Category Archives: Conferences

Testing…Testing…Testing…

A Conference on the impact of standardized evaluation on education in the Americas
The Research Network of the Initiative for Democratic Education in the Americas (IDEA), identifies standardized testing of students and productivity-based evaluation of teachers as areas of serious concern for the education community from Canada to Argentina.

Important studies on the theme have been carried out in many countries, but it is necessary to enrich this work through the development of a regional understanding of the repercussions these neoliberal policies have on teachers’ working conditions and professional autonomy, and on students’ rights to access public education at all levels and to define their role in society as fully participating socio-cultural historical subjects.

As part of IDEA’s hemispheric “Evaluation for Success, Not in Excess” campaign, the Network is organizing “Testing, Testing, Testing…,” a conference on standardized evaluation to take place in Mexico City, Mexico February 19 – 21, 2009.

The event is an opportunity to share research and experiences regarding standardized testing, and to participate in the collective construction of knowledge that will enrich international strategies to resist neoliberal evaluation and develop alternative evaluation processes.

The IDEA Network in invites researchers working for, or allied with, education organizations, and other education activists working for democratic public education to participate in the “Testing, Testing, Testing…” conference to share their concrete experiences as educational actors. Contact the IDEA Network at sstewart@idea-network.ca for conference registration forms and other information.
Download a conference registration form here: ideas/admin/UserFiles/File/REGIFORM_-_evaluation_-_Eng.doc

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The 4th Annual Community As Intellectual Space Symposium Registration is Open!
http://www.lis.uiuc.edu/programs/cpd/CIS2008/

What:
The 4th Annual Community as Intellectual Space Symposium:
“Aesthetics as Resistance: The Act of Community Building”

Hosted by the Community Informatics Initiative, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and the Puerto Rican Cultural Center.

This year promises to be an extraordinary event, exploring notions of the “art” of community building in cultural context: from murals to media, technology to teaching. Join us for an unprecedented celebration of cross-cultural community in the heart of the Paseo Boricua neighborhood of Chicago.

(Continuing professional development units for K-12 educators will be available.)

When: June 13-15, 2008

Where: Puerto Rican Cultural Center, Chicago

Who:
•Dr. Margaret Burroughs (invited), founder of the DuSable Museum of African American History
•Internationally known muralist and artist Pablo Marcano

Other speakers include:
Dr. Carol Lee, Northwestern University,
Dr. Lisa Yun Lee, Director of Jane Addams Hull-House Museum at the University of Illinois, Chicago;
Dr. Sarai Lastra, Turabo University, Puerto Rico;
Dr. Antonia Darder and Dr. Abdul Alkalimat, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign;
Dr. Jacqueline Lazu, DePaul University;
Dr. Jose Lopez, Executive Director of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center, and community and government representatives

Activities:
–A unique artist-led mural tour on the nationally known Paseo
–Community Informatics Initiative workshops:
Curating Identity: Newberry Library exhibit created by high school students as curators;
“Do You ‘Squeak’?”: How to use creative technologies with early childhood learners;
Going Teen Green: How to inspire creative urban gardening in the high school;
How to build a community library

•Premier of the third play in a trilogy by noted Puerto Rican author and playwright, Tato Laviera, performed by Pedro Albizu Campos High School students
•June 12, a Pre-Symposium reception is being hosted by the Humboldt Park Branch of the Chicago Public Library featuring Chicago Public Library Commissioner Mary Dempsey (invited) and artists
•And, of course, we will be attending the 30th Anniversary People’s Parade

Want to hear more? Visit our registration website:
http://www.lis.uiuc.edu/programs/cpd/CIS2008/

CONTACT:
Ann P. Bishop, Associate Professor
501 E. Daniel
Graduate School of Library and Information Science
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
217.244.3299
abishop@uiuc.edu
www.cii.uiuc.edu
Sharon L. Comstock, M.A., M.L.S.,
Ph.D. student
Graduate School of Library and Information Science
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
scomstoc@uiuc.edu

