Transforming Bodies, Nations & Knowledges
Adelaide, South Australia, 10 –12 December, 2007
Since 1999 there have been a series of yearly conferences held in Australia, united by their critique of race privilege and their attention to matters of Indigenous sovereignty. Early conferences were integral to the formation of the Australian Critical Race and Whiteness Studies Association in 2004. These conferences have encouraged and supported the development of a rapidly growing body of Indigenous voices and knowledges within the Australian academy as well as an increased focus on issues of race and whiteness.
This year’s conference will be held in Adelaide, South Australia, and will encourage continued reflection upon issues of racial power and privilege in local and global contexts where Indigenous sovereignties continue to be denied, and in which whiteness maintains hegemony. It continues an explicit focus on issues of sovereignty and the importance of ensuring spaces for open, supportive dialogue.
The 2007 ACRAWSA conference, Transforming Bodies, Nations & Knowledges, draws on the aforementioned history of interventions into the cultural politics of race and whiteness both in Australia an internationally. The notion of ‘transforming’ signifies a commitment not only to examining and critiquing existing practices of dominance and discrimination, but also to the ways in which these have been challenged and transformed and continue to be so in the present and into the future. The conference seeks to address ways in which processes of transformation mutually implicate bodies, nations and knowledges. Possible questions include: What kind of bodies are produced by the powers of racism and colonialism? How do those bodies transform themselves into something else to resist or avoid relations of dominance? How do knowledges create and change bodies and nations? How can we challenge existing disciplines and knowledges to recognise spaces for Indigenous sovereignty and to oppose racism? How are nations being changed in contemporary global scenarios? How do nations demand and produce embodied responses to their practices of inclusion and exclusion?
Specific areas of concern may include:
Indigenous sovereignties
citizenship;
borders;
the law;
bodies, affect and subjectivity;
gender, sexuality and reproduction
religion;
power and knowledge production;
writing and other creative arts;
families;
professional knowledges and practices in
education, health and welfare
Such themes are central to a conference that seeks practical and politically orientated outcomes. The conference will appeal to people working in the areas of Indigenous studies, whiteness and critical race studies, gender/women’s studies and sexuality studies, education, law, history, psychology and social sciences, social work, cultural studies, media studies, literary studies, philosophy, art and design theory as well as those who are intellectually engaged in community and activist settings.
An invitation is extended to those wishing to present on issues such as those outlined above to submit an abstract of no more than 200 words, along with a short biographical statement, by 31/07/2007 to the following email address: abstracts2007@acrawsa.org.au
Conference organisers welcome expressions of interest for the following presentation formats: ‘traditional’ 20 min papers, three-paper symposia, round table discussions, artistic performances/installations and other forms of information dissemination that operate outside of the standard 20 minute presentation style.
More information on submission guidelines, conference details, and conference publications are available at: http://www.conference2007.acrawsa.org.au
Confirmed keynotes for the conference include Dr. Sara Ahmed on the topic of ‘The Politics of Good Feeling’, Dr. Irene Watson and Dr. Tony Birch.
