Challenging Hierarchies:
Nation, Race, Class, Sexuality, and Gender

 

ABS 38th Annual Conference
THE COLONNADE HOTEL
July 29-August 1, 2008
Boston, Massachusetts

CALL FOR PAPERS

The following panels are inviting paper proposal submissions. In all cases, submissions should include the title of the paper, the author's name (with her/his professional affiliation, email address, and phone number), and an abstract of no more than 500 words.

Submissions should be sent to the appropriate organizer by May 1, 2008.

 

TITLE: "Genealogy of Human Rights – Toward a Liberating Politics"

ORGANIZER: James Michael Thomas (jmt552@mizzou.edu)

This session will explore the ways in which hierarchies of difference – nation, race, class, gender, sexuality, etc. – have both informed and been informed by human rights discourse since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. This panel investigates how human rights models may be framed as cause, rather than effect, in terms of neo-liberal ideologies, institutions, and practices. Mixed methods and interdisciplinary approaches are encouraged.

 

TITLE: "Race Around the World"

ORGANIZER: Valerie Smith (vsmith@fgcu.edu)

Continuing the discussion of African-descent people throughout the word, this panel will focus on both lesser known communities (in India, Central & South America, and Europe) and better-know communities of blacks (in the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe) outside of North America.

 

TITLE: "Challenging Hierarchies in the Classroom: Nation, Race, Class, Sexuality, and Gender"

ORGANIZERS: Lynda Dickson (ldickson@uccs.edu) and Arthur Paris (aeparis@syr.edu)

Given the focus of the 2008 ABS conference (Hierarchies), it seems especially appropriate to include a forum exploring how this arena can be effectively approached within the classroom context. Our students have become accustomed to a broad range of communication technologies, from video in its multiple manifestations, the Web with its cornucopia, to blogs and other sources of 'content'. These go far beyond the default tools of teaching (lectures, articles, books, and what we used to call (quaintly) 'AV'. We are calling upon colleagues to share their experiences both in terms of how they guide students in dealing with the components of hierarchy (race, gender, sexuality, etc.) and the tools they find effective in getting their messages across and opening up dialog with students.

For example, we have been lately using two films which tap into youth culture to open up the discussion of Gender and its representation (Sut Jhally's Dreamworlds) and Black Masculinity and its stance toward women (Byron Hurt's Beyond Beats and Rhymes). We have found that these works drawn from inside youth culture are (potentially at least) much more successful in getting past the defenses of social distance that often limit our ability in reaching the consciousness of students. For this session, we hope colleagues will share their own tools and tricks for surmounting these barriers to reaching student consciousness.

 

TITLE: "Africana Mothering: Shifting Roles and Historical Influences"

ORGANIZER: Deidre Hill Butler (butlerd@union.edu)

This panel will explore the various cultural constructions and reconstructions of mothering, variations in mothering roles, and cultural motivations for and ideologies of Africana mothering. Papers representing underrepresented sites of mothering, such as LGBT mothering, stepmothering, othermothering, and foster mothering are welcome. Those that are interdisciplinary and draw on scholarship from a feminist/womanist perspective are especially encouraged.

 

TITLE: "Racialized Gender Formations, Sexual Stratification, and the Reconstitution of the Hetero-Normative"

ORGANIZER: Anthony Lemelle (alemelle@jjay.cuny.edu)

This session is designed to explore the formation of stratified sexual and gender groups among oppressed groups of African Americans that reproduce inequalities and ultimately favors the organization of white supremacy. Such concerns might include but are not limited to the top/bottom iconography among black lesbians and homosexuals; the development of the "talking-head" class that presumes to speak for all black sexual minorities; compulsory "gayness" and same gender loving people of African descent; and, as C.J. Pascoe indicated in her recent book Dude You're a Fag: Masculinity and sexuality in High School, how development of sanctions for using such epithets as "fag" is more severe when black males are the sanctionable targets. Papers that are qualitative, quantitative, discursive, or mixed in methods are welcome.

 

TITLE: "The Social Construction of Race"

ORGANIZER: Karen Fields (kar_ef@hotmail.com)

When sociologists speak of what Americans call "race" as being "socially constructed," what precisely do (or should) we mean? Does that formulation put us on a Durkheimian terrain of social realism? Or do we mean merely social and thus not really real? Do those alternatives exhaust the possibilities for building toward adequate description and theorizing? Both empirical and theoretical papers are appropriate for this panel.

