Theme: The Future of the Lumpenproletariat

Subtitle: A Conference in Memory of Glyn Salton-Cox

Type: Interdisciplinary Conference

Institution: University of California, Santa Barbara

Location: Santa Barbara, CA (USA)

Conference date: May 24-25, 2024

Submission deadline: March 15, 2024

This in-person conference seeks to center the contemporary valences of the concept of the lumpenproletariat, which Friedrich Engels identified as “social scum,” particularly outcasts, such as professional thieves, pimps, and gamblers. More generally, this term refers to those who do not generate profits for employers. In this judgment, the hegemonic working-class paradigm of the left and conservative notion of the “undeserving poor” converge. We are organizing this conference to honor and extend the work of our teacher, Glyn Salton-Cox, who was an Associate Professor of English at UC Santa Barbara and who suddenly passed away while working on a book on the topic.

As students enormously indebted to Glyn’s intellectual guidance, we are hosting this conference to expand his ideas and evaluate the global lumpen today across global literary, media, historical and sociological contexts. We seek to examine how contemporary representations across literature, media, and the social sciences signal its future valences. Where in the 21st century, can 'lumpens' be located (if at all): as technological advancement, environmental degradation, and global instabilities continue to redefine the meaning of "productivity," "collectivity," "precarity" and political consciousness? This symposium will not only honor the legacy of Glyn, but also provide a space for emerging and established scholars to reflect on the untapped potential of the concept of the lumpenproletariat and its varying forms given the unstable and uneven faces of global capitalism today.

Keynote Speaker: Cedric Johnson, Professor of Black Studies and Political Science (University of Illinois Chicago)

We invite 250-word topical proposals for 20-minute presentations, on topics including but not limited to: social media and the lumpen aesthetic and spatiality; the lumpenproletariat and government policy (i.e. public employment, incarceration); Marxism and the categories of social difference (queer, ethnicity, race, caste, gender, ability, etc.); Black Power and the New Left; the gig economy; critique of work. Proposals should also have a short 100-word bio of the presenter.

Please send your abstract, along with any questions, to lumpenconference@hotmail.com.

Submissions are due by March 15, 2024.

Accepted presenters will be notified March 25, 2024.

Organizers: Somak Mukherjee, R Baker, Tannishtha Bhattacharjee, and Ted Giardello