Critical Pedagogy Vs. Capital: Reigniting the Conversation

CRITICAL PEDAGOGY VS. CAPITAL: REIGNITING THE CONVERSATION

CRITICAL THEORIES IN THE 21^st CENTURY: A CONFERENCE OF TRANSFORMATIVE PEDAGOGIES

4th Annual Conference 2015
November 6^th & 7^th 2015

Location: West Chester University, 700 South High Street, West Chester, PA 19383, USA

Two Days of Discussion and Music!

Opening Conference Keynote:  Bill Ayers
Professor Ayers is a Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago (retired). He is a member of the executive committee of the Faculty Senate and founder of both the Small Schools Workshop and the Center for Youth and Society. Dr. Ayers has taught courses in interpretive and qualitative research, oral history, creative non-fiction, urban school change, and teaching and the modern predicament. To learn more about Dr. Ayers and his work please visit his webpage at: http://billayers.org/biographyhistory/

Closing Conference Keynote: Dave Hill
Dave Hill is Research Professor of Education at Anglia Ruskin University, Chelmsford, England, and Visiting Professor of Education at the Universities of Athens, Greece, Middlesex, London.  Dave is a Marxist academic and political activist in different countries, in particular with trade unions and left / socialist / Marxist groups in Greece, Turkey and Ireland as well as England. His academic work focuses on issues of neoliberalism, capitalism, class, `race’, resistance and socialist education/ education for equality; critical pedagogy/critical education. He founded in 2003 and chief edits the free online peer-juried journal, the Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, www.jceps.com, a free online, scholarly, peer-juried international journal that has had nearly a million downloads in 10 years.

Musical Artists: Marcel Cartier, Magik, and Squid Brothers Inc.

Call For Papers
The 4th Annual Conference on Critical Theories in the 21st Century aims to reinvigorate the field of critical pedagogy. The primary question driving this conference is: What is to be done to make critical pedagogy an effective educational weapon in the current struggle against capitalism and imperialism?

There is no doubt that we are at a critical juncture in history in terms of the limits of nature’s vital ecosystems, the physical limits of the progressive accumulation of capital, and the deepening reactionary ideology and scapegoating that exacerbates the oppression of youth of color. If critical pedagogy is to play a significant role in intervening in the current context, then a sharpened sense of purpose and direction is needed.

Some examples of possible topics include:

·         * Marxism

·         * Post-structuralism/post-modernism

·         * Anarchism

·         * Challenging the unholy trinity of state, capital, and religion

·         * Class and the capital-labor dialectic

·         * Identity and economics

·         * Hierarchical and vertical forms of organization (i.e., vanguards versus networks)

·         * Reform versus revolution

·         * Socialism, communism, & democracy

·         * Affect theory and the new materialisms

·         * The knowledge economy, post-Fordism, and “cognitive capitalism”

·         * Critical geography

While this conference will include important presentations and debates in critical pedagogy, it will not be limited to this focus. In other words, as critical theory becomes more inclusive, global, and all encompassing, this conference welcomes more than just academics as important contributors. That is, we recognize students and youth groups as possessing authentic voices based on their unique relationship to capitalism and will therefore be open to them as presenters and discussion leaders.

While this conference will include important presentations and challenging discussions based in critical pedagogy, it will not be limited to this focus. In other words, as critical theory becomes more inclusive, global, and all encompassing, this conference welcomes more than just academics as important contributors.

Please submit abstract proposals (500-1000 words) to: Curry Malott (cmalott@wcupa.edu)

Proposal due date: September 27th, 2015

Conference website: http://ct21st.org/

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‘Human Herbs’ – a song by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski 

Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Ruth Rikowski at Serendipitous Moments: http://ruthrikowskiim.blogspot.co.uk/