On Our Way: People of Color Building Community Across Panic (CFP for SEWSA 2014)

POC Caucus: Call for Papers SEWSA 2014

On Our Way:  People of Color Building Community Across Panic

History is not kind to us

we restitch it with living

past memory   forward

into desire

into the panic   articulation

of want   without having

or even the promise of getting.

And I dream of our coming together

encircled  driven

not only by love

but by lust for a working tomorrow

the flights of this journey

mapless   uncertain

and necessary as water.

-Audre Lorde

 “On My Way Out I Passed Over You and the Verrazano Bridge”

This People of Color Caucus Session of SEWSA is devoted to mobilizing our research to arrive at strategies for building community for feminist scholars of color across the situations of tokenism, differential privilege and different oppressions and institutional isolation.   This panel discussion is an opportunity to present a part of what you have discovered in your academic inquiry in the service of a targeted conversation about tangible strategies for scholars of color engaged in feminist research and teaching.   Three or four scholars will ground our facilitated discussion with brief presentations on a topic of their research relevant to the task of effective community building among feminist scholars of color.  Each presentation should speak explicitly to how the research can enable community building in praxis.  Relevant topics include but are not limited to:

·      Community building models/lessons/problems from contemporary or historical feminist organizations and or people of color organizations

·      Rigorous analyses of texts/films/media by or about feminists of color

·      Qualitative or quantitative studies that include feminist scholars of color as respondents

·      Community building models/lessons/problems from historical feminist figures, women or queer people of color or allies

·      Comparative studies of community building in social movements and or academic spaces

·      Institutional critique or analyses of women’s studies, ethnic studies and/or service learning

·      Educational studies of popular education or community based research models

·      Activities or case studies from contemporary community building projects

·      Best practices from existing projects that support or build community among feminist scholars of color

·      Autoethnographic or personal narratives that can inform intersectional community building

Abstracts should not exceed 300 words and be submitted, along with a 100-word bio, complete with author’s name and institutional affiliation, by October 25, 2013 to: the POC Caucus Chair, Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs, at alexispauline@gmail.com with the subject line: “SEWSA POC 2014.”  SEWSA 2014 will take place at UNC Wilmington March 27-29th, 2014.