Gender, Race and Philosophy: The Blog

Race and Racism CFA/CFP

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS/PAPERS

Workshop: Race and Racism

November 13-15, 2015

Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa

 

Recent philosophical contributions to critical race theory have been exciting, some of the better and more important philosophical work of the past twenty years. This workshop aims to further this dialogue, in a conversation between scholars from South Africa and scholars from elsewhere. Possible questions for discussion:

• What are races? Are they biological populations or lineages, social creations, or cultures?
• Non-racialist discourse is prominent among intellectuals in South Africa. Is non-racialism something worth aspiring to?
• What value would race-talk have in the unlikely event that racism was finally eradicated?
• What is racism?
• What is the lived reality of racism?
• What is the relationship between races and racism? Are races to be conceived of as dependent upon racism?
• What kinds of racism are there? Are there any forms of racial injustice not properly characterized as ‘racism’?
• How do we defeat racism in our midst?
• Is Black solidarity the most effective means of fighting racism? Why?
• What is the importance of Black consciousness – changes in the outlook of members of groups on the receiving end of racism – in fighting racism?
• What is the relationship between racial (or racialized) identities, race, and racism?
• What is the importance of so-called implicit bias to critical race theory?
• What differences, if any, are there between being having a racial identity in South Africa and having a racial identity in other countries?

Expected speakers: Chike Jeffers (Dalhousie), Samantha Vice (University of the Witwatersrand), George Hull (University of Cape Town)

Five-hundred word abstracts, or full papers, should be sent to Ward Jones ([email protected]), by 30 June, 2015.

There will be no parallel sessions, so competition will unfortunately be tight. Some papers from the workshop will be selected for publication in *Philosophical Papers*. Attendance at the workshop will be free. Lunches and coffees will be provided.

Yours, Ward Jones

Building Coalitions Across Difference Conference

Just got back from a really interesting conference: Building Coalitions Across Difference, at the University of Dayton. (Thanks to all those at UD who made the conference possible.)  Themes in the papers included:

• How does one's social position affect one's ability to know, especially, to have knowledge of other social positions?  Is it possible to have knowledge across substantial social divisions?  What accounts of knowledge are best suited to accommodate knowers within diverse communities?
• What is an "identity"?  What are intersectional identities?  Are gender and race identities obligatory?  Does membership in an identity bring with it moral and political obligations?
• How does oppression affect one's ability to know and to act?  How can critique of conceptual frameworks help undermine oppression?
• What is solidarity?  What does solidarity with others require of us?

Speakers and their topics are listed below.  It would be great to hear from other participants!

Gaile Pohlhaus, "Coalitional Knowing"
Alison Bailey, "On Intersectionality and White Feminist Philosophy."
Alexis Shotwell, "Enacting Solidarity"
Nathan R. Placencia, "Internalization and Social Identities"
Brian Thomas, "Identification and Organization: Problems for Nominalist Conceptions of Racial Identity?"
Shireen Roshanravan, "Passing-as-if"
Penelope Ingram, "The Signifying Body: Veiled Women and the Ethics of Representation."
Carol Hay, "Rationality and Oppression"
Lorraine Code, "'They Treated Him Well': Fact, Fiction and the Politics of Knowledge"
Camisha Russell, "Thin Skin, Thick Blood: The 'Non-philosophical' Underpinnings of Black Solidarity."
Eric Thomas Weber, "Construction, Art and Politics"

Keynotes:
Tommie Shelby, "The Ethics of the Oppressed: Reflections on Richard Wright's 'Uncle Tom's Children'"
Sally Haslanger, "Race, Gender and Ideology Critique"