CFP: Reparations and Geography
Deadline: October 21, 2019
With the publication of Ta-Nehisi Coates (2014) piece, The Case for Reparations, discussions for reparations for the enslaved have moved into the political mainstream. However, the call for reparations has long animated political organizing and reparations for enslavement have been discussed in various forms since the end of the Civil War. Critically reparations is not necessarily about compensation-though that is part of the broader project-but is also about larger projects of social healing (Verdun 1992). This connects to processes of restorative and transformative justice as well as broader political organizing strategies to reparations projects. Additionally, reparations processes that do not fundamentally address the underlying conditions of inequity that exist and relate to racial capitalism and settler colonialism, or which do not actively provide for a broader critique of the political economy, risk only temporarily addressing inequity. As a result, reparations should be part of a broader critique of the system of racial injustice that animates historic and contemporary manifestations of racial capital and violence. Given these concerns this paper session aims to bring together a diverse set of academic perspectives to explore the fundamental role Geography plays in debates over reparations and broader abolitionist practices around addressing fundamental inequalities for enslavement. Specifically, this session asks what role does Geography play in reparations debate? Given Geographies long complicity with colonial and racist projects, what might reparations look within and outside the discipline? How might Geography position itself to address longstanding inequities through reparations? What are the limits to reparations at a political strategy? How might reparations fit within broader social justice struggles? We are also open to other questions and perspectives. Questions should be directed towards the conveners: Joshua Inwood, Pennsylvania State University jfi6@psu.edu ; Anna Livia Brand, University of California-Berkeley annalivia@berkeley.edu and Elise Quinn, Pennsylvania State University, eaq10@psu.edu
Deadline for paper titles and pin # is October 21, 2019.
Please Send Abstracts to Josh Inwood: jfi6@psu.edu
Citations:
Coates, Ta-Nehisi (2014) The Case for Reparations. The Atlantic June.
Verdun, V. (1993). If the show fits, wear it: an analysis of reparations to African Americans. Tulane Law Review 67 (3) 597-668.