoints of activists, advocates,
researchers, and other practitioners working in the field.
Submissions are due by July 15, 2010. Please see submission
guidelines for further information. Also, for more information about
the “Transforming Race” conference and its thematic tracks, please
visit: http://transforming-race.org
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http://interphil.polylog.org
Intercultural Philosophy Calendar:
http://cal.polylog.org
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