(Name-mce) ListServ Latina/o Academy of Science: A Proposal

Mon Jan 15 16:15:34 EST 2007

Please forward to interested persons.

Thanks,

Anselmo

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Nohemy Solorzano-Thompson <solorzn at whitman.edu>
Date: Jan 15, 2007
Subject: Latina/o Academy of Science: A Proposal

Dear colleagues:

Please read and forward to all interested parties.

Best, Nohemy

--------------------------

From: Nelson Maldonado-Torres <nmt at berkeley.edu>
Subject: Latina/o Academy of Science: A Proposal

Distinguidos colegas,

Please find below a preliminary proposal for what is being
tentatively called a Latina/o Academy of Science.  Your names have
come up as scholars who could be interested in such a project and
could contribute to it in significant ways--I include a list of
scholars who have expressed strong interest in the project in the
bottom part of the e-mail.   The project is peculiar not only in the
sense that it seeks to make more explicit than ever that Latina/os
are making contributions in the highest levels of knowledge
production in this country, but also in that such "Academy" would
stand for elevated standards of methodological rigor and
interpretation as well as for productive linkages between academics
and those who spend most of their time as organizers or activists.
The idea of the Academy emerged in the aftermath of the April and May
pro-immigrant marches and the subsequent response by the federal
government when it sought to persuade states to send the National
Guard to the US-Mexico border.  The idea of the Academy is to gather
Latina/o scholars who would like to support such struggles beyond our
typical individual or partly collective scholarly interventions, as
important as they are—special conferences, colloquia, book projects,
creation of centers of study, etc.  As the preliminary proposal has
it, the Latina/o Academy of Science would bring every Latina/o
scholar teaching in institutions of higher learning in the  U.S. who
are interested in intervening collectively in the support of
"illegal" immigrants and racialized populations in the U.S.  We are
using "science" in a lose way to signify "rigorous study", and is
meant to include the study of the arts, law, and theology, along with
the natural and the social sciences.  The name is tentative, though,
as it will be open to debate and new possibilities will probably be
offered.

In addition to the preliminary proposal, I also include a list of the
scholars who have demonstrated interest in the Academy so far.  The
goal is to collect some 50 names, so that we can all collectively
decide on the place for a national meeting in the spring.  The on-
line discussions so far indicate that most people would prefer one
national meeting followed by regional ones.  The national meeting
will serve to come into agreement about the proposal, the name, and
the function of the "Academy."  The process will be democratic.  We
are seeking scholars who might be willing to forego or reduce
disciplinary differences, and come together with others under the
banner of disciplinary or transdisciplinary diversity (just like any
"Academy") and, above all, serious ethico-political and intellectual
commitment with the plight of people who continue to be targets of
racist anti-immigrant legislation and other such evils.  Those of you
who are receiving this e-mail have been named by one or more of the
scholars who are interested in the formation of the Academy as
academics with such characteristics.

What I would like to request from you is first, acknowledgement that
you have received this e-mail and a word about whether you would be
interested in forming part of the conversations leading to the
national meeting, and, second, the names of as many other Latina/o
scholars teaching in universities who also fit the profile that I
have described above and whom you think would be also interested in
this project.

I will only add that the possibility of forming this Academy (or an
institution with similar characteristics and objectives) will
absolutely depend on the determination of every or at least most of
those interested.  I am working as a self-appointed secretary of
sorts in this initial phase, but I expect everything to change in the
national meeting in the sense that work will be distributed
democratically as each of the participants will be equally regarded
as a co-founder.  To be sure, such a meeting will only take place if
there is a minimum of interest and commitment from folks.  We are
indeed in the very early stages of this proposal and everything
depends on whether there is the interest or not, and whether folks
are open to consider giving some of their time in their already busy
schedule for the creation of an institution of this nature.

