CFP: Ethnoscapes

Call for Papers

Ethnoscapes: An Interdisciplinary Journal on Race and Ethnicity in the
Global Context

Issue One, Fall 2007
“Race and Coalition”


The editorial staff of the new peer-reviewed journal Ethnoscapes: An
Interdisciplinary Journal on Race and Ethnicity in the Global Context
invites submissions for its inaugural issue on the subject of “Race and
Coalition.” Ethnoscapes maps the development of important themes in the
field of race and ethnic studies by using a “classic” piece as a point of
departure for a reconsideration of critical issues within the contemporary
economic, political, and cultural terrain.

While the classic piece establishes the thematic parameters of each issue,
authors are under no obligation to actively engage the arguments posed by
that work.

Issue one explores the subject of “Race and Coalition” with consideration
of Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) and Charles V. Hamilton’s “The Myths of
Coalition” from the 1967 text Black Power: The Politics of Liberation. In
this seminal essay, the authors question the viability of coalitions that
do not seek radical changes in racial hierarchy, include partners with
disparate amounts of economic and political power, and rely on
sentimentality and goodwill to build and maintain cohesiveness.

The authors argue instead that viable and productive coalitions must do
the following:

1) recognize the self-interests of the groups involved in the relationship;
2) have the capacity for realizing the self-interests of each group;
3) articulate their own “independent base of power”;
4) have specific goals.

Proceeding from this articulation of coalition politics, Ethnoscapes seeks
manuscripts that investigate the dynamics of “Race and Coalition” with
particular attention to one or more of the following themes:

A) Theoretical Foundations of Coalition. If organizing is no longer forged
on the basis of shared identity or “unity,” what serves as the
“foundation” for political mobilization? What new forms of coalition,
alliance, or issue-based organizing have emerged in the current political,
economic, and cultural context? Can these convergences operate only
temporarily or can they be more sustained? How can/must/do coalitions
negotiate differences along the lines of gender, sexuality, nationality,
religion, and class in articulating a shared platform? What productive
alliances have been or can be forged between different marginalized
groups? What makes these coalitions cohere? How do these projects
(re)shape experiences of race and ethnicity?

B) The Multicultural Terrain of Organizing in the United States. With the
rise of Asian/Pacific American and Latino/a social movements, how is the
concept of “coalition” being rearticulated today? Does the “people of
color” construct, expressing the common bonds of non-white groups, still
make sense? What new challenges to coalition-building emerge in the
context of the variable power relations of nations, economic operations,
and discourse that characterize the contemporary multiracial terrain of US
organizing? What strategies can be mobilized to negotiate these
differences? What roles are available to whites in multiracial coalitions
and in coalitions for racial justice?

C) The Global Context. What challenges and possibilities do new
communications and other technologies linking people across the globe
offer for multiracial coalitions? How do the ties of nation, state, and
culture complicate efforts to organize pan-ethnically? How can models of
organizing around race throughout the world, or on behalf of racially
identified groups and concerns, usefully inform organizing strategies in
the US context, or vice versa? What is at stake and where are we headed?

The deadline for manuscript submission is February 16, 2007. Please send
submissions to mmaltry@kirwaninstitute.org and
editors@kirwaninstitute.org. See
http://www.kirwaninstitute.org/ethnoscapes/styleguide.html to prepare your
document in accordance with the style guidelines of Ethnoscapes.

Melanie Maltry
Assistant Editor, Ethnoscapes
The Kirwan Institute
The Ohio State University






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