Call for Papers

The 8th Biennial Interdisciplinary Conference on Race: Race and the Freedom to Learn

Nov. 7–9, 2024

The freedom to learn has been inextricably linked to race across time and space. From the era of enslavement in the Americas to book burning in Nazi Germany down to the present humans around the globe have demanded the freedom to learn as a fundamental human right. This right to learn is intrinsically linked to race, gender, sexuality, and class -the denial of which diminishes society while threatening democracy. Denying groups and individuals the right to learn impacts everyone in society and oftentimes involves the censoring of curriculum, arrest of educators, and book banning or book burning. The freedom to learn has been particularly denied to marginalized communities including people of color, women, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community.

In November 2024, the International Interdisciplinary Conference on Race will focus on “Race and the Freedom to Learn” and invites papers from a range of disciplines, including history, anthropology, education, gender studies, ethnic studies, sociology, and other disciplines that have grappled with this subject. We welcome individual papers or complete panels from scholars, educators, artists, and activists whose work is related to race, its intersections, and the freedom to learn in history, society, and culture. We also seek papers from international scholars and offer a few travel stipends to scholars traveling from abroad to attend the conference.

Featured keynote speakers: Crystal R Sanders, Ph.D. (Emory) and Craig Wilder, Ph.D. (MIT)

Guidelines for Submission

Paper proposals should include the paper’s title, a summary of the paper, speaker contact information, and a one-page abbreviated CV for each presenter/panel chair). The summary should be 250 words and make a clear argument linked to the conference theme on race and the freedom to learn. We are also open to roundtables, teacher workshops, film discussions, posters, art displays, and performances.

Deadline

May 1, 2024 | Please submit your proposal to: muraceconference@monmouth.edu

Possible Proposal Areas

• HBCUs
• Critical Race Theory in Education
• Pedagogies of Resistance
• The 1619 Project
• Book Burning in Nazi Germany
• “Woke” Education and Culture Wars
• Civil Rights
• Indigenous Knowledge and Histories
• Multilingual Education
• Censorship
• Slavery in K-12 Education
• Hillsdale 1776 Curriculum
• Laws on Book Banning
• Race and School Boards
• Education and the Carceral State
• LGBTQIA+ Curriculum
• Gender, Education, and the Middle East
• Disability Rights Movement
• Moms for Liberty
• Erosion of Tenure and Academic Freedom
• Admissions, Access, and Exclusion

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