IPSA RC 41 - Geopolitics

IPSA RC 41 Third International Workshop on Geopolitics

BORDERS AND GEOPOLITICS IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Monday, 8 April – Tuesday, 9 April 2019

Austin, TEXAS, USA

St. Edward’s University

Kozmetsky Center of Excellence

ANNOUNCEMENT / CALL FOR PAPERS

DEADLINE EXTENDED – JANUARY 1, 2019 !!!

The intended Workshop: "Borders and Geopolitics in the 21st Century: the Americas, Europe/Eurasia, the Middle East" in Austin, Texas represents the third international conference organized by IPSA’s Research Committee (RC 41) on Geopolitics, following those convened in Moscow (2010) and Jerusalem (2013).

Unlike open international conferences, the Workshop framework is designed to limit panel participants to a select group of invitees - 10 to 15 people - each bringing to bear his or her disciplinary expertise or area studies specialization.

The 3 panel themes are devoted to:

1. Borders and Geopolitics in the 21st Century: Focus on America (Chair: Dr. Sharyl Cross, St. Edward’s University). Paper-givers will include resident specialists on US-Latin America and US-Canada border issues from St. Edward’s University and other local Texas universities.

2. Borders and Geopolitics in the 21st Century: Focus on the Middle East (Chair: Dr. Aharon Klieman, Tel-Aviv University).

3. Borders and Geopolitics in the 21st Century: Focus on Europe/Eurasia (Chair: Dr. Igor Okunev, MGIMO University).

The chosen venue -- The Kozmetsky Center at St. Edward’s University -- aims to enrich the intellectual life of St. Edward's University and to serve as a resource for informing the broader public on critical global issues. It facilitates discussions among experts, students, faculty and the broader public in a variety of forums. Past speakers include American and foreign diplomats, policy makers, university scholars, and leaders from within the business, non-profit and cultural communities. It also periodically hosts short-term resident visiting scholars and practitioners from the United States and around the world to share their expertise and diverse perspectives with the St. Edward’s University community.

Anyone wishing to participate in the 2019 RC-41 Austin Workshop and to contribute by addressing any of the above topics is invited to submit an initial paper proposal.

The Proposal and/or Abstract (limited to 750 words or less) should be sent to Professor Aharon Klieman at aklieman@gmail.com

Final date for submission 1 December 2018 (DEADLINE EXTENDED - JANUARY 1, 2019 !!!)

Notice of Acceptance 20 December 2018

No Registration fee is required.

Acceptance is conditioned, however, upon the participant’s commitment to full, active attendance at all panel sessions and discussions throughout the two days of the Workshop, in addition to one paper presentation.

Participants in the 2019 Austin International Workshop are expected to cover all personal transportation and accommodation arrangements and expenses. Limited IPSA conference travel grants may be available upon special request to help defray partial air fare costs in exceptional cases.

All Workshop sessions will be held on the campus of St. Edward’s University.

Timeline:

1   September 2018             Announcement & Call for Papers

1   December  2018             Submission of Proposals / Abstracts (DEADLINE EXTENDED - JANUARY 1, 2019 !!!)

20 December  2018             Notice of Acceptance

15 March         2019             Full Paper Submission

1   April            2019             Final Program

AUSTIN_ANNOUNCEMENT.pdf

Call for Papers

The Return of Geopolitics

University of Arizona, April 4-5, 2016

An International Conference Sponsored by the World Society Foundation

DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS IS NOVEMBER 15, 2015

The forces of globalization seem to be giving way to those of geopolitics. And while it is still important to focus on what is common to the global community, we are also compelled to try and understand those shifting tectonic forces that are drawing the world back to geopolitical tensions  epitomized by the Russian annexation of Crimea and support for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, the continuing disorder and migrant crises in the Middle East, and disputes over islands, atolls, and air space in the South and East China Seas.  There are, obviously, many other examples.

Return of Geopolitics seeks to provide a forum for experts from different countries and disciplines to meet, exchange views, and assess the extent to which today’s geopolitical resurrection of boundaries has eclipsed yesterday’s de-bordering globalization processes.  The conference will also consider the implications of this rise of geopolitics for future international tension, conflict, and war.

We welcome papers related – but not restricted to – the following topics:

Venue: The Conference will be held April 4-5, 2016 at the University of Arizona (USA).

Conference Format:  The Return of Geopolitics conference is spread over two days, Monday, April 4^th and Tuesday, April 5^th.

Travel Grants: The World Society Foundation will provide financial support for travel to and from the conference.  Hotel accommodations will be for three nights (Sunday to Wednesday).  It is incumbent on those who wish to stay longer (earlier or later) to make their own hotel arrangements.

