CFP: #ALT-MKE Conference at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

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*Call for Proposals: #ALT-MKEA conference at the Center for 21st Century
Studies, the University of Wisconsin-MilwaukeeApril 30-May 2, 2020*

In July 2020, the City of Milwaukee will host the Democratic National
Convention where leaders will gather to nominate a presidential candidate
and to ratify a platform with national and global agendas. The DNC chose
Milwaukee because it sees Wisconsin as emblematic of the key Midwestern and
post-industrial states that the Democrats must win to retake the
presidency. In turn, Milwaukee sought to host the Democratic Convention as
an opportunity to remake its image as a thriving, multicultural city.

During the DNC, predictable narratives will be trotted out about Milwaukee:
of segregation, crime, poverty, and blight, alongside those championing a
resurgent economy and new forms of capitalist urban development. The DNC
marks a supposedly transformational moment from which new solutions will
emerge. But the narratives of blight and rebirth=E2=80=93articulated not on=
ly by
political leaders but often by academics as well=E2=80=93often reify what t=
hey are
intended to counteract. The spectacle of the DNC and of its capitalist
solutions mask a panoply of more ordinary efforts underway all around us,
as movements, activists, and everyday people demand new ways of seeing,
organizing, and acting in the world to address the overwhelming crises of
the day. Indeed, Milwaukee is like many cities in the US: a babel of
ecological, social, and political perspectives, a metropolis at a
crossroads of critical thinking, and a place of promise and failure.

UWM=E2=80=99s Center for 21st Century Studies explores these multiple persp=
ectives
in its spring 2020 conference, =E2=80=9C#ALT-MKE: Finding New Answers in th=
e 21st
Century City.=E2=80=9D  At this critical juncture, we must rethink our poli=
tical
imaginations and critical engagements. Can Milwaukee, and other urban areas
like it, offer novel answers to the intractable problems that confront us?
If the city is an answer, what questions must we ask?

#ALT-MKE will highlight how the temporality and space of the ordinary city
offers new epistemologies and practices that are engaged in the global
struggle to combat racialized disinvestment, a fractured body politic,
ecological crisis, and urban abandonment. The spectacles offered by the
DNC=E2=80=93whether political, mediated, or financial in nature=E2=80=93lea=
d only to
institutional inaction and failure, wherein lie opportunities for ongoing
forms of resistance to find new and stronger footings.

From the Situationists and Russian Constructivists, to suffragists,
tactical urbanists, the Movement for Black Lives, and the Occupy movement,
people have always imagined and sought new ways of life to challenge
oppressive structures and violent erasure. Under the increasingly dire
pressures of climate crisis, racial capitalism, ongoing settler
displacement, destructive national politics, and crushing inequality, the
time has come to reclaim our future by reframing these issues through the
refocused lens of the 21st century city.

At the core of this investigation is our focus on reframing cities as
political and ideological acts that hold within them normative values of
aesthetics, power/resistance, public life, and citizenship. By inviting
explorations of critical, decolonial, anti-racist politics, this conference
hopes to bring together new forms of analysis, methods of urban
historiography, organizing, and engaged forms of scholarship.

The conference seeks to highlight the undercommons and the
counternarratives fomented in the ordinary life of spaces and places. We
will ask how contested knowledges and stories of a city may be experienced
across different and intersecting power relations that organize bodies and
space. We hope that accounts of everyday practices, local knowledges, and
organizing will help illuminate how urban residents resist, adapt and
reformat conventional structures of power, governance, and order. We do not
expect to find a single solution, but to foster a variety of grounded
strategies and projects that we aim to highlight, bring together, and learn
from.

Confirmed plenary speakers for the conference are: *Fatima El-Tayeb*
(University of California San Diego), *Dasha Kelly Hamilton* (Wisconsin=E2=
=80=99s
Poet Laureate), *Brian Larkin* (Barnard College/Columbia University), *Moni=
que
Liston* (Ubuntu Research), *Rick Lowe* (University of Houston), *AbdouMaliq
Simone* (University of Sheffield).

*We seek proposals for 15-20 minute presentations which could address any
of the following topics:*

   - Racial capitalism
   - Climate, ecology, water justice, and cities
   - Urban culture/urbanities
   - Water and land issues, particularly as they pertain to indigenous
   rights
   - Historiography of the city, historiography of urban political, social,
   or activist movements
   - Artistic practices and urban space
   - New ways to read and interpret cities=E2=80=94epistemologies of the ur=
ban
   - The dynamics of race, class, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality in urban
   spaces
   - Narratives of cities, urban crime, and/or segregation (in literature,
   film, or other media)
   - Indigenous knowledges and practices
   - Local foodways and agricultural practices
   - Urban design and sustainability (including transportation)
   - Settler colonialism and decolonizing cities
   - Cities and biopolitics/biopower
   - The urban in relation to the suburban/exurban

Please send your abstract (up to 250 words) and a brief (1-page) CV by *Mon=
day,
January 13, 2020* to Richard Grusin, Director, Center for 21st Century
Studies, at [email protected].

