EVENT DETAILS

Negotiating the Public Sphere: Rethinking History From Below-A Graduate Conference

In recent years, countries and political entities across the globe--Egypt, India, the United States, Hong Kong, and Scotland, to name a few--have witnessed fierce contestation over the limits of democracy and civil society in a shifting global political landscape.  Hosted by the UC Irvine History Graduate Student Association, this conference aims to promote fruitful exchange and reflection on the role of the public sphere around the world, past and present, and its use in promoting policy change, critical awareness, and international dialogue.

Schedule of Events:

8:30AM: Light Breakfast

9-10:30 AM: The Politics of Space & Knowledge
• Aaron Cayer and Catherine Tsukasa Bender, UCLA, “Akichi Undercommons: Looking Beyond the 'Public' of Public Space”
• Narciss Sohrabi, Paris West University, Nanterre La Défense, “Negotiating and Movement: the History of Public Space between Cooperation, Revolution and Mobilization (Case study: Tehran)”
• Jeanette Charles, Bolivarian University of Venezuela, “Times of Resistance and Solidarity Between Haiti and Venezuela”
• Michael Jimenez, Biola University, “Bearing the Burden of Reality: Dussel and Ellacuría on Liberating History”

10:45 AM-12:15 PM: Membership & Identity
• Rachael DeLaCruz, UCI, “No Asylum For The Innocent: Gendering The Discourse On Salvadoran Refugees”
• Stefanie Lira, UCI, “Bewitching Empire”
• Maria Carreras, Aida Ribot, and James Stout, UCSD, “‘Building Catalans from below’: Body Performances and the Negotiation of Space in Modern Catalan Nationalism”
• Shoshanna Lande, UCI, “Love and Intimacy During the Dirty War: The Gay and Lesbian Private Sphere in Argentina, 1976-1983”

12:15-1 PM: Lunch

1-2:30 PM: Keynote
• Mark Levine- Title TBA
• Emily Rosenberg - “The Public Sphere in an Age of Covert Action”
• Vicki Ruiz - "Civil Rights in the Everyday: Mendez v. Westminister and Perez v. Sharp"
• Steven Topik- "Public Space in Latin America, Especially Brazil"

2:45-4:15 PM: Language, Culture, & Visuality
• Kyle David, UCI, “Creating 'Communist Children': Jiangxi Soviet Region Textbooks and Attempts at Cultivating a New Subjectivity”
• Olivia Humphrey, UCI, “Corporeal Manipulations: Representing Death During the Russo-Japanese War”
• Ali Olomi, UCI, “Poetry, Memory, and Homeland in the Samanid Emirate”
• Michel Oren, California State University, Fullerton, “Disconnects in the Turkish Cultural Public Sphere”