Doing Critical Race and Ethnic Studies in a Neoliberal Age Symposium

This spring bears the fruit of many years of student activism at UC Santa Cruz, namely, the inauguration of a Critical Race and Ethnic Studies (CRES) program dedicated to studying the ideological formations and institutional productions of race and ethnicity. Recognizing that the institutionalization of CRES is both an exciting moment and a reminder of the work we must keep showing up for, we ask:

• How can we foster creative ways to keep activist and academic knowledges in conversation?
• How can scholarly activity be held accountable to social justice struggles?
• How can we build and strengthen ties across institutional and organizational walls?

The context of this moment of institutionalization is the neoliberal erosion of public education and the casualization of all forms of academic labor that have transformed education into a privileged commodity available only to a few and rendered education a site of labor precariousness. At UC Santa Cruz, recent student experiences with the literal “campus to jail busline” attest to these neoliberal processes. Aimed at fostering critical dialogue about doing critical race work in this historical moment, this symposium brings together community organizers and social justice activists with campus organizers, students, staff, and faculty from regional community colleges, state colleges, and universities to examine militarization, post-9/11 terror-baiting, and the criminalization of racialized bodies as the effects of neoliberal policies that cut across campus and community boundaries.

Please join us June 6-7 at UC Santa Cruz to strengthen the bonds of solidarity, combine our knowledges, and build coalitions around interconnected struggles.

For more information, please visit:
http://ihr.ucsc.edu/event/doing-critical-race-and-ethnic-studies-in-a-neoliberal-age-symposium/