Abstract Submissions will take the form of a 1-page abstract.  Send your abstract via email to: geopoliticsconf@gmail.com.  The deadline for abstract submission is November 15, 2015.  Authors of accepted abstracts will be invited to elaborate their proposal into a draft paper (of 15-20 pages).  Notification of acceptance or refusal of abstracts will be given end of November 2015.  The deadline for delivering the draft paper is January 15, 2016.  The authors of the most outstanding papers will be invited to the conference. Notification of selected papers will be given end of January 2016.

Conference Publication:  Outstanding conference papers will be published in a conference volume.  Author’s full papers are required after the conference if they want them to be considered for the conference publication.

Organizing Committee: Albert J. Bergesen (University of Arizona), Sallie Marston (University of Arizona), Christian Suter (University of Neuchâtel), Thomas J. Volgy (University of Arizona).

Conference Sponsorship: The main sponsor of the conference is the World Society Foundation (Zurich, Switzerland). In addition the conference is supported by the International Studies Association and the School of Sociology, University of Arizona.  For more information on the World Society Foundation and its activities, please check out the web site: http://www.worldsociety.ch/.

Session organisers: Mat Coleman (Ohio State University, US) Mike Collyer (University of Sussex, UK) Deirdre Conlon (Saint Peter’s University, US) and Elisa Pascucci (University of Sussex, UK)

Migration, both across and within international boundaries, has long challenged the essentialisation of territory that is central to classical understandings of geopolitics. Established critical approaches to the ‘geopolitics of mobility’ (Hyndman 1997) have identified migration control or humanitarian action as key sites for the respatialisation of state authority. As embodied subjects of that authority migrants face contradictory processes of facilitation and control of movement. We are interested in the implications of these contradictions in terms of their impact on those who are, or wish to be, mobile and for understanding state practices of control. We welcome papers that explore the intersections between (im)mobility and state action, particularly those based on recent empirical work.

States’ actions around mobility, the contradictions therein, as well as their impact on (im)mobility manifest in numerous ways. Among these are inequalities in access to mobility (and immobility). Most obviously, this involves practices of radical exclusion and spatial control exercised over migrant bodies. In some cases this results in forced mobility with the aim of reterritorialising out of place bodies, such as deportation or exclusion. In other cases it may be immobility that is enforced through migrant detention or the stranding or ‘warehousing’ of asylum seekers and refugees in camps, transit centres, and off-shore sites (Conlon, 2011; Mountz, 2011). There may be a combination of both, as recent investigations of mobility within detention estates have demonstrated (Gill 2009; Hiemstra forthcoming). These practices focus on rendering certain individuals invisible to the wider public while also serving to perpetuate the figure of the migrant as problem or threat. For other groups of people it is the borders themselves that are rendered invisible by their unencumbered passage across them and implications of state involvement also include the facilitation of mobility for these privileged actors. There may be an interrelationship between these practices of facilitation and control of mobility, as ass="mark">Sparke (2006) has suggested.

We are also interested in challenges to state practices of control. The movement of border controls away from the edges of state territory, either through extra-territorial controls or through the movement inwards (Coleman, 2012) of key elements of control, has coincided with a more elaborate performance of control at the borderline itself, the construction of new border architectures and greater public attention to statistics relating to migration and control. The analysis of state performativity in this area offers an additional explanatory framework for state action. Yet another productive line of inquiry examines inter-state agreements and practices related to mobility and migrant removal (Collyer, 2012) as well as the role of institutional actors that are external to states, such as UNHCR, International Organisation for Migration (IOM), and various migrant support groups, to these processes. Coinciding with these practices of control, many states have devoted new levels of attention to attracting or influencing overseas nationals, expanding voting rights, institutionalising favourable tax arrangements or officialising forms of representation, such as diaspora ministries. Questions of ‘building’ diaspora have much in common with state building processes in their redefinition of who legitimately forms part of the nation.

In light of the above, we welcome papers that examine the geopolitics of mobility and immobility. Possible paper topics might include (but are not limited to):

§ State practices of migration control
§ The spatialised control of migrant bodies
§ Migrant experiences of mobility and (im)mobility
§ Mobility as privilege
§ Moving borders – interiorisation and/or extra-territorial mechanisms of state border control
§ Border architecture(s)
§ State performativity at border sites
§ The role of external/non-state actors in mobility and (im)mobility
§ Diasporas and state building

Please send inquiries / abstracts of no more than 250 words to Elisa Pascucci (E.Pascucci@sussex.ac.uk) by September 15th 2012

