About R.A.C.E. and the 10th Annual Conference
The Researchers and Academics of Colour for Equality/Equity (R.A.C.E.) emerged ten years ago as a national network with the aim of promoting equity for First Nations, Inuit, Métis and Non-status Indians and racialized minorities within the academy, governmental and nongovernmental organizations, and the broader society. The network and its national steering committee are committed to mentoring graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and new scholars, as well as mid-career scholars working toward professional advancement. Through community-university alliances, members engage directly with local communities to promote social equity and social wellbeing.
It is my privilege to be the convener of the tenth annual conference, “Race-making and the State: Between Postracial Neoliberalism and Racialized Terrorism,” which will be held 8-10 October 2010 at the University of Alberta. The conference’s keynotes and plenary speakers include: Clara Bradford, Maria Campbell, Angela P Harris, Emma Larocque, Tracey Lindberg, L.H.M. Ling, Steven Loft, Mustapha Marrouchi, Patricia Monture, Narda Razack, Sherene Razack, Sunera Thobani, and Robert A. Williams, Jr. In addition to the many papers and panels resulting from an unprecedented response to our CFPs, the student and faculty experience will enhanced by mentoring and professional development workshops led by Narda Razack, Associate Dean (Faculty), Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies at York University and Robert A. Williams, Jr., the E. Thomas Sullivan Professor of Law and American Indian Studies at The University of Arizona Rogers College of Law.
Over the past decade, R.A.C.E. has built a body of scholarship that is accessible to diverse audiences. This includes our open access hybrid newsletter-journal, RACELink, which you can access on this site. As well, in 2005 “Race, Racism and Empire: Reflections on Canada,” a special issue of the journal, Social Justice, was edited by E. Dua, N. Razack and J. Nyasha. At the 2010 conference we will launch, States of Race: Critical Race Feminism for the 21st Century, edited by S. Razack, M. Smith and S. Thobani (BTL, 2010). We will also produce a number of publications to mark the network’s tenth anniversary.
Our annual conferences have been made possible through productive collaborations with a number of community networks and activists, research chairs, and institutes, among them, the Race and Gender Teaching and Advocacy Group (RAGTAG) at the University of British Columbia; the Centre for Integrative Anti-Racism Studies at OISE/University of Toronto; the Centre for Feminist Research at York University; the James R. Robinson Chair in Black Studies at Dalhousie University; and the Canada Research Chair in Social Justice and Aboriginal Education at the University of Regina. I am grateful for the volunteer time of a terrific local multi-university conference organizing committee; wonderful student, faculty, and community volunteers; and the generous sponsorship of various units at the University of Alberta and Athabasca University. We hope you will join us in Edmonton! Until then keep checking our ‘What’s new’ and blog pages, and join our member’s listserv or Facebook group for updates.
Malinda S. Smith, PhD.
2010 Conference Convener,
Political Science, University of Alberta.
