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Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Engl 8510/CSDS 8910/CL 8910: READING MARXISMS

ENGL 8510/CSDS 8910/CL 8910: Reading Marxisms will be taught fall 2010 by Ellen Messer-Davidow on Thursdays 4:00-6:30 p.m. This seminar will investigate the relations between capital and culture, structure and subject, actuality and textuality.

Engl 8510/CSDS 8910/CL 8910: READING MARXISMS
Ellen Messer-Davidow, Fall 2010, Thu 4-6:30 pm
Marxist theory and analysis are fascinating in themselves--Marx and Engels on the modes of production and exchange, alienation; Luxemburg on accumulation and imperialism; Gramsci on hegemony and worker organizations; Althusser on ideology and the subject; and post-Marxists on the social formation's multiple elements.
As importantly, how can we use Marxian analysis to understand the global re-formation of capital and culture in which we are immured? What does it reveal about media conglomeration and the selling of the war in Iraq? What can it say about McDonald's in Beijing and call centers in Bangalore? How would it explain the 2008 economic meltdown in the U.S. and the current insolvency of Greece? What future would it predict for capital and culture?
Within the macro-trends, what's happening to the little guys--the single mom and her two kids in Newark, the family-owned drug store in Dubuque, the Chicano farm workers in the San Fernando valley, the elderly widow in Pompano, and the students graduating from the University of Minnesota? What's happening to accurate and understandable facts as the roiling discourse on public issues rolls through media and legislatures?
This seminar will investigate the relations between capital and culture, structure and subject, actuality and textuality. We will study classical, neo-, and post-Marxist texts that theorize socioeconomic formations. We will read work by contemporary scholars and journalists who probe real-world problems. And we will use the work to examine the effects of globalizing capitalism.

PCard Receipt Reminder

Please submit receipts for all May PCard purchases to date to Laura by Tuesday, June 1, 2010.

PCard Receipt Reminder
Please submit receipts for all May PCard purchases to date to Laura by Friday, April 30, 2010. See attachment below for generic coversheet.
COVERSHEET generic-1.xlsx

Postdoctoral Position in WGS at University of Oregon

Oregon.jpg

The Department of Women's and Gender Studies at the University of Oregon is seeking applications for a Postdoctoral Position in Race and Gender. The appointment is for the academic year 2010-2011, and provides a salary of $30k plus benefits. Ph.D. required. Teaching experience preferred. Application deadline: June 14, 2010.

Postdoctoral Position in WGS at University of Oregon
Posting: 10142
Location: Eugene
Closes: Open Until Filled
To be assured of full consideration, applications should be received by June 14, 2010; open until filled.
Terms of Appointment
Position title: Postdoctoral Fellow
Appointment percent: 100%
Type of appointment: Fixed‚Äêterm
Annual base rate/range: $30,000
Annual Basis: 9
Appointment Period: September 16, 2010 - June 15, 2011
Essential Functions
The successful candidate will be expected to conduct research linking race and gender as primary intersecting fields. This position will also require the candidate to teach three courses in area of specialization as it relates to the interconnection between race and gender give a colloquium related to research, hold office hours and advise students, and participate in department meetings and events.
Minimum and Preferred Qualifications
A PhD within the last five years in a social science or humanities discipline or an interdisciplinary department and evidence of ongoing research on the interconnections between race and gender are required. Teaching experienced is preferred.
Description of the University and the Community
Located 110 miles south of Portland, the University of Oregon has an enrollment of 22,000. The Eugene metro area is in a region noted for its dynamic quality of life and progressive cultural environment. The University has an institutional commitment to diversity and multiculturalism, and actively supports this goal. It is known for its spirit of cooperation and collaboration, and for its ability to provide a variety of personal and professional opportunities that make a difference.
Commitment to Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity
The successful candidate will have the ability to work effectively with faculty, staff and students from a variety of diverse backgrounds. Applicants who promote and enhance diversity are strongly desired. Minorities and women are encouraged to apply.
Application Procedure and Closing Date
Applicants should submit a cover letter, curriculum vitae, sample of written work, evidence if teaching ability (e.g., sample syllabi, course evaluations, etc.), and three letters of recommendation.
Send Materials to:
Lynn Fujiwara, Chair
WGS Postdoctoral Fellowship
1298 University of Oregon
Eugene OR 97403‚Äê1298
Electronically submitted application materials are appreciated and may be sent to wgs@uoregon.edu (include position title in subject line) by June 14, 2010.
For the full position ad. please go to http://hr.uoregon.edu/jobs/unclassified.php?id=3005
For immediate questions please contact Lynn Fujiwara, Committee Chair at fujiwara@uoregon.edu
The University of Oregon is an equal‚Äêopportunity, affirmative‚Äêaction institution committed to cultural diversity and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