References
Coleman, M. (2012) The "local" migration state: The site-specific devolution of immigration enforcement in the U.S. South. Law & Policy. 34(2): 159-190.
Collyer, M. (2012) Deportation and the micropolitics of exclusion: The rise of removals from the UK to Sri Lanka. Geopolitics. 17(2): 276-292
Conlon, D. (2011) Waiting: Feminist perspectives on the spacings/timings of migrant (im)mobility, Gender, Place, and Culture. 18(3): 353-360.
Gill, N. (2009) Governmental mobility: The power effects of the movement of detained asylum seekers around Britain’s detention estate. Political Geography. 28: 186-196.
Hiemstra, N. (forthcoming) “You don’t even know where you are”: Chaotic geographies of US migrant detention and deportation, in D. Moran, N. Gill and D. Conlon (eds.) Carceral Spaces: Mobility and Agency in Imprisonment and Migrant Detention. Forthcoming with Ashgate.
Hyndman, J. (1997) Border crossings. Antipode. 29(2): 149-176.
Mountz, A. (2011) Where asylum seekers wait: Feminist counter-topograhies of sites between states. Gender, Place and Culture. 18(3): 381-399.
Sparke, M. 2006, A neoliberal nexus: Citizenship, security and the future of the border. Political Geography. 25 (2) 2006: 151 – 180.

The Geography Department at UNC Chapel Hill invites you to join us in a discussion about the future of the political. As struggles around the world capture our collective imaginations, the legitimacy of existing social orders and previously acceptable avenues of political action have been called into question. What comes next? What connections between body and world, knowledge and practice, and reclamation and revolt are working through and beyond the limits of the current moment? What future worlds are emerging from the conflicts, contradictions, and movements that characterize the now? While informed by our mutual commitment to developing new knowledge and practice that responds to these struggles, our task is to commit focus to the discordant realities that inform our research and political engagements with the world. We invite a wide range of academics, non-academics, activists, and artists to present on these volatile times and the possibilities they portend.

The conference will take place November 2-4, 2012 and will be hosted by the Department of Geography at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. On Friday, November 2nd, our opening plenary will feature Heidi Nast (DePaul University). Arturo Escobar (UNC Chapel Hill) will host a brunch conversation on possible political futures on Sunday November 4, 2012, as our closing event.

Work, Collaborate, Present This year, the conference will be organized around four broad themes that foster inquiries into the near future (see themes below). We encourage you to propose panels that speak to the issues described here to foster dialogue and collaboration. If your panel crosses more than one theme or asks new or different questions, let us know and we will work with you to make accommodations. Please let us know as early as possible if you require additional technical support or if you have questions about the conference.

Join us in extending the traditional conference proceedings by submitting proposals for your work in a wide range of formats. We encourage paper presentations, panel discussions, interactive workshops, collaborative roundtables, visual presentations of film, dance and art, and alternative offerings that generate new theory, practice and opportunities for future work. Deadline for submissions is Friday, August 31. Abstracts or proposals should be 250 words. Please include contact information, titles, and institutional/organizational affiliations. Also include information on which of the themes below (1 through 4) your panel addresses. We strongly encourage you to think about how your proposal can build better connections between research and practice, particularly with non-academic audiences.

Proposals can be sent to: criticalgeography@unc.edu.

Additional information about the conference is coming soon. Please check back for additional information about conference programming, and details regarding logistics and accommodations.

We look forward to seeing you in November!

Themes (1) Occupation and Decolonization in the Current Crisis Three years after the peak of the financial crisis of 2008, people took a cue from the Arab Spring uprisings and took to the streets of major US cities, highlighting the plight of the 99% while denouncing the concentrated power of the 1%. We invite papers and panels that address the following: What are the contemporary dynamics of this crisis? What is the relationship between the often-highlighted sector of finance in this crisis, and the broader functioning of capital as a whole? What is the composition of the contemporary struggles responding to this crisis? And how might an attempt to shift the theoretical and empirical focus from occupation to decolonization assist or impede the conversation about building a movement that is most likely to enact profound social change?

(2) Living and Dying in a Material World Political ecologies, bio/necropolitical analyses, and materialist engagements explore the making and intertwining of social and natural worlds. Central to these inquiries is the stuff of political life: how the political is constituted and redefined around things/bodies and through contests over ontology and meaning, and how this informs struggles over spaces, resources, rights and territory, life and death. In what ways do engagements with things/bodies allow us to rethink and address current moments of crisis, be it financial, ecological, energetic, institutional, or territorial? We invite work that provides a forum for these debates and engagements, including but not limited to questions of circulation and the movement of value, energy, waste, decay, and consumption, metabolisms of nature and capital, and geographies of crisis.

(3) Embodied Knowledge as Practice Feminist geographers, queer theorists, and a wide range of non-representational scholarship have situated the body as a complex yet crucial focus of geography, calling to task the political, economic, and social imbrications that are tied up in the creation of bodies. Just as importantly, work around the body brushes against the limits of the translatable, raising both theoretical and methodological difficulties yet also untested potentials, as bodies everywhere form new knowledges, practices, and actions to meet the challenges of contemporary precarity and flux. We invite work that either uses the body as a site of empirical research or seeks to embody research-as-practice in ways that push the boundaries of traditional research exploration and presentation.