Sincerely,

Nelson Maldonado-Torres
Assistant Professor
Department of Ethnic Studies
UC-Berkeley

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Latina/o Academy of Science: A Preliminary Proposal

There are dozens of Latina/o academics teaching and doing research in
institutions of higher learning today.  Many of us would not be in
the academy if it not were by victories gained by the Civil Rights
Movement in the 1950's and by the struggles of the Third World
Student Front in the late 1960's, among other related expressions of
activism.  This year, similar folks went massively to the streets in
order to defend (im)migrant rights in face of proposals that seek to
criminilize "illegal" migrants and the people who support them.  The
concerted marches of million of defenders of immigrant rights awaits
for concerted responses from all sectors in society to guarantee that
immigrants and disempowered communities in the United States have the
best chance to confront militarism and the continued forms of racism
that still define much of this country's public life and decision
making processes.  The government has decided to respond to the
marches, to immigration from  Mexico, and to the "Hispanic challenge"
by further militarizing the U.S-Mexico border.  Warring ideologies
are, indeed, very explicitly defining both foreign and public policy
in the U.S.  While opposition to the war in Iraq is growing, the
government ironically engineers war-like tactics not only abroad but
also at home.  These strategies follow the most massive marches in
the history of the United States against policies that aim to exclude
and disenfranchise communities.  It is thus fitting to ask in this
context: what will academics, particularly Latin at s and those who
inhabit spaces in academia once conquered by activists and
intellectuals who opposed the very forces that are reemerging today
so strongly, do in this day and age?  How are they going to respond
to such initiatives and efforts?  This is a convocatoria to create a
Latina/o Academy of Science conceived as a trans-frontera body of
intellectuals that seeks to guarantee and advance the human rights,
knowledges, and practices of migrants and people of color in the
United States.   The Latina/o Academy of Science would strive to be
an anti-racial decolonial front with the following goals:

1) Systematically refute and denounce all kind of scholarship or
pseudo scholarship who uses the humanities, the natural or the social
sciences, to feed nativist anxieties about racial subjects or shape
policy that might impact negatively people of color and others in the
United States.

2) To engage in dialogue and participate with grassroots activists in
the organization of activities designed to defend the human rights of
racialized subjects in the United States.

3) To facilitate inter-ethnic dialogue and action as well as inter-
racial dialogue among the diverse Latino population.  Diversity of
genders and sexual orientations will be fundamental for all such
encounters.

4) To shape policy that helps erode and overcome the legacies of anti-
black, anti-indigenous, anti-Asian, anti-Latina/o and all forms of
racism in the United States.

5) To defend and advance the dignity of human rights of people of all
genders and sexual preferences by creating new methods, approaches,
and practices that bring to visibility their questions, concerns, and
demands.

The Academy shall:

1) Create committees to identify and denounce any kind of scholarship
that uses science to propagate lies and deceit.

2) Create workshops to refine existing methods and design new
approaches to the study of human reality that foment manifold forms
of decolonization of self and society across all race, gender, and
sexual lines.

3) Prepare meetings with activists and political leaders who
demonstrate interest in all the goals of the Academy as listed above.

4) Sponsor artistic work that offers new vistas and horizons to the
work of the Academy.  This can be music, written or spoken word,
visual art, etc.

5) Bring together theorists, empirical social scientists, and all
kind of intellectuals committed with the goals of the Academy to
discuss different means to further utilize academic resources for the
task of decolonization, including mentoring undergraduate and
graduate students and sponsoring dissertation work that promotes the
goals of the Academy.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

LATINA/O ACADEMY OF SCIENCE
List of scholars who have expressed strong interest in this project
and are committed to consider organizing a national meeting in the
spring

