(New) Debates on Belonging
A Graduate Student Conference on Contemporary Issues in Immigration

Keynote Speaker: Richard Alba
Distinguished Professor of Sociology, CUNY Graduate Center

Friday, October 14, 2011
City University of New York, The Graduate Center 365 Fifth Avenue (at 34th Street), New York, NY

With increasing frequency, questions of belonging have dominated the news and public debates on immigration: from the recent introduction of anti-immigrant legislation in many states to the spirited organizing around the DREAM Act and the controversy sparked by Park51’s proposal for a Muslim community center near Ground Zero. The prominence of such issues highlights both the fiercely contested nature of belonging in the United States as well as how diverse groups - whether veteran or newly arrived, documented or undocumented, majority or minority, religious or secular - mobilize and advocate for their claims. While Congress debates and defers decisions on immigration reform on the national level, the question of belonging has distinctly regional and local manifestations. Immigrants and their children are claiming their place in American society, in its schools, workplaces and neighborhoods. This conference will bring together graduate students whose own research bear on these issues.

(New) Debates on Belonging welcomes submissions that explore the many facets of immigrant belonging, incorporation and boundary drawing. Possible topics include, but are not limited to: ● Place/region: communities, new destinations, urban areas
● Policy/activism/public health
● Cross-national and historical comparisons
● Culture, the arts, and food
● Citizenship
● Dimensions of difference: gender, race, sexuality, religion, the body
● Social institutions: labor and the economy, education, family, the media
● Transnationalism
● The second generation
● Language

Submissions are welcome from graduate students in a variety of disciplines, including: sociology, political science, history, geography, anthropology, psychology, education, ethnic and gender studies, demography, public policy, social welfare, and urban planning.

Please submit an abstract of 250-350 words by Friday, July 15, 2011. Participants will be asked to submit a 3-5 page summary of the paper/presentation in the fall. Please visit www.gc-immigration.org/gcimmigrationconference for more details or click here to access the submission form. Any questions may be directed to: GCImmigrationConference@gmail.com.

Applicants will be notified of final decisions for participation by the end of August, 2011.
This event is free and open to the public.