Post-racial Imaginaries
The symposium will focus on the theme of 'Post-race'. Increasing reference to the notion of ‘post-race’ is suggestive of an emergent discursive framework in critical approaches to race and racism. ‘Post-race’, ‘post-racial’, ‘post-black’, and associated ideas, are being mobilized in various theoretical, cultural and political discourses to describe new racial formations. Post-race requires us to question in new ways the precepts of race thinking, positing the end of race as a point with which to think racial futures. The imprecise nature of much ‘post-’ talk means there has yet to be a rigorous assessment of the significance of post-race and its cognate terms, beyond simple endorsement or dismissal.

Date: Saturday 14th May 2011
Time: 10.30am - 4pm symposium followed by reception
Place: Room RS451 (4th Floor), University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London W1B 2UW.
Directions - www.westminster.ac.uk/about/how-to-find-us/regent-street

This is an invitation event. Places are limited. Book your attendance by sending an email to [log in to unmask]
The event is free (though a donation of £5 is welcome on the day for fully waged participants).

Programme:
10.30 - 11.00am Tea & Coffee
11.00 - 11.15am Introduction - Ash Sharma
11.15 - 1.00pm Session I: Brett St Louis  & Denise Da Silva (Chair: Ben Pitcher)
1.00 - 2.15 Lunch (not provided)
2.15 - 4.00pm Session II: Miri Song & Mark Sealy (Chair: Sanjay Sharma)
4.00 - 5.30pm Drinks Reception & darkmatter journal relaunch

The discussions will be facilitated by:

Brett St. Louis
Brett St. Louis is a Senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London. His research interests crystallise around: the conceptual and practical status of race, especially in relation to the epistemological, ontological, political and ethical formations of racial eliminativism; the possibilities of progressive left politics with regard to building affirmative, emancipatory political projects; sociology of sport. His publications include 'On "the necessity and the 'impossibility' of identities: The politics and ethics of "new ethnicities"', Cultural Studies, 23:4, 2009; co-editing New Formations, No. 65, 'After '68: The Left and Twenty-First Century Political Projects' (2008); and Rethinking Race, Politics, and Poetics: C.L.R. James' Critique of Modernity, Routledge (2007).

Denise Ferreira da Silva
Denise Ferreira da Silva taught at the Ethnic Studies department of the University of California-San Diego for 11 years. She currently holds a Chair in Ethics at Queen Mary, University of London. Focusing on global subjugation, in particular in the racial and colonial machineries operating in it, her work draws from philosophy, political theory, critical legal theory, feminist theory, and psychoanalysis. Her recent publications include:  "Notes for a Critique of the 'Metaphysics of Race'", TCS, 28(1), 2011; "Evo Morales: An Outline of a global Subject", Seattle University Law Review/Journal for Social Justice, 8(1); “Many Hundred Thousand Bodies Later: An Analysis of the ‘Legacy’ of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda” in Sundhya Pahuja et al, Events: The Force of International Law, (Cavendish/Routledge); and her book Toward a Global Idea of Race (Univ. of Minnesota Press, 2007).

Miri Song
Miri Song is a Reader in Sociology at the University of Kent. Her research interests include ‘race’ and racisms, ethnic identity, immigration adaptation, especially in relation to the second generation, and citizenship.  Miri is the author of Helping Out: Children's Labor in Ethnic Businesses (1999, Temple University Press, US) and Choosing Ethnic Identity (2003, Polity Press). She is currently writing a book called Mixed Race Identities (with Peter Aspinall), which will be published with Palgrave/Macmillan.

Mark Sealy
Mark Sealy has a special interest in photography and its relationship to social change, identity politics and human rights. In his role as director of Autograph ABP he has initiated the production of well over 40 publications, produced exhibitions worldwide, residency projects and commissioned photographers globally. During his time with Autograph ABP, Mark has jointly initiated and developed a £7.96 million capital building project (Rivington Place). His most recent large scale curated project was Disposable People: a Hayward Gallery Touring exhibition which opened at Royal Festival Hall in London Oct 08 and toured nationally. His book project, Different (2002, Phaidon Press) on photography and identity was produced with Stuart Hall. Mark is currently working on a major photography show for Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada which examines issues of representation and human rights due to open in 2012.  

The event is supported by the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Languages at the University of Westminster; the Centre for Cultural Studies Research (CCSR) at the University of East London; and the British Sociological Association (BSA) Race and Ethnicity Study Group.