INTERNATIONAL ANARCHIST MOVEMENT:

NORTH AMERICAN ANARCHIST STUDIES NETWORK CONFERENCE:

A special "tip of the Molly tail" to DP Alex here in Winnipeg for passing this notice on to me.

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North American Anarchist Studies Network Conference

FIRST EVER!:
Host:
NAASCN
Type:
Meetings - Convention
Start Time:
Saturday, November 21, 2009 at 8:00am
End Time:
Sunday, November 22, 2009 at 5:00pm
Location:
Charter Oak Cultural Center
Street:
21 Charter Oak Avenue
Hartford, CT
Email:
anarchiststudies@hotmail.com
Description
Call For Papers, Presentations, Panels!!

The 1st North American Anarchist Studies Network Conference

Association Nord-Américain des Etudes Anarchistes

Asociación Norteamericana de Estudios Anarquistas

When:

November 21st and 22nd, 2009

Where:

Hartford, Connecticut USA: at Charter Oak Cultural Center (21 Charter Oak Ave.)

We are pleased to announce the beginning of the North American Anarchist Studies Network (NAASN). We see this as a space to develop theoretical and empirical work that pays critical attention to anarchism and items of interest to the anarchist milieu. Likewise, we see the creation of this network as a way for North American anarchists who do scholarly work to be able to support each other in our endeavors and create a space for critical dialogue and reflection.

This conference, then, is not only a place for us to discuss our research, dialogue with one another in panels, and educate ourselves through presentations. It is also a place for discussing the development and future course of the NAASN–so if you would like to be involved, please do so! As well, this provides us with a venue for discussing the role of the theoretician and the researcher in the larger project of dismantling capitalism, the state, and domination in all of its forms.

We are calling for papers, panels, and presentations to be given at the founding conference. Creativity in format and presentation is encouraged, as are submissions from people who may not currently have a university affiliation. As anarchists, we want to disrupt rather than perpetuate the lines drawn between the official academy and the production of knowledge. Papers, panels, and presentations should focus on work on anarchism or topics of interest to the anarchist milieu. Importantly, we see this as an occasion for dialoguing with one another to learn and grow, and would like to avoid sectarianism, personal attacks, and debating-to-win.

Please send proposals and/or abstracts with a brief bio to the conference organizers: Jesse Cohn, Luis Fernandez, Nathan Jun, Deric Shannon, and Abbey Willis at anarchiststudies@hotmail.com . Please keep descriptions and/or abstracts under 500 words. All proposals and abstracts are due by October 10, 2009. Likewise, vendors and organizations may email us at the above address to arrange for table space.

For a new world, free of institutionalized coercion and control! And for a present living and organizing in ways that embody that future as best we can!

The Organizers for the 1st North American Anarchist Studies Network Conference

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MOLLY NOTE:

If the uninformed (like me) reader of the above is rather puzzled about the connections to other such anarchist events and organizations...welcome to the club. This much I can tell you. This event has no connection to the upcoming 'Reimaging Society' conference which is an entirely Z Communications sponsored meeting. As to the connection with the British Anarchist Studies Network and the now-cancelled 'Renewing the Anarchist Tradition' conference previously slated for next October and being sponsored by the Institute for Anarchist Studies your guess is as good as mine. I have to say that, as I tried to track this down, I felt one of those massive headaches that are an occupational hazard for anyone trying to track the "political differences" amongst anarchist groups in France or Trotskyist groups anywhere in the world coming on. I'm only going to go so far in this sort of search. Whether the new North American Anarchist Studies Network is a reinvention of the Institute for Anarchist Studies as an attempt at renewal or a bizarre expression of the petty nature of internal academic "politics" where personal differences are everything and actual program is less than nothing is beyond me. Perhaps others could enlighten me.