Mixed Race Studies

The 3rd Biennial Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference “Global Mixed Race”

DePaul University
DePaul Student Center
2550 North Shefield
Chicago, Illinois 60614
2014-11-13 through 2014-11-15

Free and open to the public!

Global Mixed Race, the third biennial Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference, will be hosted at DePaul University in Chicago, November 13th-15th, 2014. It will bring together scholars from a variety of disciplines around the world to facilitate a conversation about the transnational, transdisciplinary, and transracial field of Critical Mixed Race Studies.

The 2014 conference is organized in partnership with DePaul’s Department for Latin American and Latino Studies and the Center for Intercultural Programs, and the non-profit organization Mixed Roots Stories. CMRS 2014 is also co-sponsored by DePaul’s Office of Institutional Diversity and Equity, African Black Diaspora Studies, Art, Media, & Design, Center for Latino Research, Critical Ethnic Studies, Global Asian Studies, Irish Studies, LGBTQ Studies, and Women’s and Gender Studies.

View the final schedule here.

Website: www.criticalmixedracestudies.org
E-Mail: cmrs@depaul.edu
Telephone: 773-325-4994
Facebook: criticalmixedracestudies
Twitter: @CMRSmixedrace #CMRS2014

Register Now for the 3rd Biennial Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference “Global Mixed Race” at DePaul University in Chicago

Critical Mixed Race Studies
2014-04-02

Mark your calendars, book your flights and hotels, and be sure to register (it’s free!) for the 3rd biennial Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference “Global Mixed Race” November 13-15, 2014 at DePaul University in Chicago.

Rebecca Chiyoko King-O’Riain, Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociology, National University Ireland Maynooth and coeditor of Global Mixed Race (forthcoming New York University Press, 2014) will be our featured CMRS keynote.

Also from Ireland, Zélie Asava will be our featured Mixed Roots Stories keynote. She is the author of The Black Irish Onscreen: Representing Black and Mixed-Race Irish Identities on Film and TV (Peter Lang, 2013).

Join us for three days of scholarly panels plus an exciting line up of arts and cultural programming organized in conjunction with Mixed Roots Stories including: feature film screenings, an evening of short films, a live performance evening, and arts and culture panels and workshops across the three conference days. CMRS 2014 will also include an info fair and caucus meetings. This conference is open to the public and all are welcome. CMRS creates a dynamic environment where senior and junior scholars, students, activists, artists, community, non-profit and student organizations, and the general public can network and share.

For more information, click here.

“Global Mixed Race,” the 3rd biennial Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference, will be held at DePaul University in Chicago November 13-15, 2014.

Critical Mixed Race Studies
2013-09-16

Conference Description: Global Mixed Race, the third biennial Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference, will be hosted at DePaul University in Chicago, November 13th-15th, 2014. It will bring together scholars from a variety of disciplines around the world to facilitate a global conversation about the transnational, transdisciplinary, and transracial field of Critical Mixed Race Studies.

Registration: Conference registration is free, compliments of DePaul University, however, registration is still required. You are highly encouraged to register early, but “day-of,” or “walk-in,” registration will also be permitted. Confirmed presenters must register by October 1, 2014, in order to be recognized in the printed program.” Register here: http://condor.depaul.edu/dpulas/cmrs/2014/

Proposals: We invite panels, roundtables, and papers that address the conference theme, although participants are also welcome to submit proposals that speak to their own specialized research, pedagogical, or community-based interests. The primary criterion for selection will be the quality of the proposal, not its connection to the conference theme. Proposals might consider the ways different disciplines approach or provide methodologies for critical analyses of mixed race issues. Proposals might also consider the following ideas as related to this year’s themes:

• tracing the history and historiography of mixed race in academic, popular, and legal discourses in a global context;
• identifying and measuring the impact of global migration, settlement, and sociocultural encounter and interaction on these mixed-race histories and historiographies;
• encouraging broad, interdisciplinary debate connecting different historical periods and seemingly disparate or far-flung regions of the world, such as comparative racial ideology in Europe, Africa, Latin America, and Asia or the study of comparative anti-miscegenation laws.

Panels, papers, and roundtable proposal submission deadline: January 15^th, 2014
Completed applications should be e-mailed back to cmrs@depaul.edu with the subject line appropriate to the type of submission (e.g., CMRS 2014 Panel Application).

