Conference to address issues of 'race' and strategies for fighting racism

What is 'race' as applied to human beings? How is the elusive concept of 'race' used in fashioning group identities and deployed in the service of relations of power? How can scholars and community activists work together to combat racism?

These are some of the issues that will be front and centre Oct. 23-25 as some 300 academics and activists, including more than 70 presenters from nine countries, gather at UVic to participate in the conference "Making History, Constructing 'Race': Situating 'Race' in Time, Space and Theory." The multidisciplinary conference--unusual in bringing scholars and race relations workers together--is being organized by UVic graduate students and faculty members together with Camosun College and numerous Victoria area community groups (listed below).

Two keynote speeches will be free and open to the public, as part of the university's Lansdowne Lecture series: Ann Laura Stoler of the University of Michigan will speak on "Racist Visions for the 21st Century: On the Cultural Politics of the French Radical Right" Oct. 23 at 7:30 p.m. in Begbie 159, and Jeannette Armstrong of the Okanagan Nation will speak on "Racing: The Global Systematization of Race Violence" on Oct. 24 from 1:30-2:15 p.m. in Begbie 159. Other keynote speakers include Sunera Thobani, SFU; Ali Rattansi, City University (London); Roy Miki, SFU; and Roxana Ng, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education/University of Toronto.

The conference will also feature literary readings, performances, and video presentations. The preliminary conference program and registration information are available at the conference website at .

Support for the conference comes from the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, British Columbia Ministry Responsible for Multiculturalism and Immigration Community Liaison Division, UVic's faculties of humanities, law and social sciences, the Humanities Centre, the departments of history, political science, sociology and women's studies, and the offices of Equity Issues and the President. Community organizations involved in organizing the conference are the Inter Cultural Association, Volunteer Victoria Multicultural Access Project, Victoria Immigrant and Refugee Centre, First Nations InterAgency Team, Capital Region Race Relations, the Melanin Family Health Network, and Camosun College's "Not in Our College Campaign", ESL Diversity Task Force, First Nations Education Programme, and First Nations Student Association.

For information about registration, call UVic Conference Management at (250) 721-8750.

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