Category Archives: CFPs

Historical Materialism ­ First North American Conference

April 24-26, 2008, York University, Toronto

Dear friends,

It is with great excitement that we announce plans for the first ever
North American conference sponsored by Historical Materialism: A
Journal of Critical Marxist Research. While HM’s annual conference in
London has become a major rallying point for hundreds of people working
within the traditions of historical materialism, thus far the journal
has not had a comparable presence on this side of the Atlantic. That is
about to change with this major conference at York University in
Toronto, April 24-26, 2008, sponsored by the Department of Political
Science and Founders College.

We are now busy organizing panels and themes and attending to all the
logistical details involved in hosting a large, dynamic conference of
critical scholars and activists. Over the next few weeks, a conference
website will be set up and announcements will go out concerning details
with respect to agenda, accommodation and travel .

To give you a taste of what we have in store, here is a list of just
some of the more than 100 people who have accepted our invitation to
present papers at the conference:

Rosemary Hennessey, Bertell Ollman, Johanna Brenner, Aijaz Ahmad, Peter
Linebaugh, Joel Kovel, Deborah Cook, Giovanni Arrighi, Leo Panitch,
Crystal Bartolovich, Moishe Postone, Barbara Epstein, Ato Sekyi-Otu,
Bryan Palmer, Anna Agathangelou, Henry Veltmeyer, Isabella Bakker,
Peter McLaren, Nick Dyer-Witheford, Greg Albo, Patrick Murray, Nancy
Holmstrom, Bill Carroll, Rick Wolff, Radhika Desai, Stephen Gill,
Alfredo Saad-Filho, John Saul, Christopher Phelps . . .

For further information, feel free to email hmtoronto@yahoo.com. Or
watch for HM mailings in the coming weeks. We hope to see you in
Toronto in April.

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The Rouge Forum 2008 conference will be held March 13-16 at Bellarmine Universitiy in Louisville, KY.

For more information and to submit a proposal or register for the conference visit the conference website.

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CALL FOR PROPOSALS

Second Annual Critical Race Studies in Education Conference

“Toward a Critical Race Praxis in Education and Social Life”

May 16-17, 2008
The University of Illinois at Chicago

Critical race theorists have increasingly challenged the education
community to more fully consider the processes, structures, practices and
policies that create and promote persistent racial inequalities in
education and in the broader society. For example, they have demanded that
the “achievement gap” be viewed, along with other gaps in income, housing,
employment etc. as a consequence of racism. While these analyses have
proliferated and scholars of color have managed to publish their work with
prestigious educational journals and book presses, there has been little
discussion about how to develop a critical race praxis in education that
might have transformative possibilities. This conference is designed to
bring together scholars, activists, educators, students and community
members who are concerned about the persistence of racial inequalities in
education and in the broader society. The conference organizers invite
papers that document scholarship, teaching, activist work at the local
level, and community organizing efforts aimed at transforming racist
practices, policies and systems in schools and in the broader society.
More specifically, your proposal should address one of the following
sub-categories:

Engendering Justice and Critiquing Systems of Oppression for Black and
Latino Youth (Facilitated by David Stovall, UIC)

Life in Schools: Critical Counterstories and Testimonios by and about
Urban Teachers (Facilitated by Tara Yosso, University of California at
Santa Barbara)

The Apartheid of Knowledge in Higher Education (Facilitated by Lynette
Danley, University of Utah)

Critical Conceptual or Empirical Analyses of the Links between Race, Class
and/or Gender and Sexuality (Facilitated by Michelle Jay at the University
of South Carolina and Theodorea Berry, The American College of Education,
Chicago)

The Globalization of Racism and White Supremacy in the new world order
(Facilitated by Marvin Lynn, UIC & Danny Martin, UIC)

Proposals should include the following:
* A cover page which includes title of paper, as well as name,
affiliation, contact information, and a 100 word abstract
* No more than a 1000 word descriptive summary that should include:

1. A theoretical framework section that shows how the paper draws from
Critical Race Theory
2. An explanation of the methods (empirical, conceptual or theoretical)
and a summary of the results
3. A conclusion and educational significance section that illustrates how
and why the topic is important and worthwhile for improving or
transforming education for racially marginalized youth

Criteria for Evaluating Proposals
* Connection to CRT
* Quality of Writing and Organization
* Overall Contribution to the Field of Critical Race Studies in Education

Please go to: http://education.uic.edu/events.cfm?page=critical_race to
register or contact UIC Department of Curriculum & Instruction Secretary,
Sharon Earthely at earthely@uic.edu or at 312-996-4508 in order to register by phone.

