Age of Alterity: Age of the Other
full name / name of organization:
Cultural Studies Association Working Group on Critical Pedagogy
contact email:
[email protected], [email protected]
CFP
Cultural Studies Association Working Group on Critical Pedagogy
13th Annual Meeting of the Cultural Studies Association, May 21-24, 2015
Riverside Convention Center, Riverside California (Greater Los Angeles)
Theme: “Another University is Possible: Praxis, Activism, and the Promise of Critical Pedagogy”
The Cultural Studies Association’s Working Group on Critical Pedagogy invites submissions for the 13th Annual Meeting of the Cultural Studies Association (U.S.), “Another University Is Possible: Praxis, Activism, and the Promise of Critical Pedagogy,” to be held at the Riverside Convention Center, Riverside, Greater Los Angeles Area, California, May 21-24, 2015. This year, we will be constituting a panel and a workshop.
A governing concept for this year’s panel and workshop is Alterity: The Age of the Other. We invite you to consider issues of adjunctification, the recent resignation of the Los Angeles Unified Schools District Superintendent, and the loss of language arts-focused curricula. We welcome work that draws inspiration from the work of such authors as Arundhati Roy, Carter G. Woodson, Paolo Freire, Toure, and those with similar critical philosophies. In The Miseducation of the Negro, (1933, 2000), Carter G. Woodson discusses service and what it means to be a participant in daily life, as opposed to a spectator. He writes, “Under leadership we have been made to despise our own possibilities and to develop into parasites; by service we may prove sufficient unto the task of self-development and contribute our part to modern culture” (p. 119). The Critical Pedagogy Working Group asks whether a servant/leader dichotomy characterizes the current moment in education. If so, how does this binary impact educators, students, administrators, parents, and Others? The Cultural Studies Association Critical Pedagogy Working Group seeks to respond to the question of alterity both inside and outside of the classroom while simultaneously attending to fundamental questions of what cultural studies pedagogy looks like. What role should we, as critical educators, assume?
Panel: In the spirit of the conference theme and our subtheme of alterity, we seek papers that address the question of what cultural studies pedagogy does, should, or can look like. Panelists might address questions like the following:
How might cultural studies’ interest in power relations, knowledge production, and social change define a uniquely cultural studies pedagogy? What typifies cultural studies pedagogy? What theorists should or do inform it? What does it look like in practice?
Should cultural studies be a classroom subject taught in K-12 and college curricula? How does it become a dominant field of study in K-12, community college, and four-year college? Should cultural studies emphasize STEM? Does the world need more philosophers? How does cultural studies become “popular” in the academy? Should it? Does it exist primarily in academia or can we envision a pedagogical approach that does not presuppose an academic setting?
How can or should a critical pedagogical approach respond to the current political, economic, and cultural context? For example, what has the Obama presidency meant for cultural studies praxis and theory in the context of education? What is financial education, and how can a cultural studies critical pedagogy offer a solution to educational disenfranchisement? Has the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) failed? If so, why? If not, why? Is adjunct-work over? If so, what will become of higher education?
Workshop: We seek proposals to test classroom assignments, exercises, and other activities informed by cultural studies pedagogy in a workshop environment. This workshop will offer each participant a few minutes to contextualize one exercise or activity and then test it with the other workshop participants and receive feedback. We seek participants whose curriculum and pedagogical approach is informed by cultural studies. We are especially interested in proposals that involve alternative or non-traditional approaches to teaching and welcome activities designed for a non-academic setting.
We also welcome proposals that may not fit these parameters, but are concerned with critical pedagogy.
If interested in participating in the panel, please submit (via email) the following by January 15, 2015:
a. Your name, email address, department, and institutional affiliation.
b. A 500-word (or less) abstract for the paper proposed, including a paper title.
c. Audio-visual equipment needs (requests for AV equipment cannot be honored later).
d. Include in the email subject line: Critical Pedagogy Panel Submission.
If you are interested in participating in the workshop, please submit (via email) the following by January 15, 2015:
a. Your name, email address, department, and institutional affiliation.
b. A 500-word (or less) description of the activity you’d like to workshop, including a title, and an explanation of why you’d like to workshop this activity with cultural studies practitioners.
c. Audio-visual equipment needs (requests for AV equipment cannot be honored later).
d. Include in the subject line: Critical Pedagogy Workshop Submission.
Please send all required information to the Co-Chairs of the Working Group on Critical Pedagogy: Gail Taylor ([email protected]) and Sara Mitcho ([email protected]).
From UPenn.