Interpreting Inequality and Promoting Justice: Bridging Academia and Activism

The Center for Research on Race and Ethnicity in Society (CRRES) with The Department of Sociology is pleased to announce our fourth interdisciplinary symposium featuring graduate student research. This year’s symposium, entitled Interpreting Inequality and Promoting Justice: Bridging Academia and Activism, seeks to interrogate how academics engage in the collective pursuit of a more just society.

How do academics engage in the collective pursuit of a more just society? Rising tides of injustice and surges in violence throughout various parts of the world – including trends in populism, nationalism, and extremism, the continuing migrant and refugee crises, and discrimination against minority groups – call for scholars’ renewed attentions to this question. The demand for academia’s social and political engagement is compelled further as citizens and communities engage in collective actions – such as Black Lives Matter, Occupy Wall Street, and the Climate Strike – to resist and transform unjust systems. The role of academics in these collective efforts continues to increase in urgency.

Conference Details

The Department of Sociology and the Center for Research on Race & Ethnicity in Society (CRRES) are hosting a conference centered on reexamining academia’s role in the complex dynamics between injustice and resistance. This conference, “Bridging Academia and Activism” will take place on April 17-18, 2020 on the Indiana University, Bloomington campus.

The two-day conference will feature two keynote speakers reflecting on the relationship between academia and activism: Joyce Bell, Associate Professor of Sociology at University of Chicago, and Scot Nakagawa, community organizer, activist, and Senior Partner at the ChangeLab. Each panel will include three to five 15-minute presentations followed by discussant comments and a Q&A session. Presenters not affiliated with Indiana University have a chance to receive a modest endowment to support a shared travel and accommodation expenses. To be considered for this endowment, please fill out the following form: https://forms.gle/JdTKTjKF3ZoxYkEP6.

Call for Submissions

Research topics may include, for example: 1) the emergence, reproduction, or consequences of unjust systems, 2) individual and collective efforts to combat injustice, and 3) theoretical and methodological approaches to academic activism within:

• Politics, Revolution                        
• Education, Institutions                                    
• Human Rights
• (Trans)Nationalism                  
• Eco-criticism & the Environment                            
• (Social) Media
• (Post-)Colonialism                                           
• Neoliberalism, Globalization                              
• Gender, Sexuality
• Identity Formation                        
• Aesthetics & Art                                                         
• Voting, Elections

To apply, please submit an abstract of no more than 500 words to the conference committee via email to crressym@indiana.edu. Submissions should include the abstract both in the text of the email and as a PDF attachment. Applicants should also provide the following information in the email and PDF attachment: title of presentation, author’s name, institutional affiliation, and 3-6 keywords. Applications should be submitted no later than February 18th, 2020. Accepted presenters will be notified by March 1st, 2020.