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Theory in Action, the Journal of the Transformative Studies Institute is soliciting papers for our issue on “Theory, Social Justice, & Direct Action” Submissions are due December 31, 2007.

INAUGURAL VOLUME ON THEORY, SOCIAL JUSTICE, & DIRECT ACTION

While there have been many theoretical analyses of such aspects of social justice as stratification and inequality, and civil rights, there is a need for more research that connects activism with theory. We believe that theory without action and action without theoretical grounding are inherently flawed. To change the world, activists and scholars need to collaborate in order to inform one other’s work. To this end, we especially seek papers in which theoretical analysis fosters societal change or in which practical experience guides theoretical research.

Theory in Action invites U.S. and international submissions of well-researched and thought-provoking papers from various disciplines, including sociology, political science, psychology, art, philosophy, history, and literature. We welcome works by activists, independent scholars, graduate students, and faculty. We accept both theoretical and empirical papers by scholar-activists. Topics may include, but are not limited to:

* Novel Means of Resistance
* Direct Political Action
* Environment, Space, Social Justice, & Direct Action
* Direct Action for Social Justice
* Labor / Civil Rights & Direct Action
* Globalization
* Sex & Gender
* Activism, Academia, & Scholarship
* Activism & Resistance through the Arts
* The Media & its Relationship to Societal Justice and Change
* Non-violence vs. Active Self Defense and its Effectiveness
* Historical Analysis
* The Psychology of Transformative Learning & its Relationship to Action

Theory in Action is an international peer reviewed journal.

Submissions are due December 31, 2007.
Guidelines for submission are online at: http://transformativestudies.org.htm
Submissions should be sent using our on-line form found in the ‘submissions’ menu.

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The Rouge Forum 2008 conference will be held March 13-16 at Bellarmine Universitiy in Louisville, KY.

For more information and to submit a proposal or register for the conference visit the conference website.

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Rouge Forum Conference, 2008
Education: Reform or Revolution?
Bellarmine University, Louisville, KY

The Rouge Forum is a group of educators, students, and parents seeking a democratic society. We are concerned about questions like these: How can we teach against racism, national chauvinism and sexism in an increasingly authoritarian and undemocratic society? How can we gain enough real power to keep our ideals and still teach–or learn? Whose interests shall school serve in a society that is ever more unequal? We are both research and action oriented. We want to learn about equality, democracy and social justice as we simultaneously struggle to bring into practice our present understanding of what that is. We seek to build a caring inclusive community which understands that an injury to one is an injury to all. At the same time, our caring community is going to need to deal decisively with an opposition that is sometimes ruthless (www.rougeforum.org).

The theme for the 2008 Rouge Forum Conference is: “Education: Reform or Revolution?” and will be hosted by Bellarmine University in Louisville, KY March 14 –March 16, 2008. Given the recent Supreme Court decision, striking down the local school district’s student assignment plan; the ongoing war(s) in the Middle East; and the consistent environmental degradation of the planet, the 2008 conference will focus on one of the major socializing influences in our lives: Education.

Bringing together academic presentations and lectures (from some of the most prominent voices for democratic, critical, and/or revolutionary pedagogy), panel discussions (on such topics as the local school district’s student assignment plan), professional development (on critical literacy and environmental education) for teachers in the region, community-building, and cultural events (poetry, music, dance, and/or drama) performed by local students and artists, this action-oriented conference will center on questions such as:

• What is the future of public education in the US? (And, how might it be connected to and/or critical of endless war, declining democracy, and environmental devastation?)

• What is a democratic classroom? What does ‘democracy’ mean?

• Why is public education necessary? Toward what ends should we educate?

• Of what should a compelling public education consist? (Narrowing/Focus and standardization? Expanded and/or critical thinking? Something else?)

• Can the current system be reformed in order to better serve children, families, and citizens?

• If not, what would a new system look like? How would it be implemented? What past models exist on which to work and build?

