Friday-Saturday, March 9-10, 2007
Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA

Call For Papers

Deadline for Proposals: November 15, 2006
The Program Committee welcomes proposals from social, urban, and cultural historians; historians of technology, science, and medicine; and all social scientists for a two-day workshop on race, technology, and science. We are especially interested in comparative and interdisciplinary approaches to critical race theory and its application to ostensibly “race neutral” disciplines. Our aim is to achieve an exchange among disparate humanities in an edited volume of selected essays prepared through a follow-up meeting of the authors later in 2007. Participants will receive paid travel and lodging for both meetings.

Workshop Format and Directions for Submission
The workshop will offer roundtable discussions of pre-circulated papers (10-15 pages in length), organized around four general topics:
1. Built Environment, Built Identities: racial inscription vis a vis urban planning and public policy; building design; land use, agricultural history, and globalization; or policing and surveillance
2. Race in Technical Careers: historic patterns of racial inclusion and exclusion in technical, scientific, and medical disciplines, in both educational and employment contexts
3. Tools of Racial Reasoning: studies of instruments and apparatuses applied to the project of defining race, the historic associations of race and deviance in both social and medical arenas, and measurement in the political sphere, such as electoral or census processes
4. Blinded by the Science: studies of racialized biologies and their commodification, as in the production of cosmetics, machines or pharmaceuticals; the relationships among race, risk, and safety for workers, patients, and communities exposed to environmental hazards

Proposals should include the author’s name, institutional affiliation, and field; be limited to a one-page topical description; and be submitted electronically in “.doc” format to race.workshop@drexel.edu