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SDS – UBC is hosting a Week of Resistance! We’ll be discussing the privatization and commodification of education with an anti-military, anti-gentrification and direct-action bent! Join us if you’re a student activist, a wanna-be student activist or simply intrigued by student activism and open to learn more about it! This conference is open to everyone as the issues explored are consequential for society at large.

email sds.ubc@gmail.com to get involved.

bookface group: http://ubc.facebook.com/event.php?eid=20667840135&ref=nf

SCHEDULEOF EVENTS:
MONDAY:
12-2 p.m. — Opening Ceremony:
Keynote: DAVID NOBLE – “From Whining to Winning: Winning the Battle with the University—Dummy Corporations and all!”
David Noble is one of Canada’s most famous professor-activists. He’s currently a history professor at York University. He’s flying all the way out here to share his experiences fighting the Corporate University – and winning!

5-7 p.m. — “Military-free UBC” panel
SDS Tacoma, UVIC anti-military recruiters and more discussing anti-military strategies on campus and what you can do about it!

TUESDAY:
12-2 p.m. — “Labour and Corporatization of Campus” panel
The issue of rising sessesional instructors, the connection between labor and race and the CocaCola bastards on campus will be addressed all in one sitting!
Presenters: Petra Ganzenmueller (sessional instructor—CAUT); Larry Ngoma (CUPE and issues of racism); Stefanie Ratjen, AMS VP external elect (tuition fee increases); Steven Klein, SDS (history of Coca-cola contracts on campus).

More to Come!

WEDNESDAY:
12-2 p.m. — “Unschooling Oppression” panel
Alternative models of education will be explored!
Presenters: Representatives from colour school, Indigenous free school, Windsor House, Bruce Baum.

5-7 p.m. –“Deconstructing ‘Progress’: Housing, Gentrification and Olympic Resistance” panel
No to the gentrification of the University/City!
Presenters: Gord Hill (No 2010 coalition), professor Chris Shaw (2010 Watch), Margaret Orlowski (Students for a Democratic Society), and Tom Malenfant (Anti-Poverty Committee)

THURSDAY:
12-2 p.m. – “Demystifying the Power Structure at UBC” panel + Lunch
Ever wondered what the fuck the AMS, BoG, Student Council, Resource Groups, GSS, AUS, and billions of other acronyms stand for? This is a student-directed workshop aimed at unmasking the power structure at UBC! Shit you actually need to know if you are a UBC student.
Lunch Will be Served!

5-7 p.m. — “History of Activism at the University” panel
Come listen to UBC and SFU activists from the APEC period and before! Let’s integrate the older narratives with the new ones and make the interconnections. Awesome workshop for any current or wanna-be activist!

FRIDAY:
12-2 p.m. March in solidarity for International Women’s day!

3-5 p.m. — Closing Keynote: DENIS RANCOURT – “Anarchism in Academia Now!”
Radical professors are needed to indoctrinate progressive students. Anarchist professors are needed to make sanity. If they’re not trying to stop you, then you’re not making a difference.
Denis G. Rancourt is a physics professor, environmental researcher, activist, and anarchist teaching at the University of Toronto.
http://www.science.uottawa.ca/~dgr/

7-11pm — RHIZOME CAFé (317 East Broadway)
Fundraiser, celebration of student art, music and resistance; entrance by donation

Full list of panel speakers and more activities on the way!

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BCTF Public Education Conference
October 27, 28, 2006
Delta Vancouver Airport Hotel and Conference Centre

The BCTF is pleased to sponsor the public education conference, “What really counts! Rethinking accountability.”

This conference will examine the bureaucratic accountability mandate imposed on BC’s public schools and its impact on learning, teaching, and the principles of public education. The conference will feature keynote speaker, Paul Shaker, Dean of Education at Simon Fraser University, and a wide range of workshop presentations providing delegates with a choice of topics to pursue in detail.

The delegates invited to this conference include parents, teachers, school support staff union reps, trustees, superintendents, MLAs, and representatives from organizations and groups. The BCTF is looking forward to this opportunity to discuss the issues, strategies, and positive alternatives. It’s certainly time to rethink accountability and talk about what really counts in BC’s public schools.

