CFP- Ethnoscapes Fall 2007

Call for Papers

Ethnoscapes: An Interdisciplinary Journal on Race and Ethnicity in the Global Context

Issue One, Fall 2007
�Race and Coalition�


The editorial staff of the new peer-reviewed journal Ethnoscapes: An Interdisciplinary
Journalon Race and Ethnicity in the Global Context invites submissions for its
inaugural issue on the subject of �Race and Coalition.� Ethnoscapes maps the
development of important themes in the field of race and ethnic studies by using a
�classic� piece as a point of departure for a reconsideration of critical issues
within the contemporary economic, political, and cultural terrain.

While the classic piece establishes the thematic parameters of each issue, authors are
under no obligation to actively engage the arguments posed by that work.

Issue one explores the subject of �Race and Coalition� with consideration of Stokely
Carmichael (Kwame Ture) and Charles V. Hamilton�s �The Myths of Coalition� from the
1967 text Black Power: The Politics of Liberation.  In their seminal essay, the authors
question the viability of coalitions that do not seek radical changes in racial hierarchy,
include partners with disparate amounts of economic and political power, and rely on
sentimentality and goodwill to build and maintain cohesiveness.

The authors argue instead that viable and productive coalitions must do the following:

1)         recognize the self-interests of the groups involved in the relationship;
2)         have the capacity for realizing the self-interests of each group;
3)         articulate their own �independent base of power�;
4)         have specific goals.

Proceeding from this articulation of coalition politics, Ethnoscapes seeks manuscripts
that investigate the dynamics of �Race and Coalition� with particular attention to one
or more of the following themes:

A) Theoretical Foundations of Coalition. If organizing is no longer forged on the basis
of shared identity or �unity,� what serves as the �foundation� for political mobilization?
What new forms of coalition, alliance, or issue-based organizing have emerged in the
current political, economic, and cultural context? Can these convergences operate
only temporarily or can they be more sustained? How can/must/do coalitions negotiate
differences along the lines of gender, sexuality, nationality, religion, and class in
articulating a shared platform? What productive alliances have been or can be forged
between different marginalized groups? What makes these coalitions cohere? How do these
projects (re)shape experiences of race and ethnicity?

B) The Multicultural Terrain of Organizing in the United States. With the rise of
Asian/Pacific American and Latino/a social movements, how is the concept of �coalition�
being rearticulated today? Does the �people of color� construct, expressing the common
bonds of non-white groups, still make sense? What new challenges to coalition-building
emerge in the context of the variable power relations of nations, economic operations,
and discourse that characterize the contemporary multiracial terrain of US organizing?
What strategies can be mobilized to negotiate these differences? What roles are available
to whites in multiracial coalitions and in coalitions for racial justice?

C) The Global Context. What challenges and possibilities do new communications and
other technologies linking people across the globe offer for multiracial coalitions?
How do the ties of nation, state, and culture complicate efforts to organize
pan-ethnically? How can models of organizing around race throughout the world, or on
behalf of racially identified groups and concerns, usefully inform organizing strategies
in the US context, or vice versa? What is at stake and where are we headed?

The deadline for manuscript submission is February 16, 2007. Please send submissions
to mmaltry@kirwaninstitute.org
<http://webmail.kirwaninstitute.org/src/compose.php?send_to=mmaltry%40kirwaninstitute.org>
and editors@kirwaninstitute.org
<http://webmail.kirwaninstitute.org/src/compose.php?send_to=editors%40kirwaninstitute.org> .
See http://www.kirwaninstitute.org/ethnoscapes/styleguide.html to prepare your
document in accordance with the style guidelines of Ethnoscapes.

Melanie Maltry
Assistant Editor, Ethnoscapes
The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity
The Ohio State University