American Studies Fall 2010 Graduate Assistant Opportunity

Graduate Assistant (25% time) needed for Fall 2010. The required qualifications include advanced Ph.D. candidacy status (all thesis credits completed); knowledge of, and research interest in U.S. immigration, Mexico, or indigenous cultures of the Americas; reading proficiency in Spanish; strong writing and oral communication skills; proficiency in computing skills; the ability to work independently and collaboratively; experience in research activities (e.g. library and archival research); strong organizational skills; and efficiency. Preferred candidates include current Ph.D. students in American Studies or related fields (e.g. Gender and Women's Studies, History, Anthropology, Spanish, English; Geography). Please submit a CV and a letter of interest to Dr. Bianet Castellanos at mbc@umn.edu by June 15, 2010.

Call for Papers "Settler Colonialism/Heteropatriarchy/White Supremacy", March 10-12, 2011

University of California, Riverside has announced a call for papers for the major conference, "Critical Ethnic Studies and the Future of Genocide: Settler Colonialism/Heteropatriarchy/White Supremacy", March 10-12, 2011. Submission deadline: June 1, 2010.

Call for Papers "Settler Colonialism/Heteropatriarchy/White Supremacy", March 10-12, 2011
A Major Conference
March 10-12, 2011
University of California, Riverside
Plenary Speakers:
Jacqui Alexander·Keith Camacho·Cathy Cohen·Glen Coulthard·Angela Davis·Gina Dent·Vicente Diaz Roderick Ferguson·Ruth Wilson Gilmore·Gayatri Gopinath·Avery Gordon·Herman Gray·Judith Halberstam Sora Han·Cheryl Harris·David Lloyd·Lisa Lowe·Wahneema Lubiano·Manning Marable·Fred Moten José Muñoz·Nadine Naber·Hiram Pérez·Michelle Raheja·Dylan Rodríguez·David Roediger·Luana Ross
Josie Saldaña-Portillo·Sarita See·Ella Shohat·Denise da Silva·Audra Simpson·Nikhil Singh·Andrea Smith Neferti Tadiar·João Costa Vargas·Waziyatawin
Ethnic studies scholarship has laid the crucial foundation for analyzing the intersections of racism, colonialism, immigration, and slavery within the context of the United States. Yet it has become clear that ethnic studies paradigms have become entrapped within, and sometimes indistinguishable from, the discourse and mandate of liberal multiculturalism, which relies on a politics of identity representation diluted and domesticated by nation-building and capitalist imperatives. Interrogating the strictures in which ethnic studies finds itself today, this conference calls for the development of critical ethnic studies. Far from advocating the peremptory dismissal of identity, this conference seeks to structure inquiry around the logics of white supremacy, settler colonialism, capitalism, and heteropatriarchy in order to expand the scope of ethnic studies. An interdisciplinary or even un-disciplinary formation, critical ethnic studies engages with the logics that structure society in its entirety.
As ethnic studies has become more legitimized within the academy, it has frequently done so by distancing itself from the very social movements that helped to launch the field in the first place. Irrefutable as the evidence is of the university's enmeshment with governmental and corporate structures, the trend in ethnic studies has been to neutralize the university rather than to interrogate it as a site that transforms ideas into ideology. While this conference does not propose to romanticize these movements or to prescribe a specific relationship that academics should have with them, we seek to call into question the emphasis on professionalization within ethnic studies and the concomitant refusal to interrogate the politics of the academic industrial complex or to engage with larger movements for social transformation.
We invite panel and individual paper submissions on a wide range of topics that may include but are not limited to the following:
> * Settler colonialism and white supremacy
> * Critical genocide studies
> * Queering ethnic studies
> * Heteropatriarchy
> * Race, colonialism, and capitalism
> * Professionalization, praxis, and the academic industrial complex
> * Decolonization and empire
> * Social movements and activism
> * Multiculturalism and colorblindness
> * Critical race studies
> * Liberationist epistemologies
> * Critical ethnic studies, un-disciplinarity, and relationship to other fields
We encourage submissions of traditional academic conference paper and panel formats, as well as alternative, creative, collaborative, and site-specific presentations, workshops, roundtables, etc., from academics, independent scholars, artists, cultural producers, activists, community workers, and others.
Please submit individual paper abstracts (250 words) along with a 1-page CV that includes contact information. If submitting a panel proposal, a panel abstract (250 words) should also be included.
Deadline for submissions: June 1, 2010
Email submissions to: criticalethnicstudies@gmail.com
Conference participants/attendees need to register at: http://www.ethnicstudies.ucr.edu/

