CFP

A CFP for a conference folks in my department are organizing (more later):

Call For Papers: Humanities or Human Resources? The Future of Ethnic
Studies and Labor in the Corporate University
New York UniversityApril 13, 2007

As corporate models of management and decision-making take hold of more and
more colleges and universities, a growing number of students, faculty and staff
are facing threats to ethnic studies programs, assaults on the integrity of
academic decision-making, and the casualization of the university labor force.
This conference will engage the debates surrounding what has been termed the
corporate university, especially those debates that address questions of race,
gender, sexuality, ability, nation, and class.

We conceive of the corporate/university relationship as multi-directional;
that is, the corporate/neoliberal university is not simply where corporate
values and cultures end up in an otherwise autonomous academy. Instead, the
corporate/university relationship has effects in multiple public and private
spaces, and on different individuals, ideas, and communities. How do
struggles over departmentalization, bureacratization, downsizing, access, and
equity relate to the university's location in global networks of capital
accumulation and production? In what ways can a critical intervention in
those processes enact a resistance that does not follow corporate valuations of
people as "human resources"?

We envision this conference to be a platform for academics, faculty,
students, and staff to begin these conversations in the hopes that we can
generate imaginative practices and take them back to our home institutions for
further use and engagement. We welcome proposals for papers or panels that focus
on the issues surrounding the corporate university. Please send a 300-word
abstract, 250-word biographical statement and contact information to corporate.conference@gmail.com by March 5, 2007.
Notifications will be made by March 15.

Paper topics might include, but are not limited to:
• the policing of Middle Eastern studies and other area
studies programs
• disability and ability issues on campus
• faculty hiring policies; student admissions
• top-down and bottom-up curricular changes
• living wage and staff/adjunct/teaching assistant
unionization campaigns and institutional responses
• trends in Ethnic Studies, Gender/Sexuality Studies, and
American Studies
• university-neighborhood relations; real estate and
gentrification