To learn more about the conference, please contact any of our conference organizers:

Adam Renner (arenner@bellarmine.edu),
Rich Gibson (rgibson@pipeline.com),
Wayne Ross (wayne.ross@ubc.ca).
Gina Stiens (stiensg@yahoo.com)
David Owen (dsowen04@louisville.edu)
Jardana Peacock (jardana99pk@yahoo.com)
Mary Goral (mgoral@bellarmine.edu)
Sonya Burton (sburton@bellarmine.edu)

Review of Paper Proposals treating any of the above questions will begin December 15, 2007. Please send your proposals to Adam Renner (arenner@bellarmine.edu). As we expect a number of proposals for a limited number of slots please forward your proposal as soon as possible.

Performance Proposals should also be forwarded to Adam Renner (arenner@bellarmine.edu) by December 15, 2007. Please describe your art/performance and how it may relate to the conference topic/questions.

Whether wishing to present or attend, please visit www.rougeforum.org for registration information

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Center for Study of Working Class Life

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 .

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 .

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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Jennifer Wingard
Syracuse University
CFP: Academic Labor and Law
Special Section of Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor, 2008

The historical connections between legislation, the courts, and the academy have been complex and multi-layered. This has been evident from early federal economic policies, such as the Morell Act and the GI Bill, through national and state legislation that protected student and faculty rights, such as the First Amendment and affirmative action clauses. These connections continue into our current moment of state and national efforts to define the work of the university, such as the Academic Bill of Rights and court cases regarding distance learning. The question, then, becomes whether and to what extent the impact of legislation and litigation reveals or masks the shifting mission of the academy. Have these shifts been primarily economic, with scarcities of funding leading many to want to legislate what is considered a university education, how it should be financed, and who should benefit from it? Are the shifts primarily ideological, with political interests working to change access, funding, and the intellectual project of higher education? Or are the shifts a combination of both political and economic influences? One thing does become clear from these discussions: at their core, the legal battles surrounding higher education are about the changing nature of the university—the use of managerial/corporate language; the desire to professionalize students rather than liberally educate them; the need to create transparent structures of evaluation for both students and faculty; and the attempt to define the types of knowledge produced and disseminated in the classroom. These are changes for which faculty, students, administrators, as well as citizens who feel they have a stake in higher education, seek legal redress. This special section of Workplace aims to explore the ways in which legislation and court cases impact the work of students, professors, contingent faculty, and graduate students in the university. Potential topics include but are not limited to:
Academic Freedom for students and/or faculty
o Horowitz’s Academic Bill of Rights
o Missouri’s Emily Booker Intellectual Diversity Act
o First Amendment court cases concerning faculty and student’s rights to freely express themselves in the classroom and on campuses
o Facebook/Myspace/Blog court cases

Affirmative Action
o The implementation of state and university diversity initiatives in the 1970s
o The current repeal of affirmative action law across the country

Benefits, including Health Benefits, Domestic Partner Benefits
o How universities in states with same-sex marriage bans deal with domestic partner benefits

Collective Bargaining
o The recent rulings at NYU and Brown about the status of graduate students as employees
o State anti-unionization measures and how they impact contingent faculty

Copyright/Intellectual Property
o In Distance Learning
o In corporate sponsored science research
o In government sponsored research

Disability Rights and Higher Education
o How the ADA impacts the university

Sexual Harassment and Consensual Relationships
o How diversity laws and sexual harassment policies impact the university

Tenure
o The Bennington Case
o Post 9/11 court cases

Contributions for Workplace should be 4000-6000 words in length and should conform to MLA style. If interested, please send an abstract via word attachment to Jennifer Wingard (jlwingar@syr.edu) by Friday, August 24, 2007. Completed essays will be due via email by Friday, December 28, 2007.

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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 .

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 .

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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Call for Session Leaders and Active Participants

The Rouge Forum

hosts

Their Wars Left Behind: Education for Action

March 1-4, 2007
Wayne State University
Detroit Michigan

This interactive conference will focus on the question of building a caring education community while, at the same time, building serious resistance to inequality, racism, sexism, imperialism, and war-in schools and out. This conference is designed to connect reflection and action, reason and organizing, teaching and social change. Please come prepared to both lead and participate.

We ask that you offer sessions that begin with critical questions, and prepare to lead discussions. Please understand that some workshops may be combined, depending on space limitations and attendance. We will communicate with all session leaders for consensus on combinations.