 

TITLE: "The Role of Race in Social Welfare Institutions"

ORGANIZER: Shannon Monnat (coevsmm@omh.state.ny.us)

This session will explore the importance of social welfare institutions on the experiences and outcomes of black individuals, families, and communities. Such institutions may include, but are not limited to welfare, criminal, justice, educational, health care, mental health, and non-profit organizations. Some examples of specific topics of interest are welfare reform, disaster relief after Hurricane Katrina, health disparities, No Child Left Behind, and police brutality. Empirical papers with an applied and public policy focus are especially welcome.

 

TITLE: "History of Sociology/Historical Sociology"

ORGANIZER: Earl Wright II (wright@TSU.EDU)

This panel will focus on theoretical examinations of the classics (by Marx, Durkheim, DuBois et al.) and historical analyses of the contributions of sociologists excluded from the canon by race, gender, sexual orientation or other factors. It will also explore the traditions of the primary schools of sociological thought: the Atlanta Sociological Laboratory, the Howard School of Thought, the Fisk University program, the Chicago School etc.

 

TITLE: "Race Relations and the Media"

ORGANIZER: Bhoomi Thakore (bthakor@luc.edu)

This panel will focus on how contemporary race relations are reflected in the media today. While many scholars contend that race relations have become "color-blind", this does not mean that all historical and institutional forms of racism have ceased to exist. Considering this, how are the social realities of race represented in the media? (In television, for example, do programs portray certain issues, like interracial relationships, in a specific way that either exemplifies or sets an example for "real life" reactions?) Why a there so few media owners of color and what does that mean what/how news is covered?

Addressing these and other issues, and their implications is necessary for understanding the framing of race relations in the media and how these relations might influence the future of race relations in the U.S.

 

TITLE: "Minority and Recent Immigrants' Perceptions of Cultural Competency of Health Care Providers"

ORGANIZER: Cynthia Cook (CCook58110@aol.com)

Note: In addition to paper proposals for this panel, all papers related to health care should be sent to Cynthia Cook, organizer of all health care-related sessions. This includes papers on medical sociology, the sociology of health and illness, mental health, health demography etc.

 

TITLE: Fourth Annual ABS/SWS Student Roundtables

ORGANIZER: Zandria Robinson (abs.sws.roundtables@gmail.com)

For three consecutive years, the Association of Black Sociologists and Sociologists for Women in Society have co-sponsored a roundtable session featuring emerging scholarship in sociology by student members of each organization. The 2008 meeting of ABS will continue this highly successful event. Undergraduate and graduate students are invited to submit abstracts for papers that engage race, gender, and/or sexuality.

 

TITLE: ABS Poster Session

ORGANIZER: Evita G. Bynum (egbynum@umes.edu)

ABS invites Poster Session submissions for the 2008 Annual Conference. We welcome submissions with conceptual and/or empirical relevance to the program's "Challenging Hierarchies" theme. The Poster Session is intended to convey new unpublished data, new analyses of these data, and newly designed ongoing studies, in addition to scholarly conceptual analyses and interpretation. All methodologies appropriate to the discipline, the data, and the question(s) under study (including small-sample, single-subject, and descriptive research designs) are acceptable. Presenters are required to spend one hour at their respective posters to answer questions and/or participate in discussions. Posters will remain available (without presenters) for at least 8 hours, enabling conferees to view them at their convenience. The Poster Session will be open to the press. Submission of a poster presentation implies permission for media coverage.

 

TITLE: "Black Genealogy"

ORGANIZER: Robert Newby (rnewby07@charter.net)

 

TITLE: "The Contributions of Thomas Pettigrew to Desegregation"

ORGANIZER: Bernice McNair Barnett (bmbarnett@uiuc.edu)

 

TITLE: "Black Worker Organizations and the U.S. Labor Movement"

ORGANIZER: Rod Bush (bushr@stjohns.edu)

 

TITLE: "Terrorism, Wars, and the Future of Civil Liberties"

ORGANIZER: Augustine J. Kposowa (ajkposowa@sbcglobal.net)

 

TITLE: "Racism in the Academy"

ORGANIZER: Augustine J. Kposowa (ajkposowa@sbcglobal.net)

 

OTHER PANEL OR PAPER TOPICS

The following are topics for which panels or papers are encouraged. Panel proposals or paper abstracts on these topics (as well as on any other not listed above) should be sent to the Program Chair, Judith Rollins (jrollins@wellesley.edu).

—The Social Thought of Frantz Fanon

—Sustainable Development or Sustained Dependency?

—Afro and Latino/a in the U.S.

—Reconciling Womanism and Nationalism

—Homophobia in the Black Community

—The Social Thought of Ibn Khaldun

—Gender in African and/or Caribbean Communities

—U.S.-Based Christian Proselytizing in Africa, in the Caribbean

—Race around the World, including papers on lesser-known black communities (e.g., in India, other parts of Asia, Central and South America, etc.)

 

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