Sponsored by the Labor and Working-Class History Association and the Fund for Labor Culture and History (Laborlore Conversations IV)

As Chicago developed into a metropolis, it became a city "proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation." Control over these and other jobs over the past two centuries also provoked the formation of organized labor, civil rights, and other working-class movements. Meeting in Chicago, Carl Sandburg's "City of Big Shoulders," this joint conference aims to bring together academics, activists, and other enthusiasts of labor history and culture around the following theme:

"Race, Labor, and the City: Crises Old and New."

All topics related to working-class life and history are welcome but we especially encourage proposals concerning the urban interconnections between work, migration, and culture. This includes studies of historical and contemporary working-class movements for economic and racial justice, analysis of struggles over gendered urban spaces, Latino immigration and transnational labor, and developments in working-class city life and leisure. While this conference is in Chicago, we welcome proposals that address urban working-class life around the globe.

Proposals for panels should include a one-page summary, with a list of presenters and their topics, and brief bios and/or vitas. We encourage informal presentations, and discourage the reading of papers.

For more information and submission of proposals see the conference website: http://chi-lawcha09.indstate.edu

Submissions for a single paper or a panel are due no later than December 1, 2008 and applicants will be contacted by January 15, 2009.

Others sponsors for the conference include The Chicago Center for Working-Class Studies, UNITE-HERE, Chicago Jobs With Justice, and the Chicago branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.

Convenient and low-cost housing will be available by reservation only at the University Center http://www.universitycenter.com/conferences/housing/index.html starting October 2008. Further information will be available at http://chi-lawcha09.indstate.edu. There will be two national conventions in Chicago during this conference. We suggest making housing arrangements as soon as possible.