• CMRS 2014 Panel Application
• CMRS 2014 Paper Application
• CMRS 2014 Roundtable Application

Information Fair Exhibitor Application deadline: August 28, 2014

CMRS 2014 Exhibitor Application

Mixed Roots Stories

Mixed Roots Stories is partnering with Critical Mixed Race Studies in bringing arts and cultural programming to the 2014 conference. We are seeking submissions from performing artists and filmmakers whose work explores stories of racial and cultural mixing as a central theme. The overall theme for the 2014 conference is “Global Mixed Race,” and submissions that reflect this will be given special consideration.

We will be screening short films on Thursday evening, November 13, 2014, and holding a live performance showcase on Friday evening, November 14, 2014.

Films: We are looking for short films under 15 minutes. Your submission should include an online link to your film (private link is fine), a press kit, and a short statement (50 words or less) on how the film addresses the mixed experience and fits the theme “Global Mixed Race” (trailers for feature films will be accepted).

Live performance showcase: We are looking for stand-up comedy, spoken word, dance, short scenes, monologues, vocalists, musicians – or other forms of live performance. Your piece for the showcase should not be longer than 8 minutes. Your submission should include an online link with no less than a 2 minute preview of exactly what you will present, and a short statement (50 words or less) on how the piece addresses the mixed experience and fits the theme “Global Mixed Race.”

Mixed Roots Stories submission deadline: January 15th, 2014
Please e-mail Mixed Roots Stories submission materials to: cmrs@depaul.edu with the subject line:CMRS 2014 Mixed Roots Stories Application.

Contacts

CMRS Conference organizer:

Camilla Fojas, Professor Latin American and Latino Studies and Vincent de Paul Professor
e-mail: mailto:cfojas@depaul.edu
phone: (773) 325-4994

Mixed Roots Stories and arts programming contact:

Laura Kina, Associate Professor Art, Media, & Design and Vincent de Paul Professor
e-mail: lkinaaro@depaul.edu
phone: (773) 325-4048

Looking for Co-presenters for 2014 Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference (Chicago, November)

2013-12-26

Kim Potowski, Associate Professor of Linguistics
University of Illinois, Chicago

I would like to submit a panel for the 2014 Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference about language and the ways in which language (dialects, code-switching, etc.) reflects and enacts the identities of mixed “race” and mixed “ethnicity” individuals and groups.

By “mixed ethnicity” I mean to include, for example, intra-Latino individuals (e.g. “MexiRicans”), intra-Asian individuals (e.g. “Chinese-Korean”), and other such combinations. Again, the focus of the panel is the ways in which such individuals use and are marked by their linguistic repertoires. Many MexiRicans, for example, speak a variety of Spanish that shows traits from both Mexican and Puerto Rican dialects.

Ideally all presentations will incorporate some mixed race theory, but we can discuss this.

If you know anyone who might like to be considered for this panel, please contact me, Kim Potowski at kimpotow@uic.edu. I would need to receive abstract proposals and author information (name, institution, areas of scholarly interest) by January 2, 2014.

Thanks!

Reflections on Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference

Crossing Borders, Bridging Generations
Brooklyn Historical Society
November 2012

Rita Kamani-Renedo

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to attend the second biennial Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference at DePaul University in Chicago. I was excited to return after having attended the inaugural conference in 2010. This time, I went as a representative of Crossing Borders, Bridging Generations to share with conference participants the work around identity, multiraciality and oral history that the Brooklyn Historical Society has been doing and explore some of the powerful implications CBBG can have both inside and beyond the walls of academia.

To give you a little background, the Critical Mixed Race Studies (CMRS) Conference is organized by faculty members of various universities and hosted by DePaul University’s Global Asian Studies and Latin American and Latino Studies programs. Though mixed race studies has existed for some time, the conference—and a forthcoming academic journal—were created to provide a space for “a recursive and reflexive approach to the field.” According to conference organizers, CMRS is “the transracial, transdisciplinary, and transnational critical analysis of the institutionalization of social, cultural, and political orders based on dominant conceptions of race. CMRS emphasizes the mutability of race and the porosity of racial boundaries in order to critique processes of racialization and social stratification based on race. CMRS addresses local and global systemic injustices rooted in systems of racialization.” With this in mind, I went to the conference eager to engage in conversations about the changing discourse around race and racial identity, race-based social stratification that persists in our society, and the role of scholarship, activism and the arts in challenging dominant narratives around mixed-race…

Read the entire article here.

Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference 2012 and Mixed Roots Midwest

2012-11-13

Camilla Fojas, (CMRS 2012 organizer) Associate Professor and Chair
Latin American and Latino Studies
DePaul University

Laura Kina, (Mixed Roots Midwest 2012 co-organizer) Associate Professor Art, Media and Design and Director Asian American Studies
DePaul University

Photo of Mixed Roots Midwest: Filmmakers Panel by Laura Kina.

Presented by DePaul’s Center for Intercultural Programs and co-organized by Fanshen Cox, Chandra Crudup, Khanisha Foster, and Laura Kina, Mixed Roots Midwest featured three evenings of programming that explored what it means to have a mixed identity:

• Nov 1, 2012 Selected Shorts: Silences by Octavio Warnock-Graham, Crayola Monologues by Nathan Gibbs, Mixed Mexican by Thomas P. Lopez, and Nigel’s Fingerprints by Kim Kuhteubl.

• Nov 2, 2012 Filmmakers Panel: Fanshen Cox in conversation with Kim Kuhteubl, Jeff Chiba Stearns, Kip Fulbeck.

• Nov 3, 2012 Live Event – featuring spoken word artists CP Chang, Chris L. Terry and Sage Xaxua Morgan-Hubbard from Chicago’s own 2nd Story along with a preview of Fanshen Cox’s solo-show-in-progress, One Drop of Love and invited Chicago writer Fred Sasaki reading from a manuscript of e-mails called “Letter of Interest.”

News from the 2012 Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference Business Meeting

2012-11-13

Camilla Fojas, (CMRS 2012 organizer) Associate Professor and Chair
Latin American and Latino Studies
DePaul University

Laura Kina, (Mixed Roots Midwest 2012 co-organizer) Associate Professor Art, Media and Design and Director Asian American Studies
DePaul University

Photo of Eric Hamako at CMRS 2012 by Ken Tanabe.

US Census Report from Eric Hamako

• Nominated by a coalition of Mixed-Race community organizations, Eric Hamako has been selected to serve a two-year term on the US Census Bureau’s National Advisory Committee (NAC) on Racial, Ethnic, and Other Populations.  (See press release.)
• Two matters of particular concern for Multiracial people & Two Or More Races (TOMR) populations.
  1. ADMINISTRATIVE RECORDS: For cost efficiency, the Census Bureau is considering using “Administrative Records” in some cases when a person doesn’t submit information to the Census (e.g., if Jane X doesn’t submit a Census 2020 form and doesn’t respond to follow-up requests, the Census might access other public and private databases that contain info about Jane X, to fill in info about her).  However, currently Census studies indicate that Administrative Records are worse at filling in info about non-Whites than Whites — and are particularly bad at filling in info about people who indicate Two Or More Races (TOMR), ranging from 4%-36% accuracy.  This is largely because many public and private databases do not allow respondents to Mark One or More races.  We need to find ways to improve the accuracy of Administrative Record use.
  2. ALTERNATIVE QUESTIONNAIRE EXPERIMENTS (AQEs): Long before each Census, the Bureau tests out various possible changes, using AQEs.  One of the many changes currently being considered is an option that combines the Race question and the Hispanic ethnicity question into a single question.  This would likely a) increase the accuracy of the count of Latinos, b) increase the number of Latinos who are indicating Two Or More Races, c) reduce the White population count by 6-8%.
• Eric is soliciting community perspectives.  Please review NAC-related documents (see public GoogleDocs folder) and contact Eric at CensusNAC@gmail.com.  Eric is also constructing a blog, “Two or More,” to communicate about the NAC, http://censusnac.blogspot.com/.

Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference 2012 Recap

2012-11-13

Camilla Fojas, (CMRS 2012 organizer) Associate Professor and Chair
Latin American and Latino Studies
DePaul University

Laura Kina, (Mixed Roots Midwest 2012 co-organizer) Associate Professor Art, Media and Design and Director Asian American Studies
DePaul University

Despite being sandwiched between Halloween, Superstorm Sandy, and the presidential elections, over 400 people attended the 2^nd biennial Critical Mixed Race Studies conference, “What is Critical Mixed Race Studies?,” and Mixed Roots Midwest at DePaul University in Chicago November 1-4, 2012. Attendees came from across the United State from Hawaii to New York as well as internationally from Canada, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Australia, and Ukraine and included senior and junior scholars and cultural producers, graduate students, undergraduates, community members, and representatives from community organizations.
 