(4) Territories of Resistance Over the last decades we’ve witnessed a series of revolts on the world stage, ranging from El Alto in Bolivia to the Arab Spring. We’re interested in papers that inquire into these tremors, specifically: their relation to prior struggles, neoliberalism, occupation, global colonialism, war, and austerity; the geopolitical implications of their international encounters; and the conceptions of space, claims to territory and subjectivity, and visions of collective life at work in them. We’re also interested in papers situated domestically, where anti-neoliberal struggles – largely informed by the continued legacy of race radicalism – have centered on the construction of just cities. Often, communities of color are seen as mere objects of neoliberal policy; in contrast, we are interested in papers that recognize them as producers of viable post-neoliberal forms of urban life.

Co-sponsored by the Graduate School of Geography at Clark University and the journal Human Geography, the 18th Annual Conference on Critical Geography seeks to bring critical geographers together to engage with a world in crisis. Historically, crises have been viewed as moments of political opportunity; as points in time where hegemonic contradictions are revealed and contested. This conference views crisis as an entry point into questions of how critical geographers can construct a responsive, radical politics. If the point of critical social theory is not only to understand but to change, we seek to question what notions of change, politics, and action underlie contemporary critical and radical geographies.

The conference will begin on Friday, November 4th, 2011. The opening evening will feature a keynote address by Neil Smith, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Geography and Director of the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics at the CUNY Graduate Center.

The program on Saturday, November 5th will consist of paper sessions, panels, and round table discussions. Saturday evening will feature a keynote panel addressing the theme of the conference. Sunday, November 6th will include additional sessions.

We invite you to submit abstracts or proposals for paper sessions, panels, roundtable discussions, or sessions with alternative formats by the deadline of August 15, 2011. Abstracts or proposals should be 250 words in length, and we ask that you include contact information and any titles or affiliations you would like placed in the program. We are especially interested in participants organizing their own sessions. If you are interested in organizing a session, please let us know in advance and you can then issue your own CFP through the appropriate mailing lists. Papers submitted individually will be reviewed by the program committee after August 15, and will be accepted for committee-organized sessions as space allows. Please send your abstract or proposal to criticalgeography@clarku.edu.

Further information on the conference, including accommodations, paper sessions, and the conference synopsis will be available at the conference web site, www.criticalgeography.org. Please feel free to email any further questions to the conference planning committee at criticalgeography@clarku.edu

This year the Political Geography and Sexuality and Space Specialty Groups are co-sponsoring a pre-conference on the University of Washington Tacoma campus immediately prior to the start of the Association of American Geographers conference in Seattle. We have extended the submission deadline for this pre-conference for one more week. The new deadline is March 8, 2011. We have some great papers and panels thus far. We welcome additional paper and panel proposals on a wide range of topics related to political geography, sexuality and space, and/or the overlaps and interconnections between the two. Participation is not limited to specialty group members. To submit a paper or session proposal, please send a title, abstract, and complete author/organizer contact information ! to Larry Knopp (knoppl@uw.edu) or Mark Pendras (pendras@uw.edu) no later than March 8, 2011.

The pre-conference will begin midday on Sunday, April 10 and will feature a Keynote Address by Dr. Lynn Staeheli, Professor of Geography at Durham University in the United Kingdom. The conference will continue through Monday, April 11. Additional registration details, including fee and fee payment details, are available at http://www.tacoma.uw.edu/events/pgs.

The University of Washington Tacoma campus is located in downtown Tacoma’s vibrant and beautifully renovated museum district. Accommodations within walking distance include the Courtyard by Marriott (http://www.marriott.com/hotels/hotel-information/travel/seatd-courtyard-tacoma-downtown/) and the Hotel Murano (http://www.hotelmuranotacoma.com/). The Best Western Tacoma Dome (http://www.bestwesternwashington.com/hotels/best-western-tacoma-dome-hotel/) is a very short (2-3 minute) free tram ride away. All three of! fer room rates that are considerably cheaper than hotel rates ! in downtown Seattle (including AAG conference rates). In addition, downtown Seattle and Tacoma are accessible to one another via commuter train and express busses from early morning until late evening. The trip takes less than an hour.

Special thanks to the two specialty groups, UW-Tacoma administration, and the UW-Tacoma Office of Advancement, for their support of this pre-conference. Thanks also to the local organizing committee comprised of geographers and fellow-travelers in the Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences and Urban Studies programs at UW-Tacoma and the Department of Geography at UW-Seattle.