Mixed Race Studies

Blackface, Whiteness and the Power of Definition in German Contemporary Theatre

The International Research Center “Interweaving Performance Cultures” invites Bühnenwatch
Studio 1 Kunstquartier Bethanien
Mariannenplatz 2 / 10 997 Berlin
2012-10-16, 11:00-16:30 CEST (Local Time)

With presentations by Sharon Otoo, Sandrine Micossé-Aikins, Dr. Daniele Daude, Dr. Azadeh Sharifi and Julia Lemmle

Moderated by Oliver Kontny

Program

11.00 Introduction by Oliver Kontny
11.30 “Reclaiming Innocence: Unmasking Representations of Whiteness in German Theatre,” Sharon Otoo
12.00 “Not just a Blackened Face: The Back Stage of a Stereotyp,” Sandrine Micossé-Aikins
12.30 “The (Un)Chosen Bodies of Myths. Performing Race on Opera Stage,” Dr. Daniele Daude
13.00-13.30 Discussion
Lunch
15.00 “Black artists in German theatre,” Dr. Azadeh Sharifi
15.30 ““Ich bin kein Nazi!” The blackface debate in the German mainstream media,” Julia Lemmle
16.00-16.30 Discussion…

For more information, click here.

White Mothers of Biracial Sons and Daughters in U.S. Schools:  Colliding, Colluding, and Contending with White Privilege

Jennifer Little, a Ph.D. candidate in the Leadership for the Advancement of Learning and Service program at Cardinal Stritch University, is looking to build out her list of mothers to interview for her dissertation—which is titled “White Mothers of Biracial Sons and Daughters in U.S. Schools: Colliding, Colluding, and Contending with White Privilege”

The purpose of this study is to collect and examine descriptions and portrayals from White mothers of biracial sons and daughters of their interactions with the teachers and principals who work at the public schools in the United States (US) that their children attend. The research questions are:

1. What common discourse components are contained in their descriptions?
2. How do the location differences among the mothers play a role? How do mothers who live in locations where the majority of residents self-identify as White compare to locations where the majority of the residents are not White?
3. How do the mothers’ depictions of the interactions compare to the teachers’ and principals’ portrayals?

A critical discourse analysis approach is planned for examining the descriptions provided by the study participants. The study will interview White mothers of biracial sons and daughters attending public schools across the US. In order to support triangulation, interviews or focus groups with teachers and principals will also be conducted. All the interviews and focus groups will be video recorded. The analysis of the data collected will be completed by reviewing the videos.

If you or someone you know would like to participate in her study, or if you have questions please contact her via e-mail.

She plans to start the interviewing phase in January 2013. She plans to travel to several metropolitan areas around the United States to conduct the interviews. She also plans to video record the interviews for use in a documentary. Some interviews she may need to do via the internet.

Hapa-Palooza Festival: September 12, 13 & 15, 2012

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
2012-09-12, 2012-09-13 and 2012-09-15

Hapa-Palooza: A Vancouver Celebration of Mixed-Roots Arts and Ideas is a new cultural festival that celebrates the city’s identity as a place of hybridity, synergy and acceptance. A vibrant fusion of music, dance, literary, artistic and film performances, Hapa-Palooza places prominence on celebrating and stimulating awareness of mixed-roots identity, especially amongst youth.

For more information, click here.

Purdu­e Hapa Stude­nt Assoc­iatio­n Callo­ut Sept. 17, 2012

Purdue University
West Lafayette, Indiana
Class of 1950, Room 121
2012-09-17, 18:00-20:00 CDT (Local Time)

The term “Hapa” refers to a biracial/multiracial person with Asian and/or Pacific Islander roots. As a club, we promote both diversity and unity, and we strive to raise awareness of identity crisis amongst Hapas, as well as Asian interest on campus. With leadership and volunteering opportunities, memorable events, and fellow club members to create long lasting memories and friendships, Purdue HSA is Purdue’s newest upcoming organization. Come to our callout to learn more about what HSA is all about!

