Illusions of Identity: resisting (beyond) identity politics
An interdisciplinary graduate conference hosted by the Centre for the
Study of Theory and Criticism, University of Western Ontario, Canada

October 14-15, 2006

With the limits of contemporary leftist social movements becoming
increasingly apparent, and in the face of advanced capitalism's
relentless appropriation of revolutionary discourses and the rise of
the moral right in North America, we feel an urgent need to contribute
to the ongoing efforts to rethink identity politics. We imagine this
conference as an opportunity to work through and disseminate new
frameworks for thinking social movement and resistance. As such, we
intend to bring together students and activists whose works traverse
disciplinary boundaries in an attempt to articulate some of the
possibilities and pitfalls of identity categories (gender, race,
nationality, class, sexuality, ability, etc.). Coming from the point
of view that the much-contested division between theory and activism
is a false one, our aim is that this conference will constitute a site
for the proliferation of new conceptual frameworks that will be taken
up, and hopefully transformed, by our fellow activists/academics.

We are seeking papers and panels troubling, re-articulating, and
creating theoretical frameworks addressing identity politics in areas
including, but not limited to:
- feminist theory;
- queer stuff;
- trans/figurations of identity;
- the appropriation and containment of resistance;
- global strategies and local tactics;
- nationalisms and national identities
- race and the racialization of identity categories;
- thinking coalition-building and other political maneuvers;
- capitalism and identity;
- 'old' thinkers, 'new' readings;
- critiques of capitalism;
- the politics of theoretical practice;
- trans/gressions, incoherences, destabilizations;
- identities and legalities
- law as constraint/law as possibility
- (dis)abilities and identities
- the politics of citizenship
- First Nations and the nation-state
- indigenous identities

Please send abstracts of 250-300 words by August 15, 2006 to:
illusionsofidentity_at_gmail.com
(Please include your academic or activist affiliation in your proposal.)

Do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

Yours truly,
Conference organizers

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Received on Sat May 27 2006 - 13:26:43 EDT