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Decolonizing the University Conference (Feb. 26-28, 2010)
By fauxpas | February 20, 2010
Dear CLPR friends,
Please, find below and by attachment information about the upcoming conference
“Decolonizing the University: Fulfilling the Dream of the Third World College.”
The conference celebrates the 40th anniversary of the institutionalization of
the field of ethnic studies at UC Berkeley, and it is in conversation with a
number of events and conversations seeking to address the increasing
commercialization and privatization of the university, budget cuts, and related
challenges that the academy faces today. At Berkeley, there were a variety of
teach-ins, a play, a walkout, a three day strike, the occupation of a building,
mass arrests, and investigation of police brutality, among other events. And
this was just last semester, which ended with a vicious and most unfortunate
attack on the Chancellor’s house. This spring there will be a massive march for
public education in Sacramento (on March 4), among other events, including the
conference on “Decolonizing the University”. Please find more information below
and by attachment. The date for submitting paper and panel proposals has been
extended till the end of the month.
All the best,
Nelson Maldonado-Torres
Chair, Center for Latino Policy Research UC Berkeley
————————————–
CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT: DECOLONIZING THE UNIVERSITY December 14, 2009
Greetings! We cordially invite your participation in “Decolonizing the
University: Fulfilling the Dream of the Third World College,” a conference
taking place February 26-27, 2010 at UC Berkeley, in commemoration of the Ethnic
Studies Department’s 40th anniversary and in celebration of the 10th annual
Cultural Night of Resistance.
Simultaneously inspired by activism from youth of color on campus, local
grassroots organizations and the Black Panther Party, international movements
for decolonization, and the Third World Liberation Front (TWLF) strike of 1968
at San Francisco State University (SFSU), which is the longest student strike in
the nation, UC Berkeley’s TWLF went on strike in January of 1969. One of their
demands was that funds be allocated for the implementation of a Third World
College. The idea of a Third World College called for epistemological,
pedagogical, institutional, and social change, to be facilitated by the creation
of departments of Asian Studies, Black Studies, Chicano Studies, Native American
Studies, and any other Ethnic Studies programs as they developed. Since then,
there is only one College of Ethnic Studies in the nation (at SFSU), and only
some universities with ethnic studies departments or programs.
The purpose of this conference is to have collective dialogues about fulfilling
the dream of the Third World College and decolonizing the university at large.
These goals are more relevant today than ever given the demographic change in
the state and the nation, and the racial, sexual, gendered, and colonial
dimensions of transnational capitalism, neoconservatisms, and neoliberalism
globally. It is also significant that as people of color have become the
majority in the state of California, the state has dramatically changed its
priorities in funding and it is about to allocate more resources to prisons than
to public higher education. The prison, rather than the school and the
university, seems to have become the standard institution for underrepresented
populations in the nation and the state.
It is in this context that we revisit the idea of the Third World College and
come together to formulate basic terms for an agenda of work that aims to
decolonize the university now. In this sense, more than simply going back to
the sixties, we call for renewed conceptualizations of the tasks of
decolonization with contributions from the scholarship, art, activism, and
spirituality of communities of color, peoples in the global south, and their
many companions and allies. More specifically, this conference takes as a point
of departure that the university can and should become a more welcoming space to
people of color, their questions, concerns, views, and perspectives, as well as
an important institution that forges the desegregation and decolonization of
society and knowledge at large. But what do we understand by decolonization,
and how do we imagine a Third World College today? What are the implications of
decolonizing the university in the context of neoliberal policies, and how does
the movement for decolonization relate with the global movement against the
privatization of the university? What responses should we give to the budget
cuts and fee hikes, and how can we all organize effectively to transform, and
not only to save, the university? These are some of the key question that this
conference will aim to address.
The first day of the conference, Feb. 26th, will emulate a version of a Third
World College through a combination of teach-ins, dialogue, panels,
performances, film screenings, and workshops on a variety of topics, such as
education, research, community organizing, creating art, and spoken word. These
will focus on key areas of ethnic studies such as activism, art, scholarly work,
and spirituality.
The second day of the conference on Feb. 27th is aimed at having in-depth
discussions about the ways in which a Third World College is necessary and
possible at every college/university, what the near and long-term futures of
Ethnic Studies could look like, and why decolonizing the university as a social
justice movement is particularly urgent now. As Richard Aoki the late Sansei
Black Panther and activist in the TWLF of 1969 stated: “We didn’t lose in the
sixties; we just didn’t finish the job.”
If you are an educator, we encourage you to consider bringing your students to
this conference; if you are a student, we encourage you to suggest to your
educators to consider granting credit for attending this conference; if you are
a community member, we encourage you to propose to your respective employer to
consider this conference as educational/personal development.
Please email us or visit our Facebook page for submission guidelines, conference
information, or to request more information:
decolonizing.the.university@gmail.com or search “Decolonizing the University” at
www.facebook.com
In solidarity,
Organizing Committee
Alumni
Marcelo Garzo, Ethnic Studies
Marcy Rosner, Ethnic Studies
Faculty
Keith Feldman, Ethnic Studies
Nelson Maldonado-Torres, Ethnic Studies
Ula Taylor, African American Studies
Graduate Students
Xamuel Baales, Anthropology
Michael Castaeda, ES/Latino & Pilipino St.
Mattie Harper, ES/Native American Studies Tala Khanmalek, ES/Middle East.
Diasporas Leece Lee, ES/Native American Studies
Undergraduate Students
Krysta Beckley, Ethnic Studies
Raquel Jacquez, Ethnic Studies & Philosophy Michaelanne Jones, ES/Native Am.
Studies Joseph Ham-Silvestre, Ethnic Studies Obiamaka Ude, African American
Studies
If you would like to be removed from this list serve please e-mail:
clpr@berkeley.edu with subject: REMOVE FROM LIST
Center for Latino Policy Research (CLPR) University of California, Berkeley 2420
Bowditch Street #5670-Mailing Address
2547 Channing Way-Location
Berkeley, CA 94720
(510)642-6903 FAX(510)643-8844
URL clpr.berkeley.edu
Topics: Politics |
