2006 Conference Call-for-Papers

7th Biennial Conference

Puerto Rican Studies Association
October, 5–8, 2006
Cornell University, Ithaca NY

Call for Papers, Panels and Presentations: SPEAKING THE UNSPOKEN: RACE AND ITS INTERSECTIONS IN PUERTO RICAN STUDIES
[EXPIRED]

The Puerto Rican Studies Association (PRSA) invites proposals for panels, individual paper presentations, poster sessions, workshops, and roundtables for the Seventh PRSA conference.

This conference pursues dialogues concerning the centrality of race as a significant, usually unaddressed, component of the experience in Puerto Rican communities both on the island and in the diaspora. We hope to provide a series of forums and activities where participants can come together to reflect and discuss on how race and its intersections, both conceptually and practically, are more fundamental to the Puerto Rican experience than is generally acknowledged in Puerto Rican scholarship.

General topics that could have been addressed included, but were not limited to:

• Erotics of Race
• Race, Labor, and Class
• Struggles for Racial Equality
• Racialized Violence
• Race, Migration, and Diaspora
• Teaching Race
• Institutionalized Racism
• Legal Aspects and Dimensions of Racialization
• Arts, Media, and Popular Culture
• Discourses of Race and Power
• Racialization and the Military
• Gender and Sexuality
• Tourism and Representation
• Literature, Narrative, and Testimonio
• Medicine, Health, and AIDS
• Spatial Configurations
• Housing and Gentrification
• Racial Democracy: Myth or Radical Utopia?
• The racialization of Puerto Ricans by others/Puerto Ricans racializing others
• “¿Y tu abuela, adónde está” Slaves (or Masters) in the Family

PRSA follows a policy of peer review for acceptance and inclusion in the program. Decisions concerning submissions are made by members of the PRSA Program Committee on the basis of merit.

This year, we will be considering five types of sessions: first, conventional panels and individual papers. Second, we have added poster sessions, workshops, and roundtables. We urge potential participants who wish to submit work in progress to use one of these last three types. The Program Committee will organize individual papers into panels.

We encourage submissions from the array of communities that shape the Puerto Rican experience: university and college professors, independent scholars, community and community organizers, teachers and intellectual workers, artists, and graduate and undergraduate students.

Send two copies of completed proposals by February 15, 2006 to:

Only proposals from paid up PRSA members will be accepted for inclusion in the 7th Conference. Membership dues must be received by the PRSA Secretariat by February 15, 2006. Membership dues, information and a downloadable membership form are available at PRSA’s website. Presenters must preregister by July 15, 2006 to have their names included in the Conference Program. Panel, poster session, workshop, and roundtable organizers must confirm that ALL participants in their session are PRSA members in good standing.

The Latino Studies Program at Cornell University, home of the PRSA Secretariat, is organizing the Conference in conjunction with other institutions. If you have any questions regarding the PRSA 2006 Conference, please contact the Chair of the Program Committee, Dr. Gladys Jiménez-Muñoz. You may also contact the PRSA Secretariat at the address above.

Vilma Santiago-Irizarry, PRSA President
Cornell University
Luis Aponte-Parés, PRSA Vice-President
University of Massachusetts-Boston
Gladys Jiménez-Muñoz, Program Committee Chair
Binghamton University, SUNY