--=20
Maureen E Ryan, PhD
Deputy Director, Center for 21st Century Studies
The University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
[email protected] | uwm.edu/c21

Now out from Routledge:
*Lifestyle Media and Gender in American Culture: Gender, Class, and the
Politics of Ordinariness
<https://www.routledge.com/Lifestyle-Media-in-American-Culture-Gender-Class=
-and-the-Politics-of/Ryan/p/book/9781138206465>*
&
*Emergent Feminisms: Complicating a Postfeminist Media Culture*
<https://www.routledge.com/Emergent-Feminisms-Complicating-a-Postfeminist-M=
edia-Culture/Keller-Ryan/p/book/9780815386612>

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
General list info and FAQ: http://comm.umn.edu/~grodman/cultstud.html

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<div dir=3D"ltr"><div class=3D"gmail_default" style=3D"font-family:tahoma,s=
ans-serif"><b>Call for Proposals: #ALT-MKE<br>A conference at the Center fo=
r 21st Century Studies, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee<br>April 30-M=
ay 2, 2020</b><br><br>In July 2020, the City of Milwaukee will host the Dem=
ocratic National Convention where leaders will gather to nominate a preside=
ntial candidate and to ratify a platform with national and global agendas. =
The DNC chose Milwaukee because it sees Wisconsin as emblematic of the key =
Midwestern and post-industrial states that the Democrats must win to retake=
 the presidency. In turn, Milwaukee sought to host the Democratic Conventio=
n as an opportunity to remake its image as a thriving, multicultural city.<=
br><br>During the DNC, predictable narratives will be trotted out about Mil=
waukee: of segregation, crime, poverty, and blight, alongside those champio=
ning a resurgent economy and new forms of capitalist urban development. The=
 DNC marks a supposedly transformational moment from which new solutions wi=
ll emerge. But the narratives of blight and rebirth=E2=80=93articulated not=
 only by political leaders but often by academics as well=E2=80=93often rei=
fy what they are intended to counteract. The spectacle of the DNC and of it=
s capitalist solutions mask a panoply of more ordinary efforts underway all=
 around us, as movements, activists, and everyday people demand new ways of=
 seeing, organizing, and acting in the world to address the overwhelming cr=
ises of the day. Indeed, Milwaukee is like many cities in the US: a babel o=
f ecological, social, and political perspectives, a metropolis at a crossro=
ads of critical thinking, and a place of promise and failure.<br><br>UWM=E2=
=80=99s Center for 21st Century Studies explores these multiple perspective=
s in its spring 2020 conference, =E2=80=9C#ALT-MKE: Finding New Answers in =
the 21st Century City.=E2=80=9D =C2=A0At this critical juncture, we must re=
think our political imaginations and critical engagements. Can Milwaukee, a=
nd other urban areas like it, offer novel answers to the intractable proble=
ms that confront us?=C2=A0 If the city is an answer, what questions must we=
 ask?<br><br>#ALT-MKE will highlight how the temporality and space of the o=
rdinary city offers new epistemologies and practices that are engaged in th=
e global struggle to combat racialized disinvestment, a fractured body poli=
tic, ecological crisis, and urban abandonment. The spectacles offered by th=
e DNC=E2=80=93whether political, mediated, or financial in nature=E2=80=93l=
ead only to institutional inaction and failure, wherein lie opportunities f=
or ongoing forms of resistance to find new and stronger footings.<br><br>Fr=
om the Situationists and Russian Constructivists, to suffragists, tactical =
urbanists, the Movement for Black Lives, and the Occupy movement, people ha=
ve always imagined and sought new ways of life to challenge oppressive stru=
ctures and violent erasure. Under the increasingly dire pressures of climat=
e crisis, racial capitalism, ongoing settler displacement, destructive nati=
onal politics, and crushing inequality, the time has come to reclaim our fu=
ture by reframing these issues through the refocused lens of the 21st centu=
ry city.<br><br>At the core of this investigation is our focus on reframing=
 cities as political and ideological acts that hold within them normative v=
alues of aesthetics, power/resistance, public life, and citizenship. By inv=
iting explorations of critical, decolonial, anti-racist politics, this conf=
erence hopes to bring together new forms of analysis, methods of urban hist=
oriography, organizing, and engaged forms of scholarship.<br><br>The confer=
ence seeks to highlight the undercommons and the counternarratives fomented=
 in the ordinary life of spaces and places. We will ask how contested knowl=
edges and stories of a city may be experienced across different and interse=
cting power relations that organize bodies and space. We hope that accounts=
