SYMPOSIUM: Cedric Robinson’s Radical Thought:
Toward Critical Social Theories and Practice
November 5-7/ Agenda

Vision Statement:

The goal of this symposium is to reflect on Cedric Robinson’s charge in Black Marxism to recuperate and recover the radical tradition and to work toward engendering that radical tradition in the academy. While some are currently questioning the futility of Black Studies and the many manifestations of the study of race and power as disciplines, knowledge production centered on emancipatory projects continue to build on the legacy of the Black radical tradition.

Concerned by the aggravated assault on institutional practices directed at transforming the university’s culture and practices of knowledge production, we have decided to convene a meeting of the activists, teachers, archivists, and artists who have answered this charge to engage and forge a radical tradition to assess the state of the field and to demonstrate our concern with institutionalizing it for future generations.

Moving beyond a simple rehearsal of the philosophical trends in Black Studies, we want to attend to the historical emergence of departments, programs, centers, and institutes concerned with race throughout the academy. Such historiographical excavation produces more complex and richer social and political histories. We believe that institutionalizing a field of study must be concerned with institutionalizing content first and foremost.

For us, the most compelling aspect of Black Studies is that communities so often pathologized by universities bequested these same institutions with the task of studying emancipatory projects. Thus, a constructive assessment of the vitality of Black Studies must: 1) bring together key players from non-university and university settings, 2) acknowledge the impact of the relationships and lineages cultivated between teachers and students, 3) document the wide range of approaches that communities have taken to envision emancipatory projects, 4) be inclusive, 5) address the difficulties and possibilities of interdisciplinary and collaborative work, 6) cast out fear about the intellectual quality of research in Black Studies, and 7) make a solid and life-long commitment to excellence in teaching and research, and 8) finally stop apologizing for or being ashamed of its existence.

Because of our own commitments to defining the lineage of Black Studies as coming explicitly out of a radical political tradition, we reject the idea that its history is solely the history of ever more complex semantics, or that its history reflects an undesirable burden like a harness or a plough. Rather we find the lineage of Black Studies particularly cogent and compelling precisely because of its inclusiveness, imagination, and ability to keep all of our eyes on emancipation.
Robinson’s charge provided a compelling model for excavating and recovering the archive of the radical tradition through forming lasting relationships built on mutual respect and trust with other scholars. A symposium that deploys the actual archive, pedagogical strategies, and intellectual network modeled by our teacher Cedric Robinson is a direct and immediate expression of the need to consider the "lineage" of Black Studies. Though scholars are always entitled to choose what philosophies and what teachers they will invest with their trust and their intellectual development, we know that our training and Robinson’s refusal to make us over in his own image was a rare commitment to intellectual integrity and was the basis for sound pedagogy in Black Studies, particularly with regard to training doctoral students.

In the final analysis, the field is alive not only through the knowledge we produce but also through the potent impact of the relationships that we each have to each other. Indeed, the field is alive because we choose to bring to it our energy, commitment, and passion.

Our major concern, then, with institutionalizing the field is a need to refocus the debate on Knowledge, Content, and Methodologies. Using three concepts oriented to practice: Teaching (how to cultivate well-trained practitioners in the academy, in public service, and in the media), Building Networks (how to set up a research network and research program), and Archives (how to use and expand the archives) we hope to assess the state of research on race and to institutionalize the knowledge, content, and methodologies for conducting rigorous research on race.

We will use a seminar format for part of the day to create space for working groups on the following topics: Using Black Marxism, Race and Nationalism, Non Profit/ Non Governmental Community and Grassroots Organizations, Culture and Personality, Prison Industrial Complex, Creating an Archive, New Media, Governance and State Administration: Higher Education, Third Worldism and Development in Global Cities, Media Activism, Health Crisis, and Intellectual Historiography, Trafficking in U.S. Empire. Through these working groups, we seek to 1) create a forum through which democratic debates can flourish, 2) map a research program from which we can collectively activate, and 3) establish a network of concerned scholars, activists, and artists that are committed to the excavation of radical historical traditions and the cultivation of a radical academy.

In terms of our areas of expertise, our planning committee is comprised of political scientists that represent a breadth of critical social science applications and theories. Each of us has at least a decade of teaching and leadership in Women's Studies, Chicano Studies, and Black Studies. We were joined by Cedric's colleagues in the coordinating committee to make this symposium a reality. As interdisciplinary scholars we reflect a wide range of responses to the charge to recuperate and recover the radical tradition."

We sincerely hope that you will join us in making the vision of this symposium a reality.

Planning and Coordinating Committee Members:

Francoise Cromer, Ph.D. CUNY-BCC
Marisela Marquez Ph.D, UC Santa Barbara
H. L. T. Quan Ph.D. Associated Colleges of the Midwest
Tiffany Willoughby-Herard Ph.D. UC San Diego and Univ. of Michigan, Flint
Gerardo Pigeon, Ph.D.Professor, Black Studies UC Santa Barbara
Christopher Newfield, Ph.D. Professor, English UC, Santa Barbara
Sylvia Y. Curtis, Dance & Black Studies Librarian, Library UC, Santa Barbara

Our sponsors for the Cedric J. Robinson symposium include:

• The Chancellor's office
• The UC-HRI, Univeristy of Califoria Humanities Research Institutute
• The UCSB Affirmative Office
• UCSB Libraries
• The Center for Creativity and Innovation
• UCSB IHC, Interdisciplinary Humanities Center
• Political Science Dept.
• The Center for Black Studies
• KCSB 91.9 FM
• The Center for Faculty Outreach
• The MCC, Multicultural Center
• The Dean of Social Sciences
• The Graduate Division
  
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