The Black Graduate Student Association of Rutgers-Newark seek submissions for a graduate student conference on “Alien Citizenship in the Academy”

Details:
October 6-7, 2011
Rutgers University-Newark Campus
Contact: bgsa.rutgers@gmail.com

Call for Papers:

We seek submissions that explore the concept of Alien Citizenship.

In the production of an American national identity, those who did not fit
within the parameters of whiteness, maleness, heterosexuality, or legally
recognizable citizenship became illegal while those who miss all
categories but have legal citizenship become alien. How do certain bodies
become coded as alien citizens within the space of the academy? How do
alien citizens contest epistemological violence? And how can the academy
be used as “exploitable political space,” a space that “calls attention to
how curricula that universalize the values and norms of a ‘common’
national culture are in contradiction with…society” (Lowe)?

Possible topics and fields relevant to this conference include:
The discursive work of multiculturalism and the language of diversity;
Post-race, race and racism; Scripts of belonging; Quare/Queer studies;
Performativity and disidentification; Undocumented students and public
institutions; Geographies of power and academic landscapes

Please submit abstracts/panel proposals of 250 words in the body of an
email (no attachments) to bgsa.rutgers@gmail.com by July 15, 2011. We’ll
notify presenters by Aug 15th.