Previous Conferences

American Studies / Cultural Studies Conference: "Empire"

April 9-10, 2004

Organized by Eva Cherniavsky & Tom Foster

This year the Cultural Studies and American Studies Programs are co-sponsoring a conference on "Empire." The keynote address, conference panels, and discussion will focus on thinking through the organization and practices of empire, approaching empire from historical and comparative perspectives in order to address a number of issues raised by the present historical moment. Keynote speaker, Cynthia Enloe, Research Professor in the Government Department at Clark University, will begin the conference with her lecture, "Feminists Explore How Empires are Created and Sustained: Shedding Light on the U.S. Occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan," on Friday, April 9th at 7:30 p.m. in Ballantine Hall 109. The conference will then feature two panel discussions on Saturday, April 10th, running from 9:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., at the University Club President's Room at the Indiana Memorial Union. Invited speakers: Stephanie Foote, Professor of English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Cris Mayo, Professor of Educational Policy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; and Barbara Foley, Professor of English at Rutger's University will also join Indiana University faculty and graduate students in addressing these issues.

If you plan to attend any of these events, please complete the On-Line Registration linked to this web page, the registration form provided in the upcoming Cultural Studies newsletter, or send an e-mail to cstudies@indiana.edu indicating whether you will attend the complimentary lunch (12:00-1:30 p.m.) on Saturday afternoon. A full conference description and ia conference schedule with a complete listing of panelists is included below. The conference is open to IU faculty and students. Registration is free.

Descriptions

The present moment brings an intellectual and political urgency in thinking the organization and practices of empire, historically, comparatively, and with respect to the vision of a "New American Century" that now governs the Bush administration's policies. Today we arguably confront a novel situation, in which an unrivaled U.S. imperial power aspires to the domination of a post-Cold War, "unipolar" world. The conference will emphasize some of the specific issues raised by the present historical circumstances, as well as the lines of historical inquiry (and the modes of historiography) that are, in various ways,urged or informed by the dangers of the contemporary moment. Papers and commentary will engage a wide array of topics, including the interplay of neoconservative and neoliberal policies; the relation of the state and of state functionaries to multinational capital and to the military industrial complex; transformations in the political culture of the U.S. (e.g., the crisis of electoral politics and of the two-party system); the United Nations, NGOs, and the status of multilateralism; cultural diplomacy as an arm of U.S. foreign policy; legacies of earlier imperial and colonial formations (e.g., enforced uneven development); counter-imperial formations (diasporic culture; new ethnicities; solidarity movements; alternative globalization; temporary autonomous zones); academic knowledge production and the state (e.g., Cold-War era area studies; House Bill 3077); information technologies and the global division of labor; the relation between late capitalism's decentralized, "disorganized organization" and concentrations of state power.

Conference Schedule

Reception
(including beverages and hors d'oeuvres)
Friday, April 9th, 6:45 p.m., Ballantine Hall 004

Keynote Address by Cynthia Enloe, Research Professor, Government Department, Clark University

"Feminists Explore How Empires are Created and Sustained:
Shedding Light on the U.S. Occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan"

Friday, April 9th, 7:30 p.m., Ballantine Hall 109

Cynthia Enloe is a Research Professor in the Government Department at Clark University. Enloe specializes in the politics of globalization with a particular eye to processes of militarization and the forms of masculinity they privilege. Recent books include: Maneuvers: The International Politics of Militarizing Women's Lives (2000); The Morning After: Sexual Politics at the End of the Cold War (1993); and Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics (1989), which are all currently published by the University of California Press.

Panel Discussions

Saturday, April 10th, 2004, 9:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
University Club, President's Room, Indiana Memorial Union

9:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Morning Panel - "Imperial Projects"

Invited Speakers: Stephanie Foote, Department of English, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Cris Mayo, Department of Educational Policy Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Panelists:
Patrick Brantlinger, Department of English
Radhika Parameswaran, School of Journalism
Nazif Shahrani, Near Eastern Languages & Cultures and Islamic Studies Program

12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. Buffet Lunch
(provided by Cultural Studies/American Studies)

1:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. Afternoon Panel - "Thinking Empire"

Invited Speaker: Barbara Foley, Department of English, Rutger's University, Newark Campus

Panelists:
Patrick Brantlinger, Department of English
Radhika Parameswaran, School of Journalism
Nazif Shahrani, Near Eastern Languages & Cultures and Islamic Studies Program

4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. Reception