For more information, click here.

U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey coming to campus

East Carolina University
Greenville, North Carolina
2012-10-24 through 2012-10-25

United States Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey will be on campus Oct. 24-25 as part of the Contemporary Writers Series. A native of Gulfport, Miss., Trethewey was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 2006. She is professor of English at Emory University; she was named the 19th U.S. Poet Laureate in June.
 
Trethewey is the first Southerner to hold the post since Robert Penn Warren, the first poet laureate, and the first African-American since Rita Dove in 1993.
 
The Contemporary Writers Series aims to expose students and other readers to award-winning fiction and nonfiction writers, translators and poets…

For more information, click here.

Meet Steve Riley—Creator of Mixed Race Studies

Mixed Race Radio
Wednesday, 2012-07-18, 16:00Z (12:00 EDT, 09:00 PDT, 17:00 BST)

Tiffany Rae Reid, Host

Join us as we meet Steven Riley, creator of MixedRaceStudies.org which is a non-commercial website that provides a gateway to contemporary interdisciplinary English language scholarship about the relevant issues surrounding the topic of multiracialism. The site has nearly 4,500 posts which consists of links to over +2,400 articles, ≈800 books, 500 dissertations/papers/reports, ≈200 multimedia items, 200 quotes/excerpts, etc. The site has been called the “most comprehensive and objective clearinghouse for scholarly publications related to critical mixed-race theory” by a leading scholar in the field.

Steve has been an Information Technology professional for 25 years in the D.C. area and is currently Director of Database Development and Design at a trade association in Washington D.C.  His areas of expertise are application programming, database and website development.

When he is not developing software applications, he spends his time at home in Silver Spring, Maryland with his artist wife Julia of 25 years (the best thing that ever happened to him) working on his photography and reading books on history and sociology.

Download the episode here (00:45:05).

Mixed heritage voices – Multiple identities, varied experiences, diverse views

British Association for Adoption & Fostering
Woburn House Conference Centre
20 Tavistock Square
London WC1H 9HQ
2012-11-29, 10:00-16:00Z

One in ten people in the UK define themselves as mixed heritage, and it seems that young people think it is ‘cool’ to be ‘mixed’. But what meaning do young people and their families give to their mixed heritage identities and how do these identities develop in mixed adoptive and foster care families?

The profiles of children in ‘Be My Parent’ (BAAF’s family finding service) and the Adoption Register demonstrate the multiple and complex ethnicities of children waiting for placements and this brings challenges to practitioners making decisions for mixed heritage children in the public care system. There are also challenges for adoptive parents and foster carers who need to value and promote the child’s heritage and help them achieve a positive identity, alongside an ability to cope with racism to make their way in the world.

This conference will bring together mixed heritage young people, families and researchers to share their experiences and perspectives on identity, and will look at the implications of these issues for practice.

Aims

• to understand the experiences of mixed heritage children, young people and their families
• to identify how adoptive parents and foster carers might help their mixed heritage child develop their identities
• to explore how practitioners can make better decisions for mixed heritage children in the public care system

Chair & Speakers

• Professor Ann Phoenix, Co-Director, Thomas Coram, Research Unit (Invited)
• Dr. Suki Ali, Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociology, London School of Economics
• Dr. Vicki Harman, Lecturer, Centre for Criminology & Sociology, University of Royal Holloway
• Dr. Daniel McNeil, Lecturer in Media & Cultural Studies, University of Newcastle
• Dr. Fiona Peters, Consultant Perspectives from Adoptive Parents & Foster Carers, Sheffield City Council

Who should attend

Children’s services social workers and managers, family placement practitioners, independent reviewing officers, decision-makers, panel members, health and education professionals, youth services, CAFCASS children’s guardians, social work students, adopted adults, adoptive parents and foster carers.

For more information, click here.

