Call for Papers

2024 Puerto Rican Studies Association Biennial Conference

Scales of Solidarity

Conference Location: Santa Cruz, CA

Host Institution: University of California, Santa Cruz

Dates: August 23-25, 2024

The world has watched with horror as a genocide unfolds in Gaza under the guise of combatting terror. Millions have taken to the streets in order to demand a ceasefire and direct actions have targeted weapons manufacturers and politicians facilitating and benefiting from the bloodshed. Puerto Ricans in both the archipelago and diaspora have shown up to march in defense of Palestinian life, asserting an understanding that the struggles of Palestinians and Puerto Ricans are deeply intertwined. This moment reminds us that Puerto Ricans have long connected their struggles against U.S. colonial rule with other struggles against colonialism, racism, and military violence around the globe. In turn, Puerto Ricans have also found themselves at the center of international solidarity campaigns including efforts to stop the bombing of Vieques, to free political prisoners, to force Ricky Rosselló to step down, and to get aid to Puerto Ricans in the aftermath of devastating disasters. As the work of scholars like Sara Awartani, Lisa Materson, Margaret Power, Rose Muzio, Felix Padilla, Carlos Alamo-Pastrana, Conor Tomás Reed, Iris Morales, Jorell Meléndez Badillo, and Johanna Fernández have shown, solidarity animates  Puerto Rican social and political life. 

Reflecting on the ways that Puerto Ricans are called to be in solidarity, as well as the ways that Puerto Ricans have also called for solidarity and affirmed the connections between different freedom struggles, the Executive Council of the PRSA will convene scholars, practitioners, professionals, artists, and activists for an in-person conference at the University of California, Santa Cruz from August 23-25, 2024 to explore the theme: Scales of Solidarity. We evoke the geographic concept of scale to point to the ways that the individual, the communal, the regional, the national, and the global are interwoven in struggles for justice and freedom. Rather than merely a unit of analysis related to size or level, however, scale also refers to the complex relations that individuals and collectivities form, which are shaped by hierarchies of power and socio-political forces. In our invocation of scales of solidarity, we wish to highlight acts of building together and scaffolding our intellectual and political work in order to utterly remake our world.

Taking seriously the stakes of solidarity in a moment of war and colonial violence, we welcome a wide range of submission topics including, but not limited to: 

  • State monopolies on violence & weaponizing of accusations of terrorism

  • The arms trade and the colony as a laboratory

  • Comparative studies of colonialism and militarism 

  • Self-determination, sovereignty, and decolonial struggle(s)

  • Transnational social movements

  • When solidarity fractures or fails

  • Performance and artistic representation of scale and solidarity

  • The defiance of joy under colonial rule 

  • Pleasures in/of solidarity

  • Contemporary legacies of tricontinentalism

  • The politics of care amidst crisis

  • Race and networks of resistance

  • Poor and working class people’s activism

  • Climate justice

  • Disaster and mutual aid

  • Queer, trans, and feminist organizing

  • Repair and Reparations

  • Carcerality across borders and abolition

  • Futurity and freedom 

SUBMISSION INFORMATION

Members are invited to submit proposals addressing the conference theme. We invite two traditional types of submissions: sessions (e.g., panels/roundtables with or without papers) and individual papers. In the spirit of futurity, we are interested in expanding the notion of possible ways to gather and think together towards potential action. In addition to the traditional panel format, we welcome interactive sessions that involve the audience, such as workshops, talleres, or crafting sessions, where participants leave with a tangible product–whether it be a piece of policy, campaign, pedagogy, or art.

  • To submit an individual paper proposal, please include a paper title, 250 word abstract, contact information and affiliation, as well as any audio/visual requirements. The program committee will assemble individual papers into panels.

  • To submit a session without papers (roundtable, taller, workshop, performance, screening, etc), please include a session title, 250 word abstract, affiliation and contact information for all participants, and any audio/visual requirements.

  • To submit a session with papers (traditional panel format), please include a session title, 250 word panel abstract,100 word paper abstracts for all panelists, affiliation and contact information   for all participants, and any audio/visual requirements.

Regardless of submission type, all abstracts should make clear how the proposed session or paper connects with the theme of the conference. We ask that proposals also indicate any measures they will take to make their session accessible (i.e. pre-circulating papers, paper and/or digital copies to be distributed during the session to attendees who wish to read along, transcripts, captions, etc.).

KEY DATES

The deadline for submissions is March 1, 2024. Decisions on submissions will be made by April 1, 2024. Upon acceptance, all presenters will be required to join/renew their membership and register for the conference by June 1, 2024.

PRSA Business Meeting:

The PRSA will also conduct our yearly business meeting during the conference. While this meeting is for the membership, the public is welcome to attend and find out more information about the association’s ongoing projects and future plans.

To join or renew your membership: https://www.ricanstudies.com/membership 

Questions about the CFP or submission process? Email us at ricanstudies@gmail.com.