Press Release

For Immediate Release
Contact: Michael Lujan Bevacqua
futures0308@gmail.com

‘Postcolonial’ Futures in a Not-Yet Postcolonial World:
Locating the Intersections of Ethnic, Indigenous and Postcolonial Studies

Conference Will Look at the Futures of Indigenous, Ethnic and Postcolonial Peoples Across the World

(San Diego, February 10, 2008) On March 5-7, 2008, the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, San Diego will be hosting a conference titled “Postcolonial Futures in a Not Yet Postcolonial World: Locating the Intersections of Ethnic, Indigenous and Postcolonial Studies.” This conference will bring together scholars and activists from the United States and from around the world, who are engaged in organizing and scholarly work across ethnic, indigenous and postcolonial communities.

Traditionally, Ethnic Studies deals with minority peoples in first world nations. Postcolonial Studies is about the formerly colonized, now developing world. Indigenous Studies engages with communities that claim ties to land which the modern world rarely respects and they constitute nations, but are not nation states. Each of these disciplines is widely thought to be divided because of the specific segments of the global population they represent.

Yet across the world, these communities are far from divided, but rather exist entangled with each other. Indigenous people, while often numerical minorities are nonetheless fundamentally different than other ethnic minorities around issues of sovereignty, citizenship and immigration. Postcolonial nations, which were born from fiery revolutionary fervor, now assume the violence of their former colonizers, against indigenous peoples. At the same time, in places such as Central and Latin America, a resurgence of Third World Leftist politics is being accompanied by a resurgence of indigenous populism.

The goal of this conference is to bring scholars and practitioners from each of these disciplines, as well as those who work at the intersections of these disciplines, into conversation with each other, in hopes of finding better ways to address the structures and systems of violence which mark the contemporary world.

Our conference will open with a panel of representatives from different local organizations who will discuss the ways in which San Diego, fits into the theme of the conference by addressing issues related to immigration and borders, militarization, and local Native American tribes.

The conference is made possible through support from the following UCSD offices, departments and programs: Dean of Social Sciences, California Cultures in Comparative Perspective, Office of the Senior Vice Chancellor, Graduate Student Association, The Center for Comparative Immigration Studies, the Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies, and the Departments of Ethnic Studies, History, Visual Arts and Literature.


What: “Postcolonial Futures in a Not Yet Postcolonial World: Locating the Intersections of Ethnic, Indigenous and Postcolonial Studies”
Time and Place: Wednesday to Friday, March 5-7, 2008. Social Sciences Building and the Institute of the Americas Complex, University of California, San Diego
Admission: Free and Open to the Public

For more information please contact Michael Lujan Bevacqua at futures0308@gmail.com.

Keynote Speakers:
Angana Chatterji, California Institute of Integral Studies
Denise da Silva, University of California, San Diego
Vicente Diaz, University of Michigan
Jesse Mills, University of San Diego
Renya Ramirez, University of California, Santa Cruz
Chandan Reddy, Washington State University

Local Org. Panel:
Louis Guassac, Kumeyaay Border Task Force
Bernice Paipa, Kumeyaay Cultural Repatriation Committee
Andrea Guerrero, American Civil Liberties Union
Mshinda Nyofu, UJIMA Institute for Civic Responsibility