We would like to thank all of the attendees, participants, organizers, and volunteers for making CMRS 2012 an engaging and memorable conference. A special thanks to the invaluable conference support from DePaul’s Latin American and Latino Studies and our 2012 programming committee: Greg Carter, Michele Elam, Camilla Fojas, Rudy P. Guevarra Jr., and Rainier Spencer. Thank you to our DePaul University co-sponsors: Center for Latino Research (CLR), Center for Intercultural Programs, Global Asian Studies, Latin American and Latino Studies Program (LALSP), Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Dean’s Office, Office of Institutional Diversity and Equity (OIDE), Women and Gender Studies Program, and African American and Black Diaspora Studies.

Click here to view the 2012 CMRS Conference Schedule.
 
Enjoy photos from CMRS 2012
 
Like our new organizational page on Facebook

Journal of Critical Mixed Race Studies Call For Papers
“What is Critical Mixed Race Studies?”

Papers that were presented at the 2012 Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference “What is Critical Mixed Race Studies?” are invited for revision and submission for the second issue of JCMRS. We also welcome papers that speak to specialized research, pedagogical, or community-based interests. JCMRS encourages both established and emerging scholars, including graduate students and faculty, to submit articles throughout the year. Articles will be considered for publication on the basis of their contributions to important and current discussions in mixed race studies, and their scholarly competence and originality.
Visit JCMRS to download the CFP

What’s Next?

The inaugural issue of the Journal of Critical Mixed Race Studies will be published in Jan-Feb 2013. We are in the process of building a dedicated CMRS website, gearing up for the next conference in 2014 (or sooner), and continuing a creative partnership with Mixed Roots Stories (launching in December 2012), and planning to form a CMRS association. Please keep the conversations going through the CMRS Facebook group page and through the CMRS caucus grouops: Latina/os of Mixed Ancestry, the National Association of Mixed Student Organizations, and the newly proposed Queer Caucus. For more information or to get involved contact us at cmrs@depaul.edu.

10 Things I learned at CMRS

Honeysmoke
2012-11-12

Monique Fields

When it comes to conferences, sometimes you want to split yourself into four beings and attend every talk, roundtable, and workshop. It can’t be done. The best you can do is attend the workshops that interest you and hope for the best. I got all of that and more at the Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference in Chicago. Sure, I wish I could have attended everything, but I learned enough to keep me busy until the conference is held again in 2014. With that, here is my list of the 10 Things I learned at the CMRS. If you were there, feel free to add your own…

…7. That a growing number of people transcend race, meaning they deny any racial identity whatsoever…

Read the entire article here.

Winton Triangle history in Chicago!

Chowan Discovery Group
2012-11-06

Marvin Jones

In Chicago, the CDG got the opportunity to introduce our history to a national audience of academics and students at the Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference at DePaul University in Chicago.

Writer Lars Adams, of the Chowanoke Descendants website, presented the history of the Choanoac (Chowanoke) people from the earliest evidence in the 8^th century, to their encounter with the English in 1586 in Hertford County and to their decline and supposed demise in Gates County 1821. Adams finished his account by relating the re-assertion of Choanoac heritage: the growth of the Robbins family near Cofield, the rise of the Meherrin-Chowanoke people, based in the Hertford County, and the Choanoac marker in Harrellsville that was erected last year.

My latest presentation of the Winton Triangle has since added the recent findings and events of the past year and a new map of Winton Triangle schools. Several audience members told me that is was best presentation they had seen so far, and on that strength, several of them returned to attend the next day’s panel about Melungeons and other mixed-race people in Appalachia. S. J Arthur, President of the Melungeon Heritage Association, and Wayne Winkler, from East Tennessee State University and author of Walking Toward Sunset, documented the historical diversity of mixed-race people in Appalachia. This panel was moderated by the Chowan Discovery Group…

…I’d like to thank Laura Kina of DePaul University for paving the way for our two panels, Meherrin-Chowanoke artist Gerry Lang for moderating the Choanoac-Winton Triangle panel, and Mayola Cotterman, a longtime family friend, for taking me into her comfy, lovely and conveniently-located home and attending both panels. Our friends Steven Riley and Julia Cates of Mixed Race Studies attended, and as always, were supportive…

Read the entire article here.