The Right and Labor

CFP: a conference in Santa Barbara, Jan 2009

The Right and Labor: Politics, Ideology, and Imagination February 16-17, 2009 University of California, Santa Barbara

The Center for the Study of Work, Labor, and Democracy at the University of California, Santa Barbara invites paper proposals for a January 16-17, 2009 conference: "The Right and Labor: Politics, Ideology, and Imagination."

An intense and systematic hostility to trade unionism on the part of American conservatism is hardly news. It has been a notable feature of the nation's political landscape for decades. But an understanding and deconstruction of this phenomenon requires something more than mere condemnation, especially during the next few years when a labor- liberal effort to reform of the American labor law, along with the rise of labor's influence within the Democratic Party, is almost certain to generate a furious and determined counter attack from those who seek to limit the power and marginalize the legitimacy of U.S. trade unionism. This workshop/conference seeks to historicize and contextualize this political and economic impulse, examining its regional, racial, cultural, ideological structures and tropes.Proposals from political science, legal studies, literature, sociology and other disciplines are welcome.

Participants in the conference thus far include David Brody, UC Davis emeritus; Jennifer Brooks, Auburn; Jefferson Cowie, Cornell; Catherine Fisk, Duke; Gordon Lafer, Oregon; Nelson Lichtenstein UC Santa Barbara; John Logan London School of Economics; Joseph McCartin, Georgetown; Lawrence Richards, Miami of Ohio; Reuel Schiller, UC Hastings, Elizabeth Tandy Shermer, UC Santa Barbara; Jean-Christian Vinel, University of Paris, Diderot; and David Witwer, Lycoming College.

Proposals are due August 1st, 2008. We hope to be able to offer some funds for travel and lodging for those individuals whose papers are selected. The organizers ask that all proposals be sent to Elizabeth Shermer ([mailto]ellie@umail.ucsb.edu[/mailto]). Submissions should include a one-page abstract, one-page curriculum vitae, and a mailing address, phone, and email address.

Elizabeth Tandy Shermer
PhD Program, Department of History
Administrator, Center for Work, Labor, and Democracy
University of California, Santa Barbara
[mailto]ellie@umail.ucsb.edu[/mailto]
Website >>