Fall 2009 Speaker Series

POST- RACIAL SOCIETIES AND CULTURAL STUDIES

INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL STUDIES GRADUATE CERTIFICATE PROGRAM

The idea of post-racial societies has gained momentum in recent times. Cultural Studies has long been interested in issues of national citizenship, cultural identity, and transnationalization. Is the concept of post-racial societies an enabling idea or a dangerous conceit? Are we too hasty in our abandonment of race as an analytical category? Does this undermine multiculturalism? Aren't ethno-racial communities vital sites for the constitution and articulation of cultural values? How does the idea of post-racial societies relate to the postmodernist valorization of the local, the particular?

Time: 12:00pm – 1:20pm Place: East-West Center, Burns Hall 2118 or 4005

(All presentations are free and open to the public)

Wed. Sept. 9^th – Dr. Vincent K. Pollard, Department of Asian Studies, UHM

“Militant Music, Powerful Language and Atomic Bombs: Constitutional Change in the Philippines” Burns Hall 2118

Wed. Sept. 23– Roundtable–Dr. Andrew Arno, Department of Anthropology, UHM; Dr. Ruth Hsu, Department of English, UHM; Dr. Elisa White, Department of Ethnic Studies, UHM

“Law and Order, Racism and the Gates Affair” Burns Hall 4005

Wed. Sept. 30^th – Dr. Nandita Sharma, Department of Sociology & Department of Ethnic Studies, UHM

and Dr. Gaye Chan, Department of Art, UHM

“Eating in Public: The Desire for a Post-Racist Commons” Burns Hall 2118

Wed. Oct. 14^th – Dr. Markus Wessendorf, Department of Theater & Dance, UHM

“Young Jean Lee's Deconstruction of a ‘Post-racial’ America in Her Plays ‘Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven’ (2006) and ‘The Shipment’ (2009)” Burns Hall 2118

Wed. Oct. 21^st – Dr. Hye Seung Chung, Department of American Studies, UHM

“All about Cristina: The Politics of (In)Visibility and New Multiculturalism in Grey's Anatomy” Burns Hall 2118

Wed. Oct. 28^th – Dr. Vilsoni Hereniko, Department of Pacific Island Studies

“The Quest for a Post-Racial Fiji and the Audacity of Hope” Burns Hall 2118

Wed. Nov. 4^th – Dr. Jonathan Okamura, Department of Ethnic Studies

“Postracial America and Barack Obama as the Postracial Candidate: Perspectives from Asian America and Hawai'i” Burns Hall 2118

Wed. Nov. 18^th – Dr. Christine Yano, Department of Anthropology, UHM

“Post-racial Obama in Japan? Struggles of Blood Ideology Amid Calls for Change” Burns Hall 2118

Wed. Nov. 25^th– Dr. Njoroge Njoroge, Department of History, UHM

“Victims of a Map: Third Worldism and the Unreality of the Post-Racial Society” Burns Hall 2118

Wed. Dec. 2^nd– Dr. Elisa White, Department of Ethnic Studies, UHM

“Constructing, Embracing and Removing Black Ireland:

A Case of the African Diaspora in Europe and the Modern Problem of Race” Burns Hall 2118

Fri. Dec. 11– Capstone, Burns Hall 4005

Sponsored by:

UHM/EWC International Cultural Studies Certificate Program

1601 East-West Road, Honolulu, Hawaii 96848-1601 Telephone 808-944-7593 Fax: 808-944-7070

Office: Burns Hall 2069 Email: culture@hawaii.edu Website: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~culture