Bulletin N°490


Subject: Two progressive conferences in NYC: The Marxist Scholars Conference on "Historical Materialism," at the New School for Social Research AND from The Institute for Wishful Thinking : "Modeling Alternatives: Art and Social Change," NYC in May 2011.


23 April 2011
Grenoble, France


Dear Colleagues and Friends of CEIMSA,

We are pleased to bring you the program of The Marxist Scholars Conference on "Historical Materialism", to be held at the New York City New School for Social Research during the first week of May. As you will see in the program (please see link above), my Ph.D. student at Nanterre, Ms. Grace Kpohazounde, who has been working at the United Nations, West Africa Division, will present a paper on "Instruments of US Imperialism in West Africa since 1960: The Peace Corps, USAID and AFRICOM," and my former student, Dr. Peterson Nnajiofor, now on the faculty at the University of Metz, will talk about "Marxist Studies and the dawn of a new capitalist era: The case of domestic capitalists in emerging markets".

My own contribution at this conference in New York City next month will be to participate on the panel with the renown Marxist scholar, Bertell Ollman, Professor of Politics at NYU, discussing along with William Tabb, Professor of Economics at Queens College, Capitalism and the Dialectic: The Ideology of History, The History of Ideology.

We will inform CEIMSA readers of future publications from this international conference at New School for Social Research, May 2011.


Sincerely,
Francis McCollum Feeley
Professor of American Studies
Université de Grenoble 3
Director of Research
Université de Paris 10-Nanterre
http://www.ceimsa.org/

P.S. And also in New York City, 22 April - 8 May 2011,  the decidedly non-marxist (i.e. ideological) conference by The Institute for Wishful Thinking, which is, in the words of UCSD Professor of Photography Fred Lonidier, an . . .

Interesting conference, but not likely too many from here can make it ...
[Do you] Think contemporary class struggle will ever be part of Modeling
Alternatives: Art and Social Change? There is a great amount of cultural
work done in and around the labor movement but in relation to our field [it]
is darker matter. Something wrong with this divide, no?

Below are six good Internet sources on cultural work done in and around the U.S. labor movement :

http://www.laborfest.net

http://www.laborheritage.org/

http://www.docspopuli.org/WesternWorkers.html

http://www.thestrategycenter.org/campaign/drum-chant-corps

http://www.workingimage.ca/

http://dbacon.igc.org/

F.L.

________________________________________________
The Institute for Wishful Thinking:
Artists in Residence for the US Government (self declared)
www.theiwt.com
presents
Modeling Alternatives: Art and Social Change
April 22- May 8, 2011
at
Momenta Art
359 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn,NY
http://www.momentaart.org/


With this series of discussions, screenings and presentations we hope to further the possibilities for artists to participate in the development of social policy. Artists, art historians, museum professionals, academics, policy experts and government officials will consider how the art making process can contribute to social change as well as encourage elected officials, community leaders and the general public to think of artists as potential partners in a variety of circumstances.

Friday, April 22:
6:30-8:30 PM
Modeling Alternatives Discussion Part 1
In recent years many artists have begun to work in non-art contexts, pushing the limits of their creative practice to help solve social problems. Modeling Alternatives Part 1 brings together a group of artists and architects along with their individual collaborators including social workers, urban planners and diplomats to discuss how their groundbreaking teamwork produced uniquely successful outcomes.
Kadamabari Baxi Redesigning Currency, Refilming Glimpses of the USA, and
Engines of Diplomacy in Amman. www.imagemachine.com, http://www.martinbaxi.com
Molly Dilworth on the advantages and potential problems involved in collaborating with government agencies. http://www.mollydilworth.com/
Marisa Jahn on "Byproduct," an edited anthology investigating the work of artists embedded in the government, industries, and electoral politics. http://www.marisajahn.com
Lynn Love & Ann Sappenfield will discuss the responsibilities of artists and writers representing what is considered 'public information' in The New Emirati Britannica.
Mayumi Komura & Luna Malbroux organize fashion shows in which political refugees model second hand clothes.
Rachel Owens produces dialogical theater work and a sculptural practice engaged in issues of social and political subjugation.

Sat. April 23:
12:30-2:00 PM
IWT Proposal Writing Workshop

Sunday, April 24:
1:00-3:00 PM
What is our work worth to each other?
http://OurGoods.org is a barter network for creative people. From 1-3pm on Sunday, April 24th, co-founders of OurGoods.org will be at Momenta to talk through the possibilities of barter, as well as the value systems that are produced, exchanged, and distributed outside of the cash economy.
3:30-5 PM
Practice Performed by Art Codex: Vandana Jain, Mike Estabrook and others
Practice is an exercise with which people will be making their thought processes transparent to elaborate on how to make things better. http://www.artcodex.org/

Thursday, April 28:
6:30-8:30 PM
Sebastian Gutierez: films about the Squatter Movement followed by a discussion.

Sat. April 30:
2-4 PM
Alternative Art Economies: A Primer: workshop and discussion led by Erin Marie Sickler.
4:30-6 PM
IWT Proposal Writing Workshop

Sunday, May 1:
1:30-3:00 PM
IWT Proposal Workshop
4:00-5:30 PM
Andrew Hemingway: Artist-Workers under the New Deal: The Federal Art Programs, 1933-43
At a time when many liberal commentators felt that gross economic economic inequalities and the manipulation of political power by corporate interests was undermining American democracy, the federal government, under the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, conceived a series of projects to rectify cultural inequities and take control of the arts out of the hands of the patron class.

Thursday, May 5:
6:30-8:30 PM
Shelly Silver, screening of "in complete world," (53 minutes, 2008).
Friday, May 6:
6:30-8:30 PM
Ghana Think Tank
Founded in 2006, the Ghana ThinkTank is a worldwide network of think tanks creating strategies to resolve local problems in the "developed" world.

Sat. May, 7:
2:30-4:00 PM
IWT Proposal Writing Workshop
4:30-6:30 PM
Modeling Alternatives, Part 2
How some institutions have created or facilitated alternative models of collaboration.
Tom Finkelpearl, Director, Queens Museum of Art
Carol Becker, Dean, Columbia School of the Arts
Chen Tamir: Exectutive Director, Flux Factory
Johanna Gustavson, Malmo Women's Free University