Reimagining the Hemispheric South

Reimagining the Hemispheric South

Thursday-Friday, January 20-21, 2011
McCune Conference Room, 6020 HSSB

The event will build on contemporary retheorizations of the Global South by exploring the rapid transformation of many relationships, communities, and alliances within the Western hemisphere. While the concept of the Hemispheric South suggests a move away from the nation-state as a primary unit of critical analysis, it also intends to foreground the manner in which imperial, colonial, and nationalist projects, along with predatory forms of capitalism, have shaped definitions of hemispheric “Southernness” in terms of unique poverty (including constructions of indigeneity and the rural), wealth (including natural resources, beauty), and culture (including ideas of authenticity). Overall, the conference will examine the multiple realities, knowledge systems, migrations, and intellectual border crossings associated with “southernness” in the Americas, especially as these dynamics contribute to articulations of the Americas as part of the “Global South.”  In particular, the conference conveners present this event as an opportunity to consider the ways that the Hemispheric South has unfolded as a powerful facet of the social imaginary.  Focusing on relationships and negotiations in the Americas which stretch over many hundreds of years, the conference invites scholars and the interested public to consider the complicated struggles that have ensued in various media as a great array of meanings have been attached to notions of the “southern” in this context.

Conference Panels:

Neoliberalism and Global Imperialism
Rosaura Sanchez (UC San Diego):  “Combating Necessary Illusions in the South: The Failure of Neoliberalism”
Riché Richardson (Cornell University): “Condoleezza Rice and Race”

Performance, Subjectivity and Citizenship
Stephanie Batiste (UC Santa Barbara): “Transnationalism and the Development of US Black National Subjectivities in Performance Culture”
Tiffany Ana Lopez (UC Riverside): “The Staging of Cultural Citizenship in U.S. Latina/o Drama and Visual Production”

Media Circuits I
George Lipsitz (UC Santa Barbara): “Closer Together and Farther Apart: Mediascapes after NAFTA”
Cristina Venegas (UC Santa Barbara): “Post-NAFTA Media Circuits”

Critical Spirit
Desiree Martin (UC Davis): “The Migrant Saint, the Bandit Saint and La Santísima Muerte”
José David Saldivar (Stanford University): “Junot Diaz’s Global South and the Fuku Americanus”

Indigenous Social Movements
Maylei Blackwell (UC Los Angeles): “The Practice of Autonomy in the Age of Neoliberalism:  Indigenous Women’s Organizing, Cross Border Communities, and the Politics of Scale”
Teresa Shewry (UC Santa Barbara):  “Wandering Ecologies: Water and Indigenous Politics”

Keynote Address
Ileana Rodriguez (Ohio State University): “Reimagining the ‘Hemispheric South’: Reflections on the Nature of the Nation-state”

Cultivating Critical Listening: Music and Poetry

Felice Blake (UC Santa Barbara): “Down These Mean Streets with a Saxophone in My Hand: Black and Latino Dialogue in Music and Literature”
Jayna Brown (UC Riverside): “Represent the World Town: Music, War and the Rehabitation of Injured Bodies”
Rachel Adams (Columbia University): “Listening to Gaby: Disability Rights in a Hemispheric Perspective”

Binary Logics, Critical Reversals
Candace Waid (UC Santa Barbara): “The Reverse Slave Narrative”
Esther Lezra (UC Santa Barbara): “Wide-Eyed Monkeys, Thoughtful Tigers and Smiling Snakes: Re-thinking Self-Other Binaries Dividing Colony and Metropole”

Translating Haiti
Susan Gilman (UC Santa Cruz) and Kirsten Silva Gruesz (UC Santa Cruz): “Victor Hugo, Haiti and Translation”

Media Circuits II
Curtis Marez (UC San Diego): “From Third World Cinema to National Video: Visual Technologies and UFW World Building”
Ellen McCracken (UC Santa Barbara): “Vooks and the Hemispheric South: Enhanced E-books and U.S. Latino Literature”

Afro-Hemispheric Difference
Winston James (UC Irvine): “Black Contact Zones: Their Role in the Development of Pan-Africanism, Transnationalism and Internationalism—The Cases of Panama and Costa Rica, 1880-1939”
Shelley Streeby (UC San Diego): “Archiving Alternate Black Worlds and Near Futures: Scrapbooks, Stereopticons, and Social Movements”

