Call For Papers

Humanities or Human Resources? The Future of Ethnic Studies and Labor in the Corporate University
New York University
April 13, 2007

As corporate models of management and decision-making take hold of more and more colleges and universities, a growing number of students, faculty and staff are facing threats to ethnic studies programs, assaults on the integrity of academic decision-making, and the casualization of the university labor force. This conference will engage the debates surrounding what has been termed the corporate university, especially those debates that address questions of race, gender, sexuality, ability, nation, and class.

We conceive of the corporate/university relationship as multi-directional; that is, the corporate/neoliberal university is not simply where corporate values and cultures end up in an otherwise autonomous academy. Instead, the corporate/university relationship has effects in multiple public and private spaces, and on different individuals, ideas, and communities. How do struggles over departmentalization, bureaucratization, downsizing, access, and equity relate to the university’s location in global networks of capital accumulation and production? In what ways can a critical intervention in those processes enact a resistance that does not follow corporate valuations of people as “human resources”? We envision this conference to be a platform for academics, faculty, students, and staff to begin these conversations in the hopes that we can generate imaginative practices and take them back to our home institutions for further use and engagement.

We welcome proposals for papers or panels that focus on the issues surrounding the corporate university. Please send a 300-word abstract, 250-word biographical statement and contact information to corporate.conference@gmail.com by March 5, 2007. Notifications will be made by March 15.

Paper topics might include, but are not limited to:

• the policing of Middle Eastern studies and other area studies programs
• disability and ability issues on campus
• faculty hiring policies; student admissions
• top-down and bottom-up curricular changes
• living wage and staff/adjunct/teaching assistant unionization campaigns and institutional responses
• trends in Ethnic Studies, Gender/Sexuality Studies, and American Studies
• university-neighborhood relations; real estate