Feminist Race Theorist and Sociologist to Lecture

Hamilton College, Clinton New York
College News
2012-04-07

France Winddance Twine, professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, will present a lecture on Tuesday, April 10, at 4:15 p.m., in Dwight Lounge, Bristol Campus Center. Twine will discuss “The Future of Anti-Racism & Racial Literacy After The Trayvon Martin Murder.” The lecture is free and open to the public.
 
In addition to editing several collections on race, class and gender, she has authored Outsourcing the Womb: Race, Class and Gestational Surrogacy in a Global Market and Racism in a Racial Democracy: The Maintenance of White Supremacy in Brazil, as well as A White Side of Black Britain…

For more information, click here.

University of North Florida Presents James Weldon Johnson Symposium

University of North Florida
Press Release
2012-03-29

Joanna Norris, Associate Director of Public Relations

he University of North Florida presents the James Weldon Johnson Symposium from noon to 4 p.m. Thursday, April 5, and from noon to 5 p.m. Friday, April 6, in the UNF Student Union Auditorium, Building 58W, Room 2704, in celebration of the centennial anniversary of the publication of James Weldon Johnson’s “Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man.”

The symposium will feature student and faculty performances, poetry readings as well as music and dance performances. The keynote speaker will be Dr. JeffriAnne Wilder, assistant professor in the UNF Department of Sociology and Anthropology. She will discuss “Black Americans and Colorism in the 21st Century,” while UNF student Erin Mulkey will perform “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” a song written by Johnson and is considered to be the Negro national anthem.

Additionally, there will be faculty and student presentations addressing the life of Johnson as well as his Jacksonville origins and connections. The event will conclude at 4 p.m. Friday, April 6, with a performance by the renowned McIntosh County Shouters, a group that performs the “Southeastern Ring Shout,” which is among the oldest surviving African-American performance traditions on the North American continent.

For more information, click here.

Association for Asian American Studies 2012 Annual Conference

Capitol Hilton Hotel
1001 16th Street, NW
Washington, D.C.
2012-04-11 through 2012-04-14

Selected Sessions from Tentative Schedule

Thursday, April 12: 13:15-14:45 (South American A) Exposing Truths: Re-Centering Filipina/o American Subjectivities
Chair: Dawn Bohulano Mabalon, San Francisco State University

“Passing It On: Mixed Filipina/o American PEP Teachers Facilitating Growth in Students and Self”
Teresa Hodges, San Francisco State University

Friday, April 13: 15:00 – 16:30 EDT  (Statler B) Multiracial Asian/Americans: War and the Mixed Race Experience
Chair: Sue-Je Gage, Ithaca College

“Different Kinds of Occupation: Mixed Race People in Occupied Post-War Japan and Okinawa”
Lily Anne Yumi Welty, University of California, Santa Barbara

“When Half is Whole”
Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu, Stanford University

“Kiku and Isamu: Japanese Representations of Biracial Children in Post-war Japan”
Zelideth M. Rivas, Grinnell College

“Politics and Policing of Difference: Asian America and ‘Amerasians’”
Sue-Je Gage, Ithaca College

 
Friday, April 13: 15:00-16:30 EDT (California) Performing History, Expanding Race: Afro-Asian and Arab-Asian Hip Hop, Film and Spoken Word
Chair: Vanita Reddy, Texas A&M
Discussant: Junaid Rana, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

“Afro-Asian Diasporic Intimacies: Mira Nair’s Mississippi Masala and Shailja Patel’s Migritude”
Vanita Reddy, Texas A&M

“Performing the Political: Kundiman’s 9/11 Poetry Project”
Anantha Sudhakar, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

“Afro-Asian Aesthetics in Early Hip Hop Culture and Performance: Martin Wong’s Graffiti and Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon”
Shante Paradigm Smalls, Davidson College

Saturday, April 14: 14:45-16:15 EDT (Statler B) Theorizing Asian Americans: Race, Ethnicity, and Nation
Chair: Lisa Mar, University of Maryland

“Genetic Citizens: Multiracial Asian Americans and the Limits of Nation”
LeiLani Nishime, University of Washington

For more information, click here.