 of everyday practices, local knowledges, and organizing will help illumina=
te how urban residents resist, adapt and reformat conventional structures o=
f power, governance, and order. We do not expect to find a single solution,=
 but to foster a variety of grounded strategies and projects that we aim to=
 highlight, bring together, and learn from.=C2=A0</div><div class=3D"gmail_=
default" style=3D"font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></div><div class=3D"gm=
ail_default" style=3D"font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">Confirmed plenary spea=
kers for the conference are: <b>Fatima El-Tayeb</b> (University of Californ=
ia San Diego), <b>Dasha Kelly Hamilton</b> (Wisconsin=E2=80=99s Poet Laurea=
te), <b>Brian Larkin</b> (Barnard College/Columbia University), <b>Monique =
Liston</b> (Ubuntu Research), <b>Rick Lowe</b> (University of Houston), <b>=
AbdouMaliq Simone</b> (University of Sheffield).<br><br><b>We seek proposal=
s for 15-20 minute presentations which could address any of the following t=
opics:</b><ul><li>Racial capitalism</li><li>Climate, ecology, water justice=
, and cities</li><li>Urban culture/urbanities</li><li>Water and land issues=
, particularly as they pertain to indigenous rights</li><li>Historiography =
of the city, historiography of urban political, social, or activist movemen=
ts</li><li>Artistic practices and urban space</li><li>New ways to read and =
interpret cities=E2=80=94epistemologies of the urban</li><li>The dynamics o=
f race, class, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality in urban spaces</li><li>Nar=
ratives of cities, urban crime, and/or segregation (in literature, film, or=
 other media)</li><li>Indigenous knowledges and practices</li><li>Local foo=
dways and agricultural practices</li><li>Urban design and sustainability (i=
ncluding transportation)</li><li>Settler colonialism and decolonizing citie=
s</li><li>Cities and biopolitics/biopower</li><li>The urban in relation to =
the suburban/exurban</li></ul></div><div class=3D"gmail_default" style=3D"f=
ont-family:tahoma,sans-serif">Please send your abstract (up to 250 words) a=
nd a brief (1-page) CV by <b>Monday, January 13, 2020</b> to Richard Grusin=
, Director, Center for 21st Century Studies, at <a href=3D"mailto:[email protected]=
du">[email protected]</a>.<br clear=3D"all"></div><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir=
=3D"ltr" class=3D"gmail_signature" data-smartmail=3D"gmail_signature"><div =
dir=3D"ltr"><div><div dir=3D"ltr"><div dir=3D"ltr"><div dir=3D"ltr"><div di=
r=3D"ltr"><div dir=3D"ltr"><div dir=3D"ltr"><div dir=3D"ltr"><div dir=3D"lt=
r"><div dir=3D"ltr"><div dir=3D"ltr"><font face=3D"tahoma, sans-serif">Maur=
een E Ryan, PhD<br></font></div><div style=3D"color:rgb(0,0,0);letter-spaci=
ng:normal;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><font face=3D"tahoma, sans-seri=
f"><font size=3D"2">Deputy Director,=C2=A0</font><font size=3D"2">Center fo=
r 21st Century Studies=C2=A0</font></font></div><div style=3D"color:rgb(0,0=
,0);letter-spacing:normal;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><font face=3D"t=
ahoma, sans-serif"><font size=3D"2">The University of Wisconsin -=C2=A0</fo=
nt><font size=3D"2">Milwaukee</font></font></div><div><font face=3D"tahoma,=
 sans-serif"><font size=3D"2" style=3D"color:rgb(0,0,0);letter-spacing:norm=
al"><a href=3D"mailto:[email protected]" target=3D"_blank">[email protected]</a> =
|=C2=A0</font><font style=3D"letter-spacing:normal"><font size=3D"2"><a hre=
f=3D"https://uwm.edu/c21/" rel=3D"noopener noreferrer" style=3D"letter-spac=
ing:normal" target=3D"_blank">uwm.edu/c21</a></font></font></font></div><di=
v><span style=3D"font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px;letter-spac=
ing:0.2px"><br></span></div><div><span style=3D"font-family:tahoma,sans-ser=
if;font-size:12.8px;letter-spacing:0.2px">Now out from Routledge:=C2=A0</sp=
an><br></div><div><font face=3D"tahoma, sans-serif"><i><a href=3D"https://w=
ww.routledge.com/Lifestyle-Media-in-American-Culture-Gender-Class-and-the-P=
olitics-of/Ryan/p/book/9781138206465" target=3D"_blank">Lifestyle Media and=
 Gender in American Culture: Gender, Class, and the Politics of Ordinarines=
s</a></i><br>&amp;<br><a href=3D"https://www.routledge.com/Emergent-Feminis=
ms-Complicating-a-Postfeminist-Media-Culture/Keller-Ryan/p/book/97808153866=
12" target=3D"_blank"><i>Emergent Feminisms: Complicating a Postfeminist Me=
dia Culture</i></a><br></font></div><div><font face=3D"tahoma, sans-serif">=
<br></font></div><div dir=3D"ltr"><br><br></div></div></div></div></div></d=
iv></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
General list info and FAQ: <a href=3D"http://comm.umn.edu/~grodman/cultstud.html" target=3D"_blank">http://comm.umn.edu/~grodman/cultstud.html</a>

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