CFP: "Invisible Designs: New Perspectives on Race and American Consumer Capitalism"

Call for Papers:

"INVISIBLE DESIGNS:
New Perspectives on Race and American Consumer Capitalism"

Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Conference
University of Chicago
October 24-25, 2013

Plenary Panelists: Davarian Baldwin (American Studies, Trinity College), Jacqueline Goldsby (English, Yale University), Nicole Guidotti-Hernandez (American Studies, University of Texas at Austin), Paul Mullins (Anthropology, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis), Lauren Sklaroff (History, University of South Carolina)

"Design" as an object and a theme has begun to shape analysis about race across the disciplines and has generated searching questions about the nature of American culture and life: What has attracted manufacturers, advertisers, artists, and consumers to reproduce certain images of race? How has racialized imagery sustained the work of capitalism and American dreams of the "good life"?  Taking advantage of recent humanistic and social scientific attention to material and visual culture, to the cultural analysis of capitalism, and to conceptions of race beyond "black and white," this conference will take stock of the latest scholarly conversations about race and capitalism and explore paths for future inquiry. Ultimately we aim to unpack the premises, stakes, and potential of studying graphic materials, consumer practices, and modes of production as means to uncover the otherwise “invisible” cultural logics and historical processes which have woven racial difference into the fabric of American life.

We welcome proposals for presentations from graduate students in all areas of the humanities and social sciences. The conference is organized to foster conversations between established scholars and emerging graduate students. Our program will consist of five panels comprised of invited faculty and graduate students; students will be matched with invited faculty according to broad methodological or thematic affinity. We therefore encourage graduate students to propose presentations which reflect ongoing dissertation research.

Possible topics include, but are by no means limited to:
-Archaeological or provenance studies of racialized consumer goods or artifacts
-The role of the culture industries in “designing” race
-The home and interior design as sites for race-making
-Affective and/or erotic dimensions of racial design
-Intersections between racial design with gender and sexuality
-Consumerism as a forum of racial self-fashioning and public discourse
-Immigration, citizenship, and iconography
-Production of graphic arts by Latino/a Americans, African Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, Jewish Americans and other minority groups
-The remembrance, archiving, and refabrication of racialized consumer goods
-The racial politics of museum and gallery representation

We invite you to submit a 250-word abstract for 20-minute paper presentations, along with a one-page CV, to conference organizers Chris Dingwall and Korey Garibaldi at invisibledesigns2013@gmail.com by no later than *May 31, 2013.* Successful applicants will be informed in late June.