Conference Program

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HOW CLASS WORKS — 2006

A conference at the State University of New York at Stony Brook

JUNE 8 to 10, 2006

ON-CAMPUS HOUSING REGISTRATION ENDS APRIL 30!
DISCOUNT REGISTRATION RATE ENDS MAY 7

To see the full program and register
visit the conference page at www.workingclass.sunysb.edu

Speakers Confirmed

Joe Berry
Barbara Bowen
Steve Fraser
Jennifer Gordon
Peniel Joseph
Nelson Lichtenstein
Joyce Mills
Susie Orbach
Uhuru Williams
Nancy Wohlforth

Plus over 150 presentations in working class studies from graduate students, faculty, union and community activists — from Canada, Germany, Greece, Lithuania, Nigeria, UK, and US — plus film, music, photography, poetry

Sponsored by the Center for Study of Working Class Life

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VANCOUVER, Aug. 9 /CNW/ – Teaching Assistant Unions from across Canada
will come together in Vancouver from August 12 – 13, 2005, to share
information and strategies to improve their working conditions and position
themselves to get better contracts. The inaugural meeting of the Canadian
Coalition of Graduate Employee Unions (CCGEU) is set to include discussions of
coordinated bargaining and organizing.

“This conference lays the groundwork for continued cooperation for the
benefit of Teaching Assistants across Canada and the improvement of
post-secondary working conditions for years to come,” explained Elissa Strome,
President of CUPE Local 2278. The local, which represents more than 2,000
Teaching Assistants at the University of British Columbia, is hosting the
meeting. “Teaching Assistants from Newfoundland to Victoria have many issues in
common. Wages, tuition fees, and class sizes are just a few that come to mind.
This conference provides an opportunity to learn from one another and to open
the doors to further communication,” said Kevin Tilley, Chair of the Teaching
Support Staff Union (TSSU) representing more than 1,500 Teaching Assistants
and Sessional Lecturers at Simon Fraser University.

Delegates to the CCGEU meeting represent unionized Teaching Assistants at
14 universities across Canada. They are members of the Canadian Union of
Public Employees, Public Service Alliance of Canada, and independent unions.

Organizers have also invited non-union Teaching Assistant organizations
to attend. “We have a responsibility to aid our colleagues who are working at
universities without the same rights and benefits that we have,” said Archana
Rampure, Chair of CUPE Local 3902. Local 3902 has recently organized 1,000
Sessional Lecturers and now represents some 5,500 Graduate Student Employees
and Sessionals at the University of Toronto.

Teaching Assistants are graduate and undergraduate students who teach
classes, lead labs and tutorials, and mark papers and exams. They do a
significant amount of the teaching at Canadian universities.

For further information: Elissa Strome, president, CUPE Local 2278,
Telephone: (604) 224-2118 or Cell: (778) 883-5068 or email:
president@cupe2278.ca.

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CALL FOR PAPERS

Society for Cinema and Media Studies
March 2-5, 2006
Vancouver, Canada
http://www.cmstudies.org/conference_index.html

The SCMS Caucus on Class is sponsoring the following calls for papers. Please send 150-word proposals, plus brief bibliography and bio statement, to the listed contact person by August 20, 2005.

“The Canadian Imaginary: Paradise in the North or Cheap Labor Market?” This panel examines the place of Vancouver and other Canadian filmmaking centers in terms of their relationship to Hollywood television and film production over the past decade. Vancouver, where The X Files, The Sopranos, and many other television series have been filmed has been seen as a cheap location stand-in for more expensive, because more union-based, shooting in the United States, particularly in New York. Toronto, the other major Canadian filmmaking city, has seen a wholesale migration of Hollywood production in the wake of the recent Screen Actors Guild strike by actors in commercials. The panel would also look at, from the Canadian perspective, the effect of these industry trends on the heavily government financed Canadian independent scene both in film and on Canadian television. The panel also explores the Hollywood/Canadian relationship in terms of screen image. What is the effect on the concept of the veracity of location shooting when “Vancouver” substitutes for “America,” and, on the Canadian side, what does it mean to have Canadian locations effaced and presented as literally a part of the U.S.?
CONTACT: Dennis Broe – dennis.broe@liu.edu

