FMS 2006 Summer Seminar
July 24 – August 4, 2006

"Theory from the Periphery:
Minority Struggles for Social Justice"

The 2006 FMS Summer Institute will be held at Stanford University.

Seminar Leaders:

Michael Hames-García
Barbara and Carlisle Moore Distinguished Visiting Professor, University of Oregon and Associate Professor of English, Binghamton University

Bio:
Michael Hames-García grew up primarily in Oregon, where he also attended college at Willamette University, receiving a B.A. in English. He then moved to New York, earning a Ph.D. in English from Cornell University and taking his first teaching position at the State University of New York at Binghamton. He was granted tenure and promoted to Associate Professor of English at Binghamton in 2004, with joint titles in Comparative Literature and in Philosophy, Interpretation, and Culture. He served as director of undergraduate studies for the English Department from 2003-2005. He was also a Hewlett Visiting Fellow at Stanford University's Research Institute for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (RICSRE) in 2002-2003, and is currently the Moore Distinguished Visiting Professor of English at the University of Oregon. (more)

and

Paula M. L. Moya
Associate Professor and Vice-Chair of English, Stanford University

Bio:
A native of New Mexico, Paula Moya spent time in Texas (where she earned a B.A. in English at the University of Houston) and New York (where she earned a Ph.D. in English at Cornell University) before coming to California in August 1996 to begin a career as an assistant professor at Stanford University. After being tenured and being promoted to the rank of associate professor of English in January 2002, Moya served for three years as Director of the Undergraduate Program in the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE) and as Chair of the Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CSRE) major. (more)

Seminar Description:
Over the last few decades, scholars concerned with social justice have offered excellent accounts of local, specific, and concrete struggles that often point to, without necessarily explaining, global structural processes. Other social theorists have produced powerful analyses of oppression and domination at the global level, but these often do not take into account day-to-day experiences or local variation. Therefore, this course will be organized around several research questions all of which relate to the necessary mediation between the "local" and the "global," and to the role of identity in that mediation.

In this two-week, intensive summer seminar, we will be concerned with analyzing, evaluating, and producing theory from the perspective of minorities struggling for social justice. Some of the questions we will ask include: How can theorists both develop theory praxically and extrapolate it to larger contexts? How do we move from individual experiences to larger social meanings? How might we analyze broader social movements while attending to individual subjectivities? How do our social contexts affect our personal choices? The readings for the course will be drawn from the disciplines of sociology, philosophy, literary theory, and psychology, and will feature such thinkers as Linda Martín Alcoff, Manuel Castells, Daniel Little, María Lugones, Walter Mignolo, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Satya Mohanty, Tobin Siebers, Julia Sudbury, Rosemarie Garland Thomson, and Alison Wylie.

The seminar will incorporate several workshops, including one taught by the poet, essayist, and activist Minnie Bruce Pratt (Syracuse University), and another jointly led by the social psychologists Hazel Markus, Dorothy Steele, and Claude Steele (all from Stanford University).

Seminar members will participate in the two-day colloquium organized by the Future of Minority Studies Research Project on July 28-29.

Eligibility:
Doctoral students who have completed at least two years of their Ph.D. work and junior faculty in temporary or tenure-track positions who are working on minority issues. Minority scholars and those who are at HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions are especially encouraged to apply. For the twelve scholars selected to participate in the summer institute, subsidy will be available to cover room, board, and (if needed) travel costs. FMS does not charge tuition or fees. Application deadline: December 20, 2005.