News & Notes from the Center for Race and Gender
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University of California, Berkeley FAULTLINESNews & Notes from the Center for Race and Gender Spring Edition 2011 Vol. XI, Issue 2 Center for Race and Gender WORDS FROM THE DIRECTOR: THE CENTER FOR RACE & GENDER AT 10 The CRG is an interdisciplinary research his year, 2011, marks the 10th anniversary or co-formation that center dedicated to advancing explorations of the Center for Race and Gender. We attempt to capture the of race, gender and their intersections by T promoting innovative projects and fostering celebrated this occasion at our spring conference, simultaneity of race, collegial exchange. “Catalyzing Knowledge in Dangerous Times,” gender, class and sexuality. University of California, at which I made the following remarks: But whatever the Berkeley Chancellor’s motivation, 638 Barrows Hall Berkeley, CA 94720-1074 “Two things make the CRG special and unique: it turned out to be a Phone: 510-643-8488 fortuitous designation, Fax: 510-642-9810 First, the CRG is the one and only university- as it allowed CRG to http://crg.berkeley.edu funded research center at Cal that was originally focus on unique and EDITOR & LAYOUT created because of direct student action—the innovative scholarship Timothy Charoenying 1999 Third World Liberation Front (TWLF) sit- being done within Professor Evelyn Nakano Glenn CONTRIBUTORS in and hunger strike. Student activists –graduate these frameworks.” Alisa Bierria and undergraduate students not only from the Holly Bartow Ethnic Studies Dept., but from around the RG continues to have special relationships Kevin Escudero university—formed the TWLF, thus essentially with the Departments of Ethnic Studies, Evelyn Nakano Glenn C Kirat Sachdev reconstituting the 1969 movement that had led Gender and Women Studies, and African to the original establishment of Ethnic Studies. American Studies, but we have always To sign up for our mailing list e-mail: The TWLF students were demonstrating in positioned ourselves as a university-wide [email protected] to unsubscribe, email: 1999 against the UCB administration’s refusal to center, drawing in students and faculty from [email protected] fill faculty positions in Ethnic Studies, thereby throughout the university, including not only reneging on its commitment to create a viable the social sciences and humanities, but also To subscribe to Faultlines send us an e-mail request: university department. In the negotiations the Law School and other professional schools, [email protected] that took place in 1999 and 2000, the TWLF the sciences and engineering, and also from local Be sure to include your successfully demanded the filling of faculty colleges and universities and community groups. name and mailing address. positions that would return ES, particularly Native American Studies, to full strength. Two Here are some highlights of the past decade: CRG STAFF Evelyn Nakano Glenn, Director other outcomes of the negotiations were an Alisa Bierria, Associate Director agreement to establish a Multicultural Student 2001-2003: Establishment of offices in the Donna Hiraga-Stephens, Center at the student union, and an agreement 2241 College building. Inauguration of Program Manager to create a research center on race and gender. It Thursday Afternoon Forum series; Inaugural Linda Baker, Admin Assistant Timothy Charoenying, GSR was this agreement that resulted in the formation Conference, “Convergences: Critical Holly Bartow, Intern and initial funding of the CRG. Interventions in the Politics of Race and Kirat Sachdev, Intern Second, CRG is one of only two university Gender.” Launching of distinguished speaker research institutes in the country that is devoted series with Professor Cynthia Enloe speaking ADVISORY COMMITTEE to integrated, intersectional study of race and on “’Martial Races’ and ‘Ladies’ Drinks: Alice Agogino -Thomas Biolsi gender. Many universities have centers dedicated How Racialized Gender Has Militarized the Judith Butler - Steve Crum to research on race or to research on women and World.” Initial dissertation retreat workshops. - Keith Feldman Angela Harris gender, but not to both simultaneously. The First research working group organized—the Charles Henry - Percy Hintzen Elaine Kim -Colleen Lye inclusion of both race and gender in the name Indigeneity Working Group. Beth Piatote of the center was actually the formulation of Martin Sanchez-Jankowski UCB Chancellor Robert Berdahl. I don’t know 2004-2007: Move to expanded quarters on Sandra Smith -Tyler Stovall Ula Taylor - Charis Thompson his reasons for doing so—perhaps he aimed to 6th floor of Barrows Hall, close to the Barrie Thorne - Khatharya Um satisfy two constituencies. I doubt he was aware departments of