EAST
Alcoff, Linda.  Professor, Women's Studies and Philosophy, Syracuse University.
Alvarez, Sonia, Professor, UMASS-Amherst
Bonilla Silva, Eduardo.  Professor, Sociology, Duke University
Candelario, Ginetta E. B.  Associate Professor, Sociology an Latin
American and Latino/a Studies, Smith College
Cepeda, Maria Elena.  Assistant Professor, Latina/o Studies, Williams College.
De Jesus, Anthony.  Interim Director, Centro de Estudios
Puertorriqueños, Hunter College, CUNY.   E-mail:
tdejesus at hunter.cuny.edu
Gracia, Jorge.  Professor, Philosophy, SUNY-Buffalo.
Lao-Montes, Agustin.  Assistant Professor, UMASS-Amherst
Lugones, Maria.  Associate Professor, Philosophy, Interpretation, and
Culture, SUNY-Binghamton
Maduro, Otto.  Professor, Theology and Religious Studies, Drew University.
Martinez-San Miguel, Yolanda.  Associate Professor, University of Pennsylvania
Mendieta, Eduardo.  Associate Professor, Philosophy, SUNY-Stony Brook.
Mignolo, Walter D.  Professor, Literature Program, Romance Studies
and Cultural Anthropology, Duke University
Milian, Claudia.  Assistant Professor, Romance Studies, Duke University.
Ramos-Zayas, Ana Yolanda.  Associate Professor, Anthropology and
Latino and Hispanic Caribbean Studies, Rutgers University.  E-mail:
AYRamos at aol.com
Rivera Pagán, Luis.  Professor, Princeton Theological Seminary.
Saenz, Mario.  Professor, Philosophy, Le Moyne College.
Suarez, Lucia.  Associate Professor, Spanish, Amherst College.
Viego, Antonio.  Assistant Professor, Literature Program, Duke
University

MIDWEST
Contreras, Sheila.  Assistant Professor, Writing, Rhetoric, American
Cultures, Michigan State University.  E-mail: sheilac at msu.edu
Cotera, Maria.  Assistant Professor, Latino Studies (American
Cultures) and Women's Studies, University of Michigan.  E-mail:
mcotera at umich.edu
La-Fountain Stokes, Lawrence.  Assistant Professor, American Cultures
and Romance Studies, University of Michigan. E-mail: lawrlafo at umich.edu
Ortega, Mariana.  Associate Professor, Philosophy, John Carroll
University.  E-mail: mortega at jcu.edu
Rosario, Ruben.  Assistant Professor, Theology, St. Louis
University.  E-mail: rosarir at slu.edu

WEST
Arroyo, Jossianna, Associate Professor, UT-Austin
Fregoso, Rosalinda.  Professor, UC-Santa Cruz
Fox, Jonathan.  Professor, UC-Santa Cruz, Latin American and Latino
Studies.   E-mail: jafox at ucsc.edu
Grosfoguel, Ramón.  Associate Professor, Ethnic Studies, UC-Berkeley
Montejano, David.  Associate Professor, Ethnic Studies, UC-Berkeley
Moya, Paula.  Associate Professor, English, Stanford University
Munoz, Carlos. Emeritus, UC-Berkeley
Perez, Laura.  Associate Professor, Ethnic Studies, UC-Berkeley
Rocco, Raymond. Associate Professor, Political Science, UCLA
Saldivar, José. Professor, Ethnic Studies and English, UC-Berkeley
Saldivar, Ramon.  Professor, English, Stanford University.

Scholars recently or about to be contacted, or contacted in this e-mail:
Guillermo Irizarry
Arturo Arias
Benjamin Valentin
Larry Estrada
Mary Pratt Brady
Silvio Torres Saillant
Arlene Davila
George Yudice
Virginia Dominguez
Ernesto Javier Martinez
Michael Hames-Garcia
Vicky Ruiz, UCI
Ian Haney-Lopez, UC-Berkeley
Manuel Pastor, UCSC
Patricia Zavella, UCSC
Jonathan Fox, UCSC
Rosaura Sanchez, UCSD
Frances Aparicio, University of Illinois at Chicago

About 30 more names are needed.  All of you are invited to send names
and e-mails if you have them.  We should aspire to be as diverse a
group as possible in terms of race, gender, sexual orientation,
disciplines, approaches, ethnicities, nationalities, locations in the
U.S., etc.

-----------------------------------------------------
Nohemy Solórzano-Thompson
Assistant Professor of Spanish

Foreign Languages and Literatures
Olin Hall 307
Whitman College
Walla Walla, WA  99362

phone  509-527-5756
fax    509-527-5039
email  solorzn at whitman.edu
http://www.whitman.edu/spanish/solorzano.html