INTERNATIONAL ANARCHIST MOVEMENT:

ANARCHIST STUDIES CONFERENCE:

Here's one for the academically inclined amongst you. The North American Anarchist Studies Network (NAASN) will be holding their annual conference in Toronto next January. I could think of better places on the continent to visit in January given that this is a continent wide network. On the other hand I can think of far worse places like Winnipeg for instance. In any case brush off that dusty old thinking cap and head down TO way early next year. Here's the announcement.

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North American Anarchist Studies Conference

CALL FOR PAPERS!!!

North American Anarchist Studies Network Conference

Toronto, Canada
January 15-16, 2011
Deadline for Proposals: November 1, 2010

The North American Anarchist Studies Network is currently seeking presentations for our second annual conference to be held at the Steel Worker’s Hall in Toronto, Canada. We are seeking submissions from radical academics, independent researchers, community activists, street philosophers and students. We invite those engaged in intellectual work within existing institutions, such as universities, but also those engaged in the production of knowledge beyond institutional walls to share their ongoing work. From the library stacks to the streets, we encourage all those interested in the study of anarchism to submit a proposal.

In keeping with the open and fluid spirit of anarchism, we will not be calling for any specific topics of discussion, but rather are encouraging participants to present on a broad and diverse number of themes- from the historical to the contemporary to the utopian. For inspiration, we have included a number of suggested themes that have been of interest us; we invite you to suggest and submit your own topics, papers, themes, panels and workshops:

* Theorizing Anarchism: Perspectives on Anarchist Studies

* Greening Anarchy: Anarchism and the Environment

* Bridging the Marxist/Anarchist Divide: Is Black and Red Dead?

* Race, Class & Solidarity: Migration Politics

* Indigenous Rights and Politics in (Occupied) North America

* Expanding the Anarchist Canon: Non-Western Anarchism(s)

* The South American ‘New Left’ and Anarchism

* ‘Queering’ Anarchy: Anarchism and LGBTQ Issues

* ‘Revolution’ in the 21st Century: The Meaning of Social Change Today

* Militant Research: Connecting Activism and Academia

* Practicing Anarchy: Organization, Insurrection and Anarchist Social Movements

* Envisioning Alternatives: Anarchist Utopias

* Anarchism and Radical (Dis)ability Politics

* The Greek ‘Crisis’ and Anarchist Responses

* Post-G20 Toronto: Learning from Toronto’s G20 Mobilizations

* Anarchist Cultural Perspectives and Practices

* The Post-Anarchist Challenge?

* Anarchists and Academia: The Perils, Pitfalls and Potentialities of the University

It is our sincere hope that this conference will, to the greatest extent possible, accurately represent the diversity of North American anarchist politics and thought; to that end, we encourage submission(s) in English, French, Spanish and in any other language or on any other topic you feel relevant to this experience and this community.

Send your proposal, including a short abstract, a working title and three keywords that describe your project to the Toronto NAASN Crew at naasntoronto@gmail.com .

For more information on the North America Anarchist Studies Network check out our website at www.naasn.org.

We look forward to hearing from you, organizing with you and, of course, learning from you!

Related Link: http://www.naasn.org

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.