African American Studies and of theoretical concepts such as intersectionality, Ethnic Studies, followed by the move of the articulation, interlocking systems, co-construction, GWS department to Barrows. International —continued on page 11 2 CRG Islamophobia Initiative Islamophobia Production and Re-Defining the Global “Security” Agenda for the 21st Century The Islamophobia Research & Documentation Project (IRDP), a CRG research initiative, hosted its second international conference on April 21-22. Conference presenters examined how Islamophobic the militarization of U.S. society. Presenters identi- content has been produced and shaped within media fied individuals and institutions that perpetuate Islam- discourse, including news, television, film, and the in- ophobia, the goals of Islamophobic production, and ternet. Presenters discussed how racism intentionally the political interests being served by this production, directed at Muslims/Arabs has become a sanctioned maintaining that it’s particularly vital to understand the discourse, citing the 2010 midterm election season as a production process in anticipation of how Islamopho- high point in this trend. For example, conference con- bia will be wielded in the 2012 election season. This vener Hatem Bazian asserted that the wrongly labeled annual conference will reconvene in April, 2012 to "ground zero mosque," which, as Bazian contends, was continue to broaden understandings of and challenges neither at ground zero, nor was it a mosque, was utilized to Islamophobia. as a wedge issue to peel away voters from the Democratic base and cause a landslide loss for the Democratic Party. RDP and its partners are preparing to launch the Scholars made a case that Islamophobia should be Islamophobia Studies Journal, a bi-annual peer understood as a potent political tool that is used to ex- reviewedI academic periodical focusing on emerging ploit fear, creating a rationalization for unprecedented research on and analysis about the nature of Islamo- growth of the "national security state." Highlightin par- phobia and its impact on culture, politics, media, allels between anti-black racism and Islamophobia, pre- and the lives and experiences of Muslim people. The senters discussed the similarities between the infamous inaugural issue will be available in September 2011 and 1980s Willie Horton advertising campaign, which was will feature papers from this conference. IRDP is also used to justify "get tough on crime" legislation and the working with the Council on American-Islamic Relations exponential growth of prisons, and the Islamophobic (CAIR) to publish a report which evaluates the impact of media representations, which are leveraged to justify Islamophobia on U.S. media and political culture. For more info on these publications and video of the conference, please visit: http://crg.berkeley.edu/content/islamophobia INSIDE THIS ISSUE 3 Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project 4 - 5 Catalyzing Knowledge in Dangerous Times: 10 Year Anniversary Conference 6 CRG Spring 2011 Symposium: The Racial Politics of Care & Intimacy 7 - 11 CRG Forum Series 12-13 CRG Student Research Grant Recipients 14 CRG Research Working Group Spotlight: Undocumented AB540 Students 15 New Faculty Publications 3 CRG 10 Year Anniversary Conference Catalyzing Knowledge in Dangerous Times n April 14, 2011, the Center for Race & Gender, in collaboration with the Multicultural Community Center, the Women of Color Initiative, and many other campus partners, hosted an exciting multimedia, interdisciplin- Oary conference marking the ten-year anniversary of CRG’s inception stemming from the 1999 student mobiliza- tions at UC Berkeley. Throughout the day, scholars, artists, and organizers examined the ways in which knowledge is politicized, embodied, and imagined within a volatile political climate that targets education as a racialized and gendered battleground for defining legitimacy, visibility, and access. (Clockwise from top-left): Ethnic Studies Poster Exhibition; Nelson Maldonado-Torres & Sara Kaplan; Kebo Drew, Alexis Pauline Gumbs & Ricardo Dominguez; Micha Cárdenas; and the conference audience. (Photos by Margaret Rhee) he conference included four and in the context of Islamophobic ana Huerta. The performances and thematic panels that explored and colonial pressures within and exhibit reflected the integral role of art theT political tension and opportuni- throughout the university. Finally, within education justice movements. ties present in the process of knowl- the closing panel, Sparking, De- edge production. In the opening fending, and Envisioning Ethnic he conference closed with a panel, Media, Maps, and Motion, Studies at UC Berkeley, featured keynote lecture from Prof. An- speakers mapped the ways in which UC