Due to the cancellation of two panelists, I have two open
slots on a teaching whiteness roundtable discussion to be
held at NEMLA's conference in Buffalo, NY. The roundtable is
scheduled for Saturday April 8, 2000 from 12:15-1:45pm. The
original call for papers appears below. Please respond via
email by March 15, 2000.
CALL FOR PAPERS: What’s White Got to Do with It?: Teaching
Whiteness; Roundtable
Discussion at the Northeast Modern Language Association,
Buffalo, NY, April 7-8, 2000
Numerous historical and sociological studies have been
published in the 1990s about the ways in
which whiteness has been constructed and empowered as an
unraced “norm” in US society. More
recently, a handful of literary studies have entered the
arena, illustrating how whiteness has been
constructed in and through literature. While critics have
begun to recognize that to “ignore white
ethnicity,” as Coco Fusco has stated, “is to redouble its
hegemony by naturalizing it,” this
recognition has not traveled far—if at all—outside the walls
of the academy. An awareness of
whiteness as a constructed ethnic identity is just now
making its way into university and college
classrooms. This roundtable discussion will explore the
experiences of teachers who have sought to
teach whiteness in their classrooms. Proposals may focus,
for example, on the context in which
whiteness was introduced, the texts and techniques used to
teach whiteness, the overall success
and/or failure of the endeavor, and suggestions for teaching
whiteness.
Many (if not most) whites still basically ignore white
ethnicity and are not, in fact, even aware that
they are doing so: whiteness is simply something one is; it
is not analyzed, it is not felt, it is not a
concern. In other words, it is not just ignored, it is
unrecognized altogether—except, perhaps,
when a white person is alone among non-whites. Are you only
white, as one critic has questioned,
when someone else isn’t? While “minorities” may be able to
see (as a song from West Side Story
goes) that “Things are all right in America” only “When
you’re all white in America”—whites have a
difficult time seeing or acknowledging the privileges
afforded by white skin color in the US.
Teaching whiteness is an attempt to help students recognize
this—to see whiteness not as the norm,
but as a constructed entity, and to examine the ways in
which this recognition affects and shifts
binary-based discussions of race and ethnicity in general
and our understanding of identity formation
in particular.
This roundtable discussion on teaching whiteness will
address these and other issues as participants
share classroom experiences and provide tools and techniques
for effectively teaching students how
to see and read whiteness. While there is a great deal of
criticism on “cross-ethnic” teaching
(particularly white teacher/black literature), there are
virtually no resources for those seeking
guidance and advice on teaching whiteness in the classroom.
This roundtable discussion, which will
bring together a variety of pedagogical experiences and
techniques for teaching whiteness, is aimed
at beginning to fill this resource need.
Up to six participants may be accepted for participation on
the roundtable discussion. Each
participant will give a brief (probably no longer than
10-minute) presentation; the remainder of the
time will be devoted to discussion of questions and issues
raised by presentations. This roundtable
discussion is currently scheduled to be transcribed for
submission for publication as part of a special
issue on whiteness in a leading journal.
Brief proposals--1-2 pages outlining your experiences
teaching whiteness and noting the issues you
would like to speak to--are due to the session chair by
September 15 (please include any
audio-visual requests at this time). Including your CV
would also be helpful. Note that although
NEMLA rules prevent participants from presenting more than
one paper in a paper session, you are
allowed to participate in a roundtable discussion (or
creative session) in addition to presenting in a
paper session.
Chair: Patty Keefe Durso, 21 Hillside Ave, Mahwah, NJ
07430; phone: 201/512-1644 (h) or
201/512-1646 (w); Fax: 201/512-9410; Email: pkd@nac.net.
Proposals may be submitted via
regular mail, email, or fax.
You need not be a member of NEMLA to respond to the call,
but if your paper is accepted, you
need to be a member by November 1 to be included in the
convention program. For a membership
form or more information about NEMLA, go to their website at
http://www.anna-maria.edu/nemla/
-- Patty Keefe Durso, Ph.D. 201.512-1644 (ph) 201.512-9410 (fax)=============================================== From the Literary Calls for Papers Mailing List CFP@english.upenn.edu Full Information at http://www.english.upenn.edu/CFP/ or write Erika Lin: elin@english.upenn.edu ===============================================
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