Engaging Multiple Publics: Envisioning Our Work as Holistic Scholarship

Conference Theme
Engaging Multiple Publics promotes scholarship pertinent to both academia and the Black community. As Black scholars, our work is often grouped into the separate categories of "scholarship," "community service," and/or "personal practices." Whether or not we ascribe to the idea of a cohesive “Black community” or “ideology,” as Black students in historically white spaces, race and racial discourse precede us in our daily walks. There is a constant struggle to be accountable to ourselves, our academic community, and our “people.” Holistic Scholarship is an approach to thinking-through the ways in which our work can fundamentally and practically bridge the multiple discourses that comprise our day-to-day lives.

Engaging Multiple Publics is a space for scholars from the humanities, natural and social sciences, business, law and medical sectors to critically engage with issues as variant as social justice, environmental law, identity performance, and biochemical discoveries in order to move towards a sustainable engagement with our work in the world. We posit that by challenging each other, strategizing, and co-witnessing our attempts to bridge our multiple worlds, communities, and publics, we might in fact save the future of our scholarship, each other, and ourselves. We invite work from any discipline that productively responds to the theme of the conference.

Keynote Speaker
Our keynote speaker is Professor Rebecca Wanzo who is an Associate Professor of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Washington University in St Louis. She is the author of "The Suffering Will Not Be Televised: African American Women and Sentimental Political Storytelling." Her research interests include African American literature, history, and culture; theories of affect; popular culture (particularly the history of genre fiction and graphic storytelling in the United States); critical race theory; and feminist theory. Wanzo has continued her focus on the history of affect and sentimentality in popular culture narratives. She is currently working on two books: an edited volume on the history of American popular culture; and Melancholic Patriots, a study of cultural representations of African-American attachments to the nation. Professor Wanzo’s work reflects a history of commitment to interdisciplinary studies. As an undergraduate she majored in History, English, and Black World studies, while minoring in French. And at Duke University, where she earned her Ph.D. in English, she obtained graduate certificates in women’s studies and African studies.

Additional conference details
All are welcome to attend or submit a proposed abstract to present at the conference. In addition to scholars presenting their work, the conference will also feature a poster presentation session, an exhibition showcasing work from visual artists and professionalization/networking workshops led by Northwestern faculty and staff. The conference is preceded with a Welcome Event on Friday, April 20th on Northwestern Evanston campus. The conference is also followed by an evening out in downtown Chicago. Please RSVP for any of the events (Welcome Event, Conference, Post-Conference Celebration) on this registration page.

Call for Abstracts
If you are interested in presenting at the conference, please visit bit.ly/2012BGSAConferenceAbstractSubmission for more information. Abstracts must be submitted by March 1st in order to be considered.