“Materialism and Cinema”
The popularity of Deleuze in cinema studies is coincident with a philosophical return in the field to phenomenology, especially as inspired by Heidegger. Papers are sought which instead examine the application of materialist philosophy to the screen. What might a materialist theory of film look like and signify in the age of transnational capitalism? How would it differ from the cognitivist approaches of Bordwell and of Anderson, the analytic approaches of Allen, Smith, and Wartenberg, and the aestheticist approaches of Carroll and of Plantinga? How might it negotiate the Althusserian approaches of the 1960s-70s?
CONTACT: Terri Ginsberg – t.ginsberg.1@alumni.nyu.edu

“Argentine and Latin American Post-Crisis Cinema: From Memories of Underdevelopment to Strategies of Revolt” The economic crisis that nearly bankrupted Argentina also coincided with the emergence of Argentine cinema as a major force in world filmmaking. This panel will examine that cinema and its relationship with the crisis as well as expanding to note the ways in which an entire block of Latin American countries, including Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil and Ecuador, are now governed by leaders seeking different solutions to neoliberal expansionism. What impact has this had on the cinema and other forms of media expression in the region? In what ways have these developments in Argentina and in other countries influenced one another and bolstered critical film and media making in the region?
CONTACT: Susan Ryan – ryan@tcnj.edu

“The Crisis of Academic Labor, Part V: Structural Determinants and Organized Responses to the New McCarthyism” This workshop explores the economic and political grounds of the “New McCarthyism” facing academia and taking the form of highly organized campaigns against academic freedom by conservative think tanks and philanthropies. Presentations are invited which analyze the systemic
structural determinants of these phenomena and their affects on film and media studies, both in terms of institutional and ideological reaction and critical response and resistance.
CONTACT: Kelly Dolak – kdolak@ramapo.edu

“The Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with a Single Cell Phone: Recent Chinese and East Asian Cinema and the Socialist-Capitalist Tradition”
The Chinese transition from a socialist to a market economy has effected rapid changes in the country in the last 20 years and exacerbated contradictions that were already pronounced in the Chinese system. This panel examines the ways in which Chinese filmmakers have mapped those contradictions in the last decade as they comment wryly on the process of directly overlaying a socialist propaganda model with a market propaganda model. The panel would look at how filmmakers are addressing these contradictions both in documentary and fiction films, as in the fiction work of filmmakers such as Jia Zhangke (The World) and the documentary work of Wang Bing, whose 14-hour chronicle of the transformation of a Chinese town, West of the Rails, reworks the concept of documentary.
CONTACT: Pat Keeton – pkeeton@ramapo.edu

“Filling the Void: How Docs, Blogs, Zines, and Other Online Media Are
Redefining Journalism”
While mainstream media grows more economically consolidated and politically conservative, social issue documentaries like Fahrenheit 9/11 and Supersize Me have achieved surprising box office success and received extensive critical attention. Other critical documentaries (e.g. Uncovered: The Whole Truth about the Iraq War) have reached audiences through links to progressive political organizations. This panel seeks papers exploring the ways in which contemporary documentaries-as well as other forms of alternative, online distribution (websites, blogs, online journals, etc.) and exhibition venues-are explicitly engaging political discourse. How has the “new journalism” influenced documentary technique and challenged that of corporate and mainstream media? How are online distribution and alternative exhibition venues related to the politics of such films/videos? Are there significant differences from political documentary strategies of the 1930s and 1960s?
CONTACT: Christopher Sharrett – sharrech@shu.edu

“Class Issues in Reality Television”
The rising popularity of reality television has transformed television programming, yet important questions remain about the genre’s representation of class as well as its influence on modes of production in the television industry. Papers are sought which explore the ideological dimensions of this televisual genre. Are reality shows more “democratic” because “real” people volunteer to take part? How might a class analysis broaden our understanding of shows like Wife Swap and The Apprentice? What are the implications for labor relations in the industry and for other televisual genres as editors come increasingly to serve as producers, and producers as writers?
CONTACT: Yasmin Nair – nairyasmin@yahoo.com

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