Possible Session Proposals Could Include:

• Standardized testing, regimented curricula—and war—what’s the connection, if any?
• Shall we confront the militarization of schools—how?
• How can we teach the connections, and disconnections, of the media and war?
• Why and How; the development of our own media centers.
• Will the arts and aesthetics survive an imperial education—how?
• What can be learned from the Detroit, Oaxaca and other, strikes, and how can it be taught?
• Is teaching, or any school work, really labor and what value do teachers create anyway?
• Can the immigration movement and border activism be a part of the curriculum, and education action in schools and out? How?
• Why have school?
• Schooling and sex/gender—what is up with that?
• How can school workers connect capitalism, imperialism, war, and daily life in school?
• Is it possible to teach against racism inside segregated schools, and if so how?
• How can the Hard Sciences, like math, be linked to social justice education?
• What is the role of labor law for educators in classrooms, and on the streets?
• How would Marx evaluate education today?
• How to teach for solidarity and class consciousness against opportunism?
• Freire: Liberator or just another new boss?
• Can educators initiate regional or local workers councils?
• Why do the education unions look as they do, and what is to be done with them?

Tentative Schedule:
Thursday Evening: Ground Zen, a play by Bill Boyer followed by a discussion centered on the purpose of the conference.

Friday and Saturday: Workshops during the day, followed by a brief plenary each day.
Ground Zen each evening.

Luncheon Speakers scheduled: Susan Ohanian, E. Wayne Ross, Patrick Shannon, Rich Gibson, George Schmidt

Sunday: Plenary: Organizing and proposals for action

Presenters: please email proposals to Rich Gibson at rgibson2@pipeline.com

Registration: $25 donation, or more. No one will be turned away for registration fees.

You may preregister at PayPal (below) , or email Rich Gibson at rgibson2@pipeline.com

Child care will be available. Request housing information at registration.

Exhibitors welcomed.

Email: rgibson2@pipeline.com
http://www.RougeForum.org

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Dear Friends and Colleagues of the Center for Study of Working Class Life

I am pleased to circulate the call for papers for the 2007 annual
conference of the Working-Class Studies Association, which will be at
Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn. next June (instead of Youngstown
State University, where odd-number-year conferences have been held in the
past). The How Class Works – 2008 conference will again be at Stony Brook
in June 2008. I hope to see you at Macalester next year, and then again
at Stony Brook. Please also consider joining the Working-Class Studies
Association if you have not already done so.

Michael Zweig
Director, Center for Study of Working Class Life

CALL FOR PAPERS
June14-17, 2007

Class Matters:
Working-Class Culture and Counter-Culture

Annual Conference of the Working-Class Studies Association

Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota
Dormitory housing available

This conference will explore working-class culture in all its forms –
activism, pop culture, the arts, storytelling, and more. Working-class
culture can be a source of unity as well as division, and it is
constructed in the workplace as well as in the realms of “leisure” and
popular culture. At this conference, we hope to explore the relationships
between “cultural workers” and their audiences, control over the means of
cultural production (publishers, music producers, universities, etc.), and
the commodification of working-class culture, among other issues. We are
eager to provide a venue in which scholars of working-class culture using
Humanities and Social Science frames and lenses can come together with
each other, and with creators of working-class culture.

How has working-class culture changed over time? Is there is a diasporic,
transnational, and/or global working-class culture? How do working-class
people use representations, organizations, and everyday life to resist the
dominant culture? How does working-class culture reflect divisions among
working-class people?

We invite proposals for presentations, panels, posters, roundtables, and
performances. Submit 1-page abstracts with a brief biographical statement
January 15, 2007 to:

Peter Rachleff
History Department
Macalester College
1600 Grand Avenue
St. Paul, Minnesota 55105
Or by email to rachleff@macalester.edu.

For more information, contact Peter Rachleff, rachleff@macalester.edu, or
by phone at 651-696-6371.

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Class in the Classroom:
Strategies and Resources for Teaching about Working-Class Life and Culture

Center for Working-Class Studies
July 24-28, 2006
Youngstown State University

Despite recent attention to class in American culture, it often remains on the sidelines in the classroom, even in courses that focus on diversity and inequality. Faculty struggle to find the right balance among race, gender, sexuality, and other aspects of culture and inequality, and even basic definitions of class are not clear. In teaching about difference and inequality, class is both an essential piece of the puzzle and the most confusing issue to discuss. Where does class fit in the curriculum? What resources and strategies work well to help students understand how class works? How can we integrate class into discussions of race, gender, and sexuality?

