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Call for Papers- Activist Research and “the Stories We Tell”: Openings and Challenges for Public and Civic Scholarship
As reflected by the theme for the 2008 ASA Convention, there is a growing sense that American Studies scholarship should be taking place at the crossroads between academia and civic life. This paper session seeks to explore a particularly promising methodology for crossing the gap between academic research and public life, namely that of activist scholarship.
This paper session seeks to explore the opportunities and challenges offered by activist scholarship as a means for studying the links between discourse and broader patterns of power. On one hand, activist research can provide a unique and valuable path for examining “the stories we tell” in drawing such distinctions as “us and them,” insiders and outsiders, the safe and the dangerous, the domestic and the foreign, the natural and the unnatural. On the other hand, “taking sides” as part of one’s research methodology also brings substantial risks and costs that cannot be discounted.
This session will be an ASA “Talk” format presentation. Papers of approximately 10 double spaced pages will be required for circulation among chair, commentator, and other panelists. In the session, panelists will "talk" their paper from notes, however, speaking directly to the audience rather than reading line-by-line.
Please send paper abstracts to John Carr at carrj@unm.edu by January 12.
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