Worlds In Contention Conference hosted by Ohio State Area Studies Centers
On May 7-8, 2021, Ohio State’s Center for Latin American Studies, Center for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies, East Asian Studies Center, and Department of Political Science partnered to host “Worlds in Contention: Race, Neoliberalism, & Injustice.” The virtual conference brought together an interdisciplinary body of scholars with expertise on capitalism and neoliberalism around the world, with special emphasis on how these systems affect and are challenged by racialized groups.
Through funding from their Title VI grants from the U.S. Department of Education, the three Area Studies Centers sponsored honoraria for guest experts to speak on topics related to the conference theme in each of their respective regions. The centers were delighted to support guest scholars whose presentations allowed conference attendees to learn about global capitalist and neoliberal systems from multiple regional perspectives. View the abstracts for the following talks.
Africa
- Cameron Macaskill (The Ohio State University), “Diamond Mining and Local Resistance to Capitalism and Neoliberalism”
East Asia
- Megan Ming Francis (University of Washington), “The Crimes of Freedom”
- Hyun Ok Park (York University), “The Desire for the Real: Disaster, Capitalism, and Fascism”
East Europe
- Hilary Appel (Claremont McKenna College), “The Long Reach of the EU: Neoliberalism, Minority Rights, and Norm Promotion in Eastern Europe’s Accession Process”
- Mary N. Taylor (City University of New York), “Of the people, peoples and solidarity. Is the nation necessary?”
Latin America
- Isabel Altamirano-Jimenez (University of Alberta), “Refusing the Violence of Resource Extraction in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec”
- Alyshia Gálvez (CUNY), “COVID Clarifies: How the pandemic revealed the neoliberal logic underlying our transnational food and health systems"
- Thea Riofrancos (Providence College), “The Endless Frontier: Green Technologies, Geopolitics, and Planetary Extraction”
- Amy Offner (University of Pennsylvania), “Claiming Resources, Claiming Concepts: Ethnic Formation and State Formation in Colombia’s Cauca Valley”
Multi-Regional
- Charmaine Chua (University of California Santa Barbara), “The Logistics Counter-revolution: Decolonial Struggle along the Transpacific Supply Chain”
- Quinn Slobodian (Wellesley College), “Apocalypse Economics: Money, Death, and Racial Purity on the Far Right”
- Inés Valdez (The Ohio State University), “The Brown Family and Social Reproduction in U.S. Capitalism”
The Area Studies Centers were also able to support Ohio State graduate students who wished to attend through a conference fellowship program. The selected graduate students wrote short blog reflections connecting the work of the guest speakers and relating the conference content to their own research agendas.
East Asia
East Europe
Latin America
