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Conference Announcement Theme: Rethinking Difference in India Subtitle: Racialization in Transnational Perspective Type: International Workshop Institution: School of International Service, American University Location: Washington, DC (USA) Date: 1.–2.4.2019 __________________________________________________ In a moment of resurgent ethno-nationalism, this workshop reconsiders the links between myriad forms of social difference in India (e.g. caste, tribe, ethnicity, faith, etc), and broader understandings of race, racism, and racialization. In particular, the workshop explores how dominant groups use techniques and narratives of racialization to ascribe difference to particular ‘others’. This results in two things. First, subaltern communities are marked as not-belonging to the mainstream of the nation. Second, by reaffirming such differences, dominant groups establish themselves in power and advance their own ideological, political, and economic agendas. While peddling the ‘unity in diversity’ motto, the Indian state has systematically disavowed connections between social difference in India on the one hand, and globally resonant notions of racism on the other. This has manifested itself in numerous ways such as the state lobbying against Dalit (former ‘untouchables’) demands to include caste discrimination as a form of racism in the 2001 UN World Conference on Racism. In contemporary India, racialization is often expressed through violent acts, including discrimination against northeast tribes, the criminalization of Adivasi (indigenous) groups, public lynchings of 'beef-eating' Dalits and Muslims, and mob violence against African students. Such a state of affairs requires a reassessment of how racialization plays out – how it is denied and reproduced – across forms of difference and in diverse political contexts, including movements, media, and academic centers. It also requires attention to how activism works through transnational conceptions of anti-racism, social justice, and human rights. Aware of both the possibilities and limitations of a racialization frame and its transnational reverberations, this workshop seeks to cultivate and share anti-discrimination and emancipatory intellectual solidarities. To grapple with both the transnational valences as well as specificities of racialization in India, the following themes are proposed: - Historical Geographies of Coloniality, Caste Supremacy, and Racial Difference in South Asia - Strategic Solidarities: Transnational Movements of Anti-Racist Activism in Historical Context - Positioning Caste, Tribe, Religion, Ethnicity and Other forms of Difference in Contemporary Capitalism - Racism, Caste Purity, and Environmental Justice Building - Questioning Knowledge Frameworks: The Role of Positionality and the Academic Disciplines This workshop is free and open to the public. Please register using the link below: https://rethinkingdifference.wixsite.com/website/registration Keynote Speaker: Suraj Yengde Suraj Yengde is a Shorenstein Center postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. Suraj Yengde is India’s first Dalit Ph.D. holder from an African university in the nation's history. He is a published author in the field of inter-regional labor migration in the global south, Caste, Race and Ethnicity studies. Currently, he is involved in developing a critical theory of Dalit and Black Studies. Location AU Founder's Room School of International Service, American University 4400 Massachusetts Ave NW Washington, D.C. 20016 Contact: Rethinking Difference in India Workshop Organizing Committee Email: [email protected] Web: https://rethinkingdifference.wixsite.com/website __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: https://interphil.polylog.org InterPhil List Archive: https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ __________________________________________________