Fulbright Information Sessions scheduled for May and June

The Graduate School Fellowship Office will be holding Fulbright Information Sessions on multiple dates throughout May and June. The UM campus application deadline for the Fulbright is September 8, 2010.

Fulbright Information Sessions scheduled for May and June
The Graduate School Fellowship Office is pleased to announce six Fulbright Information Sessions for students who are interested in conducting research abroad during the 2011-12 academic year. Excellent opportunities are available to over 155 countries. Applicants must be U.S. citizens. The UM campus application deadline is Wednesday, September 8, 2010.
Students who would like to attend should go to http://www.grad.umn.edu/fulbright/ to reserve a place at one of the six meetings.
Meetings are scheduled as follows:
Thursday, May 20, at 10:15 a.m. to 11:45 a.m., Room 433 Johnston Hall
Wednesday, May 26, at 1:45 p.m. to 3:15 p.m., Room 433 Johnson Hall
Thursday, May 27, at 10:15 a.m. to 11:45 a.m., Room 433 Johnston Hall
Wednesday, June 2, at 9:45 a.m. to 11:15 a.m., Room 433 Johnston Hall
Thursday, June 3, at 2:15 p.m. to 3:45 p.m., Room 433 Johnston Hall
Thursday, June 10, at 2:15 p.m. to 3:45 p.m., Room 433 Johnston Hall

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Office Space & Keys

Grad Instructors & TAs with Scott Hall Offices: Please remove all personal items from your office and return your key to the department office by Friday, May 21, 2010. Any unclaimed items will be removed.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Resources distributed at the May 3rd workshop "Career Prospects for American Studies PhD's Inside and Outside of the Academy"

Resources distributed at the May 3rd workshop "Career Prospects for American Studies PhD's Inside and Outside of the Academy" have been posted to the department BLOG for your reference. Please click here to access the "Career Resources and Links" and "Careers Workshop: Preparation for the Academic Job Market" documents.

CAREER RESOURCES and LINKS.doc
Prep for Academic Job market.pdf

Join the annual American Studies Senior Seminar & Graduation Celebration on Thursday, May 13, 2010

The annual American Studies Senior Seminar and Graduation Celebration to honor graduates and award recipients will take place Thursday, May 13, 2010, 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m., at The Taylor Center in Lind Hall room 150, located at 207 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455. Faculty, graduate instructors and TAs that have been part of the American Studies experience for these undergraduate students are encouraged to join the celebration.

For further information please contact the American Studies department adviser, Jayashree Kamble, at amstadv@umn.edu or phone (612) 626-7274.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

BGAPSA End of Year Celebration

Please join the Black Graduate and Professional Students Association who is hosting their end of the year celebration on May 7, 2010 in Hanson Hall Plaza from 3:30-5:00 p.m. Mingle with other graduate and professional students from across the U while enjoying free Caribbean food.

BGAPSA End of Year Celebration
BGAPSA End-of-the-Year Celebration-1.pdf

Monday, May 3, 2010

Submitting Grades for Spring 2010 Courses

Reminder to faculty & Grad Students currently teaching: Grades for Spring 2010 courses should be entered online by Wednesday, May 19th at 11:59 p.m.

Submitting Grades for Spring 2010 Courses
Please note: if you submit an incomplete for an undergraduate student, you must also submit a copy of the "Completion of Incomplete Work" agreement form (available from the link below). Fill out this agreement with the student and be sure to keep a copy for yourself, provide the student with a copy, and submit a copy to Laura for filing within the Department. If you have any problems with access or other questions, please contact Laura at domin047@umn.edu.
Completion of Incomplete Work: http://www.class.umn.edu/forms/completionofincompletework.pdf
To enter final grades: http://onestop.umn.edu/faculty/grades/final/index.html

Checked Out AMST Books/Videos

Please return any books and videos checked out from the department library to the "task box" by Wednesday, May 19th, 2010.