Critical Ethnic Studies Committee: Academic Labor, Austerity, and Authoritarianism

Session Submission Type: Non-Paper Session: Professional Development Format

Abstract

With the acceleration of racist state repression, resurgent nationalism, and intensified gendered violence, our work as American Studies scholars has become more critical and also more vulnerable than ever. This session is designed to address new pedagogical and professional questions emerging in this perilous moment. Co-organized by the Critical Ethnic Studies Caucus and the Marxism Caucus, this professional development panel will curate an urgent conversation about "Academic Labor, Austerity, and Authoritarianism." Our goal is to map the contemporary challenges facing American Studies scholars, with a particular emphasis on the impact facing students, contingent faculty, unemployed American Studies scholars, and junior faculty. In keeping with the theme of this year’s conference, we seek to highlight and discuss the imaginative alternatives emerging from scholar-activists who engage with university as a crucial site of struggle.

This panel is organized in a non-traditional format. We will begin with thirteen invited speakers, who will take a “minute on the mic” to raise brief questions in their respective domains. We will then use the remaining session time for moderated breakout group discussions, followed by a broader report-back on next steps, with the hopes of generating the beginnings of a statement on academic labor, drawing on the ASA labor statement, with expanded guidelines based on the work discussed during the session. This session involves representatives of multiple caucuses and is co-sponsored by the Student Committee and the Disability Studies committee.

This is a sponsored Critical Ethnic Studies Panel

Sub Unit

• American Studies Association Annual Meeting

Chair

• Ronak K. Kapadia, University of Illinois at Chicago

Panelists

• Jordan T. Camp, CUNY Graduate School and University Center

• Christina Heatherton, Barnard College

• Ronak K. Kapadia, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Liat Ben-Moshe, University of Toledo

• Rachel Ida Buff, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

• Umayyah Cable, Hartwick College

• David M Hernandez, Mount Holyoke College

• Michelle Jones, New York University

• Tiffany King, Georgia State University

• Nicholas D Krebs, Washington State University

• Marisol Lebron, The University of Texas at Austin

• Jennifer Marley, The University of New Mexico

• Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Princeton University

• Yvonne Wichman, Kennesaw State University

• Samantha Parsons, UnKoch My Campus