Call for Participants
"Building Bridges"
A Labour Studies Conference at the University of Windsor
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
February 2nd and 3rd, 2007
Conference Theme and Objectives:
In the face of neoliberal globalization, labour market restructuring, war, and other major challenges to social justice, labour and social movements are struggling to create solidarity and overcome many sources of division. This conference will explore those issues which both divide and unite labour and social movements, and discuss current and possible strategies for improving unity within and across movements and borders. The conference will bring together labour researchers, artists, and union and social movement leaders and activists to examine both the sources of division and the potentials for solidarity.
The conference is being held at the same time as the 9th Annual Labour Arts Festival, which will allow participants to take in a variety of arts events over a three-day period.
Call for Participants:Panellists: The goal of the conference is to foster reflection, debate and strategizing based on insights derived from a variety of different practices - academic, activist, and artistic. As such, each panel discussion will have four to five speakers (15-20 minutes per speaker) representing a cross-section of researchers, union leaders, activists and artists. The presentations should be informal and address the following questions:
- What are the major challenges to building unity in your area of practice? What are the sources of division and in what ways do they hinder movements?
- What initiatives are you working on to address these challenges? What is working and what isn't?
- What strategies should be adopted to build more effective bridges?
Discussants: Each panel will also have a discussant, whose role will be to pull together the themes emerging from the presentations and subsequent discussions, and summarize key strategic lessons. While panelists will not be asked to present formal papers, they will submit a one-page summary of their presentation to the discussant in advance of the conference.
Students: We are also particularly interested in fostering labour studies students' participation in the conference, and in building connections between students at different institutions. We have therefore structured in time for students to meet, and will subsidize their participation in the arts events (see below for details). We encourage faculty to actively recruit students to attend.
If you are interested in volunteering your services as a panelist or discussant, please email a short (250-word) outline of what you would like to contribute (see the panel topics below). Also, if you know of an academic, movement leader, activist or artist that would be suitable for one of the sessions, please send us their contact information with a short description of why you think they would be a good choice. The deadline for submitting an intent to participate is August 15th, 2006.
For More Information, Please Contact:
Dr. Alan Hall
Dr. Stephanie Ross
Director
Department of Sociology Labour Studies Programme and Anthropology
[mailto]hall4@uwindsor.ca[/mailto]
[mailto]stephr@uwindsor.ca[/mailto]
Both c/o University of Windsor
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
N9A 6B7
Tentative Schedule:
Thursday February 1st
7:30 - 11:30 pm Art Show and Festival Reception - Artcite Gallery
Friday, February 2nd
8:30 - 9:00 am Conference Registration
9:00 -11:00 am Panel I: Bridging Union and Non-Union Workers
11:00 - 1:00 pm Lunch and Labour Art Display
1:00 - 3:00 pm Panel II: Bridging Unions and Workers across Sectors in Canada
3:30 - 5:30 pm Panel III: Bridging Unions and Workers across National Borders
7:00 -10:00 pm Dinner Theatre
Saturday, February 3rd
9:30 - 11:30 am Panel IV: Bridging Unions, Workers and Social Movements
11:30 - 1:00 pm Lunch and Labour Film Shorts
Meeting for Labour Studies Students
1:30 - 3:30 pm Panel V: Bridging through Art and Culture
4:00 - 6:00 pm Panel VI: Bridging Unions and Academics
7:30 -11:30 pm Labour Cabaret
Conference Details:
Registration: There will be no registration fee.
Meals: Lunch will be provided on Friday, but on Saturday conference attendees will be free to eat in one of downtown Windsor's many restaurants. There will be a charge for the dinner theatre on the Friday night.
- Registration before December 1st, 2006: $35.00
- Registration after December 1st, 2006: $45.00
Lodging and Transportation: Participants will have to pay for lodging and transportation, but the conference will seek to get the best possible rates by booking downtown hotel rooms in bulk.
Arts Events: With the exception of the Dinner Theatre, all Labour Arts Festival events are free.
Students: Since we want to encourage attendance by Labour Studies students from various universities, we will waive their dinner costs and seek to billet those coming from outside of Windsor with our Labour Studies students.