2nd Anarchist Studies Network Conference

Call for Session Organisers
2nd Anarchist Studies Network Conference:
?Making Connections?
Loughborough University, U.K.
3-5 September 2012

We live in interesting times. The Arab Spring, Occupy X and anti-austerity
protests are only the latest and most visible examples in a long tradition
of grassroots social movements in which ordinary people create democratic
alternatives to hierarchy and inequality. Here and everywhere, people are
getting together and making connections between their own everyday
experiences and wider patterns of relationships and power, official and
unofficial. They (or we) are making connections with each other, personal
and political. New patterns evolve as people experiment with different ways
of organising, of relating, of connecting, of thinking. Scholars, artists
and activists observe, theorise and participate in various ways, helping to
make connections, both in social movements and in the movements of everyday
life. Feminists, in particular, have foregrounded intersectional approaches
to power, privilege and oppression. Race, class and gender; sexuality,
ecology and (dis)ability; age, species and faith — each of these and more
interconnect in numerous ways, both subtle and overt.

The Anarchist Studies Network (http://anarchist-studies-network.org.uk/) is
hosting a conference to acknowledge, celebrate and deepen these diverse
efforts to understand and transform our world, our lives. We want this
conference itself to be a space for making connections, both intellectual
and personal. It will include a blend of more or less traditional panels,
participatory discussions and experiential workshops, extended breaks and
social events. *This first call is an invitation to propose thematic
streams, workshops or panel topics by those who are willing to take a role
in organising them.* Further calls will invite papers, participation,
performance. We’re particularly keen to make connections across borders of
identities, movements, disciplines and practices. We invite contributions
from students, academics and unaffiliated researchers, activists and
artists, health practitioners and care workers, trade unionists, community
organisers and those without labels. Above all, we would like to nurture a
convivial atmosphere in which to make connections with others, explore
areas of both overlap and difference, create or simply meet, to learn and
to share.

Our intention is for this to be a scholarly conference with a difference.
Scholar means both student and teacher. By bringing together a diverse
group of participants, who share in common a desire to learn and a
commitment to acknowledging and creating alternatives to rigid hierarchies
and exploitative relationships, we hope that each of us will have something
to offer others and much to learn. The process of organising the conference
is decentralised, with the conference initiators welcoming proposals from a
diverse range of session organisers covering a wide variety of engaged and
engaging topics. We also invite session organisers to consider playful,
participatory and/or experimental panel and workshop formats. This might
range from a traditional three paper panel followed by a discussion using
alternative facilitation techniques (e.g., open space technology, fishbowl,
or sitting in a circle with a facilitator) to more interactive
workshop-style discussion or experiential sessions. Our intention is not to
be transgressive for the sake of it, but to encourage a variety of methods
in order to facilitate making connections.

If you’re interested in organising a stream or a session but are new to the
role, feel free to contact us for advice about what this is likely to
involve (you can also see how the 1st Anarchist Studies Network Conference
in September 2008 was organised by linking to the following web page, where
thematic streams and their organisers are indicated in bold print:
http://www.anarchist-studies-network.org.uk/documents/Final%20Schedule.pdf).
Likewise, if you’d like to do something a bit playful or different, but are
not sure how or just need a little advice, please get in touch. Finally, if
you are keen to be involved in a session, but not wanting to take on the
responsibility of organising one, let us know and we’ll see if we can match
you up.

Topics we’d love to see explored include:

* Occupy X
* Race & Radical Politics
* The Arab Spring
* Anarchism & Feminism
* Embodiment & Practices of Freedom
* Anarchist/Queer
* Alternatives to Capitalism
* Direct Democracy in Action
* Revolutionary Theory and Practice
* Science, Technology and Ecology
* Non-Western Anarchisms
* Anarchism and Utopianism
* Class-Struggle Politics and Anarcho-Syndicalism
* Anarchist History
* Anarchism & Religion
* Post-anarchism
* Anarchy and Education
* Politics & Emotion
* Art, Literature & Social Transformation
* (Dis)ability
* Nurturing Autonomy
* Zapatismo, Via Campesina
* Borders, Walls & Fences
* Spaces of Resistance

And others we’ve not yet thought of. We welcome surprises. Please send your
proposals (no more than 500 words) by 31st January 2012 to Alexandre
Christoyannopoulos <a.christoyannopoulos@gmail.com> and Ruth Kinna <
R.E.Kinna@lboro.ac.uk>.

With warm regards,
Conference Initiators

Matthew Adams, Alexandre Christoyannopoulos, Laurence Davis, Ois?n Gilmore,
Jamie Heckert, Petar Jandric, Ruth Kinna, Alex Prichard, Chris Rossdale &
Matt Wilson