Call For Proposals:

Conference: “The State of (In)Equality: Social Justice Under Siege” An interdisciplinary academic conference.

Dates: October 28-29, 2017

Institution: Humber College / International Festival of Authors, Location: Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, Canada

Humber College’s School of Liberal Arts and Sciences of Toronto, Canada in association with the International Festival of Authors (IFOA) will be presenting its forth annual interdisciplinary conference entitled “The State of (In)Equality: Social Justice Under Siege” to be held October 28-29, 2017. The IFOA, one of the most celebrated literary festivals in the world, is located at the Harbourfront Centre, one of downtown Toronto’s major cultural and artistic venues.

The conference aims to facilitate cross-disciplinary discussion among scholars and researchers who study the topics of social justice.  The perceived orthodoxy of progressive politics has come under attack in recent years by individuals, groups, and institutions that believe their actions and speech are being policed. While some nations were formed under the banner of “peace, order, and good government” how have we stuck to, or strayed from, these original ideals? The term ‘social justice warrior’ is a term that emerged in 2011. This switched the term ‘social justice,’ which has since 1840 been primarily a positive concept, into a mainstream pejorative used mainly to dismiss individuals and groups who espoused views concerning social progressivism, cultural inclusiveness, gay rights, or feminism.

Our conference will examine the current and past state of inequality and social justice from a multi-disciplinary perspective.  We invite proposals based on (but not limited to) the following themes:

• Indigenous studies
• Democracy vs. capitalism
• Poverty and Economic inequality
• Civil rights
• Social movements
• Anti-globalisation
• Post-neoliberalism
• Past and future of labour
• Identity politics
• Racial inequality
• Retribalization
• Rule of law
• Neo-reactionary
• Post-humanism and social activism
• Decolonization
• Racialization
• Gender inequality, eco-feminism
• Social construction of difference
• Reparations/reconciliation
• Social democracy
• Social justice backlash
• Pluralistic identities
• Peace and justice
• Health inequality
• Ableism
• Heterosexism
• Access to education
• Environmental activism
• Abuse of state power

Deadline for Proposals: May 30, 2017

To submit a proposal, please visit the “Call for Proposals” page on our website: http://www.humber.ca/liberalarts-ifoa/call-proposals

For further information, please contact the co-chairs of the co-chair of the conference: daniel.hambly@humber.ca