LACUNY Institute Call for Proposals

Call for Proposals
Race Matters: Libraries, Racism, and Antiracism
LACUNY Institute 2016

Date: May 20, 2016
Location: Brooklyn College, City University of New York

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Jelani Cobb
Associate Professor of History and Director, Africana Studies Institute, University of Connecticut; staff writer, The New Yorker; winner of the 2015 Sidney Hillman Prize for Opinion and Analysis Journalism and author of several books, including The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress

Submission Deadline: January 25, 2016

http://lacuny.org/institute-call-for-proposals/

Critical Race Theory holds “that race is central, not peripheral, to American thought and life” and “that racism is common and ordinary rather than rare and episodic” (The Oxford Companion to American Law). From hashtags (#BlackLivesMatter, #CharlestonSyllabus, #BlackOnCampus) to podcasts (About Race, Intersection with Jamil Smith, Real Talk with Nekima Levy-Pounds), from city streets to college campuses, these are some of the spaces and places where dialogues about race and racism are happening. This is where the theme for the 2016 LACUNY Institute begins, where it seeks to join the national conversation on race.

In addressing this theme, we are interested in amplifying and extending recent important conversations and scholarship in the library profession which have interrogated the role of libraries in systemic racism, the collusion of library neutrality in oppression, and white privilege and fragility in the profession, among other issues. Libraries attract professionals with “good” and “noble” intentions, but as Ta-Nehisi Coates writes in Between the World and Me, “‘Good intention’ is a hall pass through history.”

How can we move the dialogue beyond good intention, where it has been mired in well-meaning diversity and multiculturalism initiatives? How do we move the profession from racial liberalism, as articulated by Lani Guinier, to racial literacy, which “requires us to rethink race as an instrument of social, geographic, and economic control of both whites and blacks”? How can and do libraries contribute to the national conversation on race, racism, and anti-racism? What are the foundations that librarianship can use to address racism both within the profession and society at large?

The LACUNY Institute Committee seeks proposals that address race in libraries, archives, and the information studies, across myriad roles (staff, faculty, students, patrons, etc.) and functions (technical services, public services, instruction, etc.).

Example topics include but are not limited to:

– Counter-narratives
– Race and critical information literacy and pedagogy
– Race and racism in information organization
– Intersectionality
– Microaggressions
– Libraries, race, and access
– What is and is not collected

The Institute will have three tracks: panel presentations, facilitated dialogues, and alt-sessions.

– Panel papers (15 minutes/presenter): Moderated panel presentations with time for questions and discussion.
– Facilitated dialogues (45 minutes): Teams of two lead a discussion on topic of their choice related to the theme, with one person presenting context and the other facilitating conversation.
– Alt-sessions (15-30 minutes): An opportunity for exploring topics through multiple ways of knowing (e.g., short documentary, spoken word, performance art).

Please submit proposals, including a 300-500 word abstract by January 25, 2016.

The goal of this event is to create a space for respectful dialogue and debate about these critical issues. We will be publishing a formal code of conduct, but the event organizers will actively strive to create a public space in which multiple perspectives can be heard and no one voice dominates.

Questions may be directed to Jean Amaral, jamaral@bmcc.cuny.edu.