Rethinking Plantations
Aisha Finch (UC Los Angeles):  “Sugar’s ‘Unapparent Histories’:  Alternate Temporalities and Rival Geographies in the Caribbean Plantation”
Clyde Woods (UC Santa Barbara): “Neo-plantation, Neo-Liberalism”

**Updates regarding the presentations and the schedule will be posted at the conference web site: http://acc.english.ucsb.edu/conference/

Conference Co-sponsors:

This event is co-sponsored by the UC Humanities Research Institute, the Department of English, the Hemispheric South/s Research Initiative, the Chicano Studies Institute, the Center for Black Studies Research, the American Cultures and Global Contexts Center, and the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center’s Geographies of Place series.

Reimagining the Hemispheric South Conference:

Schedule

Thursday, January 20
9:00AM – 9:15AM
Conference Introduction

9:15AM – 10:20AM
Neoliberalism and Global Imperialism
Rosaura Sanchez:  “Combating Necessary Illusions in the South: The Failure of Neoliberalism”
Riché Richardson: “Condoleezza Rice and Race”

10:25AM – 11:30AM
Performance, Subjectivity and Citizenship
Stephanie Batiste: “Transnationalism and the Development of US Black National Subjectivities in Performance Culture”
Tiffany Ana Lopez: “The Staging of Cultural Citizenship in U.S. Latina/o Drama and Visual Production”

11:35AM – 12:40PM
Media Circuits I
George Lipsitz: “Closer Together and Farther Apart: Mediascapes after NAFTA”
Cristina Venegas: “Post-NAFTA Media Circuits”

12:40PM – 1:30PM
Lunch

1:30PM – 2:35PM
Critical Spirit
Desiree Martin: “Illegal Marginalizations: La Santisima Muerte”
José David Saldivar: “Junot Diaz’s Global South and the Fuku Americanus”

2:40PM – 3:45PM
Indigenous Social Movements
Maylei Blackwell: “The Practice of Autonomy in the Age of Neoliberalism:  Indigenous Women’s Organizing, Cross Border Communities, and the Politics of Scale”
Teresa Shewry:  “Wandering Ecologies: Water and Indigenous Politics”

4:00PM – 5:45PM
Keynote Address
Ileana Rodriguez: “Reimagining the ‘Hemispheric South’: Reflections on the Nature of the Nation-state”

Friday, January 21
9:00AM – 10:50AM
Cultivating Critical Listening: Music and Poetry
Felice Blake: “Down These Mean Streets with a Saxophone in My Hand: Black and Latino Dialogue in Music and Literature”
Jayna Brown: “Represent the World Town: Music, War and the Rehabitation of Injured Bodies”
Rachel Adams: “Listening to Gaby: Disability Rights in a Hemispheric Perspective”

10:55AM – 12:00PM
Media Circuits II
Curtis Marez: “From Third World Cinema to National Video: Visual Technologies and UFW World Building”
Ellen McCracken: “Vooks and the Hemispheric South: Enhanced E-books and U.S. Latino Literature”

12:00PM – 1:00PM
Lunch

1:00PM – 2:05PM
Hemispheric Translations of the Haitian Event
Susan Gilman and Kirsten Silva Gruesz: “Hugo, Melville, and the Black Jacobins”

2:10PM – 3:15PM
Binary Logics, Critical Reversals
Candace Waid: “The Reverse Slave Narrative”
Esther Lezra: “Wide-Eyed Monkeys, Thoughtful Tigers and Smiling Snakes: Re-thinking
Self-Other Binaries Dividing Colony and Metropole”

3:30PM – 4:35PM
Afro-Hemispheric Difference
Winston James: “Black Contact Zones: Their Role in the Development of Pan- Africanism, Transnationalism and Internationalism—The Cases of Panama and Costa Rica, 1880-1939”
Shelley Streeby: “Archiving Alternate Black Worlds and Near Futures: Scrapbooks, Stereopticons, and Social Movements”

4:40PM – 5:45PM
Rethinking Plantations
Aisha Finch:  “Sugar’s ‘Unapparent Histories’:  Alternate Temporalities and Rival Geographies in the Caribbean Plantation”
Clyde Woods: “Neo-plantation, Neo-Liberalism”