[Discussion] CFP: Spaces of Dissent (1/13/06; MRG, 3/30/06-4/1/06)

[gpultar@cstgroup.org]

From: NICOLE LAROSE <nlarose@ufl.edu>

The 8th Annual Conference of the Marxist Reading Group
"Spaces of Dissent: The Borders of Transnational Dreams"

Keynote Speakers:
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and Peter Hitchcock

March 30-April 1, 2006 at the University of Florida

As the networks of global capital become increasingly complex, we are compelled
to rethink the idea of borders. The obsolescence of national borders may lead to
the transnational-corporate dream of the end of history, but identities
historically determined and likewise freed by disappearing borders have
reemerged in figures like the refugee. Following Marx's distinction in _The
German Ideology_, the "refugee serfs," rather than requiring an abolition
of capitalism's system of labor like the proletariat, assert their rights to
production and arrive at free labor. Much like the "refugee serf,"--the global
capital refugee realizes an impossible (Real) structural dimension through which
capital itself is called into question: the refugee is the paradox or
contradiction of capitalism's driving force: the very opposition capitalism
tries to integrate into itself again. In light of these conceptions,
does the refugee represent a missed opportunity to re-establish a
resistance to the coordinates of global capital's structure?

Moreover, if we can read the neoliberal rhetoric of corporate flexibility as a
response to the multi/transnational phase of global capital, can we see the
recent trend in academe toward interdisciplinarities as mimicking the neoliberal
imperative to find flexibility within fixed borders? Or does it constitute a
radical opposition, providing the opportunity to reconceptualize the spaces we
inhabit?

This conference seeks papers that link the ideas of borders to Marxist theory.

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak is a committed activist, renowned theorist, cultural
critic, and influential translator. The translation and introduction of Jacques
Derrida's _Of Grammatology_ introduced her as a radical critic willing to
interrogate the premises of Marxism, feminism, and deconstruction. She helped
define the field of postcolonial studies with her seminal essay "Can the
Subaltern Speak?" and continues to complicate the field through such works as _A
Critique of Postcolonial Reason: Toward a History of the Vanishing Present_,
_Death of a Discipline_ and the forthcoming _Other Asias_. She is Avalon
Foundation Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University and devotes much
of her time to teacher training in India and Bangladesh.

Peter Hitchcock is the author of _Imaginary States: Studies in Cultural
Transnationalism_ and has written widely on literary studies, cultural theory,
Mikhail Bahktin, and dialogics. His research interests span many
disciplines--working-class fiction, film studies, Marxism, transnationalism, and
post-colonial theory, to name a few--and his book, _Oscillate Wildly: Space,
Body, and Spirit of Millennial Materialism_, continues to highly influence
the study of spatial theory. In addition, Hitchcock has served as associate
director of the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics, as well as on the
editorial board of Cultural Logic. He teaches at Baruch College and the CUNY
Graduate Center in New York City.


We seek papers that address (but are not limited to) the following topics:

--        The agency of the refugee
--        Spaces of consent / dissent
--        Real, theoretical, and imagined refugees / borders
--        Corporate nightmares
--        Worker's rights in a flexible world
--        Renegotiating class borders
--        Citizenship after the nation state
--        The nationalist as refugee
--        Reterritorialized / deterritorialized borders
--        Nomads vs. barbarians vs. refugees
--        The management of global capital, i.e. IMF, WTO, World Bank
--        Structurally adjusting identities
--        The freedoms of Marx's "refugee serfs"
--        Literary representations of borders / refugees
--        The literary in an interdisciplinary academy
--        Disciplinarity's second death
--        The margins of the academy
--        Academic labor in the corporate university


Non-traditional or performative panels will also be considered. One-page
abstracts, questions, and comments should be submitted to the Marxist Reading
Group at extinction@clas.ufl.edu

DO NOT SEND ATTACHMENTS.

Instead, please paste the abstract into the body of the email, and also, please
be sure to include your full name, contact information, and academic affiliation
(if any).

Abstracts due: January 13, 2006

For more information about our group, conferences, and keynote speakers go to
www.english.ufl.edu/mrg



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