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Call for Papers Theme: Remembering Subtitle: International Struggle for Civil and Human Rights Type: International Summit on Civil and Human Rights Institution: Center for African and African Diaspora Studies, Kennesaw State University (KSU) Location: Kennesaw, GA (USA) Date: 28.–30.10.2015 Deadline: 15.7.2015 __________________________________________________ The fifty-year anniversaries of major events of the American civil rights movement provide occasion for reflection on milestone events in the American civil rights movement. We take pause to recall the significance of Brown v. Board of Education, the Freedom Rides, the March on Washington, and the major civil rights legislative achievements. Various commemorative events are taking shape across the United States, from the unveiling of the plaque of the Birmingham church bombing, an event that took the lives of four African American girls, to the re-enactment of the March on Washington. The multiple meanings of universal themes of liberty, equality, justice, fairness, and equal opportunity have characterized an era of sacrifice, mourning, and guarded optimism that marked the African American fight for freedom. However, the struggle for civil and human rights was not solely an African American struggle, nor did it occur solely within the borders of the United States. As Kevin Gaines, Gerald Horne, Thomas Borstelmann, Mary Dudziak, Aza Layton and many others have discussed, the civil rights movement shaped and was shaped by an international conversation on human rights, self-determination, and freedom. Mexican American Cesar Chavez rallied agriculture workers in the National Farm Workers Union to underscore economic issues that impacted both sides of the US-Mexico border. SNCC, the Black Panther Party, CORE, and other organizations developed visions of what was possible in dialogue with a host of international influences in African and Asian independence movements. Throughout Europe, Latin America, Africa, and the Caribbean, people who were victims of violent repression, social isolation, and political disenfranchisement took up their own struggles for liberation using the narrative, rhetoric, and strategy of the American civil rights movement, but also developing and improvising their own strategies. The commemoration of the American civil rights movement reminds us of all those epic struggles and brings back memories of solidarity across racial, geographical, generational, social, and cultural divides that furthered the cause of liberty and human dignity around the world. We must reflect on the connections and rifts between the American experience and the African, Latin American and Caribbean, Middle Eastern, European and Asian experiences and many of the other international dimensions of civil and human rights’ struggles, characterized by the travels, the dialogues, and the transfer of ideas across borders, cultures, religions and other barriers, historically and contemporarily. Kennesaw State University’s Center for African and African Diaspora Studies invites scholars, artists, activists, and practitioners to participate in a three-day summit in Kennesaw (an Atlanta suburb) on October 28-30, 2015. The summit is designed as a multi-disciplinary platform to remember, reflect, celebrate and interrogate historical and contemporary civil and human rights issues that are both national and transnational. It incorporates discussions in all formats – visual and performance arts, spoken word, fine arts installation, panel and roundtable discussions, and open forum discussions. Themes Proposed presentations are expected to reflect on the following themes of the summit: - Remembering the 50th anniversary of the American civil rights movement is to recover our collective memory of past struggles for justice and their on-going significance in the present. - Reconstruction appeals to our sentiments to bring together disjointed communities separated by time, space, culture, and difference, to build something new. In the United States, the aftermath of the Civil War created a new society that dreamed boldly and failed valiantly to create a new nation based on principles of freedom. Although certain advances in civil rights were not effectively and permanently established, these aspirations became central to the tenents of the modern civil rights movement for the remainder of the twentieth century. The determination to engage injustice and to rebuild society anew was not unique to the United States but also evidenced throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, and Europe. - Re-aggregation urges us to consider how groups both nationally and internationally can be compared and contrasted in ways previously unconsidered, instead of thinking of isolated strands of independence movements in Africa, Asia, North America, and South America. How might we frame our understanding of distinct regional movements as part of collective aspirations for universal principles of justice and autonomy? Considering the groundwork of African-Asian solidarity at the Bandung Conference, what other examples are there of cross-cultural conversation, cooperation and conflict that will urge us to bring together previously disparate leaders, movements, and peoples? - Re-envisioning challenges us to reconsider our preconceived ideas of struggle, to consider fresh perspectives on civil and human rights ; explore new and emergent modern ideas, creative and “out of the box” thinking to address contemporary issues, such as, immigration, criminal justice system, bullying, growing economic inequalities, human trafficking, modern day slavery, child labor, LGBT rights, refugee protection, gender inequality, etc. - Re-inventing urges us to bring our collective insight from across disciplinary, cultural, and intellectual traditions, to boldly create new strategies for social change in our local, national and global communities. It is in this spirit that The KSU Summit on “Remembering: International Struggle for Civil and Human Rights,” calls on a multidisciplinary group of scholars, activists, students, writers, literary critics, historians, legal practitioners, social scientists, humanists, cultural scholars, artists, and musicians to “remember” the struggles for civil and human rights within the United States and across the world. Proposal Submission Only original, unpublished work will be considered. Special Form Instructions: 1) Title - Please use common capitalization, not APA. Do NOT use all caps. 2) Select the area in which your presentation best fits. 3) Presentation format. 4) A 200-word abstract. 5) All proposals must be submitted electronically in MS Word format, to: [email protected] The deadline for proposal submission is July 15, 2015 If you have questions, contact the Proposal Committee via the email address [email protected]. Proposal Acceptance Notification & Information Notification of acceptance decisions will be emailed by July 31, 2015. Presenters must confirm that they will present at the summit by August 15, 2015. All presenters and co-presenters must register and pay registration fees by September 1, 2015 to be included in the program. Names of the primary presenter and any co-presenters will appear in the conference program if received by this date. Contact: Nuru Akinyemi Kennesaw State University 3391 Town Point Drive, Suite 2800 Kennesaw, GA 30144 USA Phone: +1 470 578-3346 Email: [email protected] Web: http://dga.kennesaw.edu/content/civil_rights_summit __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: http://interphil.polylog.org Intercultural Philosophy Calendar: http://cal.polylog.org __________________________________________________
