Researchers and Academics of Colour for Equality (R.A.C.E.) Network
The 9th Annual Critical Race and Anti-Colonial Studies Conference
Compassion, Complicity and Conciliation
The Politics, Cultures and Economies of 'Doing Good'
Montreal, June 5-7 2009
Concordia and McGill Universities
CALL FOR PAPERS
Global political activism, official apologies, charity, advocacy and
solidarity campaigns, 'rescue' missions, truth and reconciliation
hearings, private philanthropy, 'humanitarian' interventions.... The
politics, cultures and economies of doing good seem to have gained a
redemptive, sanctioned and empowering status, which has elevated actions
and actors above critical scrutiny. This conference is aimed at
interrogating the politics and practice(s) of 'doing good'. It asks: What
is defined as 'doing good' and how is it tied to constructions of
benevolent others? Who is positioned and empowered to 'do good'? How is
'doing good' historically embedded and what are some of its foreseen and
unforeseen consequences? What does an anti-racist and anti-colonial lens
reveal about past and present humanitarian actions and interventions, and
how might it inform present and future practice(s)? What are the relations
between humanitarianism and imperialism? How can these relations be
exposed and meaningfully addressed?
We invite panels and papers from scholars, activists, and researchers
whose work engages an antiracist, antiimperialist framework. We welcome
papers in French.
Topics can include, but are not limited to:
* Truth and reconciliation commissions
* The discourses and politics of apologies
* Dynamics and representations of benevolence
* The politics of humanitarianism
* Geopolitics and ethics in the context of empire, colonial relations and
histories of citizenship
* NGOs and the politics of 'doing good'
* Cultural activism, coalitions and collaborations
* Environmental justice vs conservation
* Hierarchies of 'doing good'
* Reproducing colonial hierarchies through "change agents"
* Racialized and gendered dynamics of compassion
* Cause-related marketing
* Working across lines of power in solidarity/coalitions
* Problematizing Aid (health, medical, food)
* Exaltations of 'civil society'
* Academic-activist research partnerships and interventions
* Militarization, occupation and humanitarianism
Deadline for abstracts is March 9th, 2009. Please send a 250-500 word
abstract with title, keywords and institutional affiliation to
RACE.Montreal@gmail.com, or to Yasmin Jiwani, Communication Studies,
Concordia University, 7141 Sherbrooke St. West, Montreal, QC, H4B 1R6, or
Charmaine Nelson, Dept. of Art History, McGill University, 853 Sherbrooke
St. West, Montreal, QC, H3A 2T6.
