CFP: The Philosophy of 'Race' and Racism

W. E. B. Du Bois famously wrote that “the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line”. All of us now are well into the twenty-first century, and for contemporary Europeans, Du Bois’ remarks may appear distant a second time over: off his spelling of ‘color’ we can read his Americanness. And yet the problem Du Bois’ addresses here is (despite his spellings) our problem too, on either side of the Atlantic, and beyond. Although his remarks on the “color-line” are most commonly associated with The Souls of Black Folk and its concern with black life in the United States, he in fact first offered them to a London audience at the first Pan-African Conference, in a speech entitled “To the nations of the World”.  As he puts it here, “the problem of the color-line” is the question as to how far differences of race ... will hereafter be made the basis of denying to over half the world the right of sharing to their utmost ability the opportunities and privileges of modern civilization”. Hence, Du Bois took this problem to be not only of local, but, first and foremost, of global relevance and thus to affect most of those who are non-white. In different locations, however, the manifestations of this problem--that is, the contours of racial categories, the social meaning associated with those categories, and the pressing issues of racial injustice--may nevertheless be markedly different.

In light of this, there is something of a lacuna in the emerging literature on the  historically neglected philosophy of ‘race’ which has seen a flowering of interest in the last twenty years: much of it assumes, either tacitly or explicitly, an US-American audience, and addresses the phenomena of race and racism primarily salient to a distinctively US-American context. In order to help close this lacuna, this conference aims to widen the conversation beyond the context of the US. We thus seek both to increase our understanding of race and racism in different global contexts, and to asses what the contextual variability of race and racism tells us about these phenomena.

We invite abstracts of 300-500 words for 30 minute papers addressing race and/or racism. Priority will be given to papers that explore these phenomena in global contexts other than the US, or that explore the implications of their contextual variability. We also particularly welcome work that engages with legacies of European colonialism. Possible topics include the nature of racial oppression/domination and/or structural injustice, the intersection of racism with other forms of oppression (e.g. misogyny, heterosexism, transphobia, ableism), the connections between race in the academy and activist movements, the meta-philosophical implications of accounting for race or racism, the metaphysics of race, racial ideology and epistemologies of ignorance, and the requirements of racial justice.

Submissions should be made viahttps://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=porr16by the  23rd April. We will let you our decision know by the 1st of May.

Access Information

The conference is being held at Radcliffe Humanities, a fully accessible building. In particular, the building is:

i. fully wheelchair accessible.

ii. has a hearing support system

iii. has disabled parking available

iv.has a rest space available for delegates.

We believe the building to be accessible to most mobility aids larger than wheelchairs. Although precise lift dimensions are currently unavailable, it is an 8 person lift of around 1400 x 1100mm. We will be happy to check the building against precise dimensions of mobility aids in advance of the event.

Further information about the building can be found here.http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/access/dandt/humanities/radcliffehumanities/.

Note that the building is currently undergoing building work so some details -- e.g. the location of disabled parking -- may change. We will be sure to track any relevant changes on our website (http://philosophyofraceandracism.weebly.com/home)

For any other information about the building’s accessibility, please [email protected].

Childcare information

We are actively seeking funds to assist delegates with childcare expenses. Further details will be made available on our website shortly.

***