In July, 2006, the Center for Working-Class Studies will host a one-week institute for graduate students and faculty interested in strategies for teaching about social class, especially in the context of courses that address other cultural categories and ideas about inequality. Participants will discuss readings, presentations, and resources; share their own experiences and strategies; and develop assignments, syllabi, classroom activities, and/or research plans. The organizers hope to gather a diverse group, including faculty and students from different academic fields, geographical areas, and kinds of institutions.

For more information, visit the at Center for Working-Class Studies website and click on “Class in the Classroom.”

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Essay Contest sponsored by Left Hook and Monthly Review:

Left Hook and Monthly Review magazine Associate Editor Michael Yates are co-sponsoring an essay contest. The subject of this year’s contest is ‘work.’ Entrants should submit an essay of up to 1,500 words describing a job or jobs they have had (or have now). What was the nature of the work? In what sense was it fulfilling and in what sense alienating? Could you imagine doing it for a lifetime? Can work be made meaningful in a capitalist economic system?

All entrants will receive a one-year gift subscription to Monthly Review magazine Monthly Review, and the best ones will be published on both Left Hook and MRZine, Monthly Review’s new webzine. Also, Left Hook will award $50 to the top essay writer as judged by Michael Yates.

Submissions are due no later than December 31, 2005. Send them to Michael Yates at mikedjyates@msn.com. Essays can be sent as attachments or pasted into an email. Do not send zipped files. RTF, Word, Word Perfect are all acceptable. Must be under 30 to enter.

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CALL FOR PAPERS

Special Issue of QUALITATIVE SOCIOLOGY on “Constructing Workers”

“Constructing Workers”: A special issue focused on efforts to organize workers in contingent labor contracts who are often not considered employees. Increasing numbers of workers fit this description, and both unions and community organizations have sought, in various efforts, to help
them organize for rights and benefits due workers with employee status. How do these groups organize? With what models? With what resources? How do they construct “workers” in such a way as to make contingent workers and contingent work less contingent? How do workers see themselves and their work? We would be interested in articles dealing with any of the following topics, or other related ones.

* migrant and day labor

* domestic worker organizing

* sex worker organizing

* workfare organizing

* sweatshop organizing

* worker centers

* unemployed workers

* retail worker organizing

* organizing in industries that have become or are becoming more contingent

* transnational labor identities (i.e., transposition of labor politics from
home to host countries by immigrant laborers)

* gender, race, ethnicity, and their intersections with organizing appeals

* the negotiation of union-community relations

* contingent workers’ encounters with the state

Deadline: JANUARY 10, 2006
Manuscript submission guidelines available at: WWW.SPRINGERONLINE.COM

Send papers to:

John Krinsky, GUEST EDITOR
Department of Political Science, NAC 4/126
City College, City University of New York
Convent Avenue at 138th Street
New York, NY 10031
jkrinsky@ccny.cuny.edu
212 650-5236

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HOW CLASS WORKS – 2006
CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS

A Conference at SUNY Stony Brook
June 8-10, 2006

The Center for Study of Working Class Life is pleased to announce the How Class Works – 2006 Conference, to be held at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, June 8 – 10, 2006. Proposals for papers, presentations, and sessions are welcome until December 15, 2005 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. All presentations should be accessible to an interdisciplinary audience.

While the focus of the conference is in the social sciences, presentations from other disciplines are welcome as they bear upon conference themes. Presentations are also 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.

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.

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.

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 – 2006 Conference

Proposals for presentations must include the following information: a) title; b) which of the seven 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 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 – 2006 Conference, Center for Study of Working Class Life, Department of Economics, SUNY, Stony Brook, NY 11794-4384 or as an e-mail attachment to .

Timetable: Proposals must be postmarked by December 15, 2005. Notifications will be mailed on January 16, 2006. The conference will be at SUNY Stony Brook June 8- 10, 2006. Conference registration and housing reservations will be possible after February 15, 2006. 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
SUNY
Stony Brook, NY 11794-4384
631.632.7536
michael.zweig@stonybrook.edu
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