THE CENTER ON RACE, CRIME AND JUSTICE AT
JOHN JAY COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE

CONFERENCE:

“ISSUES OF IMMIGRATION IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE”

Conference date: March 22, 2012

Immigration is currently the focus of intense public discourse, political rhetoric, and policy innovation in the U.S. and transnationally. A range of factors, from the global recession to fear of terrorism, have led policy makers, politicians, media personalities, and members of the public to frame contemporary immigration increasingly as a criminal justice issue. The time is ripe for an interdisciplinary academic response to this discourse, including a vigorous scholarly debate on whether, where, and when it is appropriate to view immigration through a criminal justice lens – and the potential social, cultural, political and economic effects of criminalizing immigration and immigrants.

We are soliciting proposals for a conference, sponsored by the Center on Race, Crime and Justice, on the intersection of immigration and criminal justice, to be held at John Jay College of the City University of New York. Scholars from all academic disciplines are invited to take an expansive view of this topic, and submit finished or ongoing research that is substantively or theoretically resonant with the wide variety of issues raised by contemporary public discourse on immigration. Graduate students are also encouraged to apply. Specific focus areas may include:

· Contemporary approaches to local immigration enforcement

· Evolving relationships between immigrant communities and law enforcement agencies

· Individual and community effects of immigrant detention, deportation, and forced repatriation

· Responses to immigration law, policy, and practice (including social movements and resistance)

· Transnational economic, political, and social contexts for contemporary immigration patterns and policy

· Immigration and transnational responses to terrorism and the fear of terrorism

Please send a detailed abstract of approximately 500 words, by email attachment to the Center on Race, Crime and Justice at: rcjcenter@jjay.cuny.edu. The deadline for submissions is January 27, 2012.

The era of climate war is upon us. Extreme weather brought on by global warming is unleashing cascades of unrest and violence across the globe, from Africa to Asia to the Americas. In Tropic of Chaos, award-winning journalist and sociologist Christian Parenti reports from the front lines of this gathering social and environmental catastrophe. Combining historical research and academically informed theory with on-the-ground reporting, Parenti shows how environmental crisis is already colliding with the twin legacies of cold war militarism and unbridled free market economics to cause fragile nations to disintegrate into failed states. He critiques the way the countries of the Global North have responded to this dangerous new world: rather than adapt by defusing tensions and embracing cleaner forms of energy, these governments are responding with greater repression, surveillance, and a program of border militarization and permanent counterinsurgency.

* Christian Parenti is a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow, contributing editor at The Nation and a visiting professor at Brooklyn College, City University of New York. His most recent book is Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence (Nation Books, July 2011). As a journalist, he has reported extensively from Afghanistan, Iraq and various parts of Africa, Asia, and Latin America and his articles have appeared in Fortune, The Washington Post, The New York Times, London Review of Books, Mother Jones and Playboy. He has a PhD in sociology from the London School of Economics, has held research fellowships from OSI, RBF and the Ford Foundation; and has won numerous awards, including the 2009 Lange-Tailor Prize and “Best Magazine Writing 2008” from the Society for Professional Journalists. His three previous books, are: The Freedom: Shadows and Hallucinations in Occupied Iraq; The Soft Cage: Surveillance in America from Slavery to the War on Terror and Lockdown America: Police and Prisons in the Age of Crisis.

The Department of Geography (www.geog.psu.edu) invites applications for a tenure-track assistant/associate professor position in Urban/Economic Geography to begin August 2012. The successful candidate will demonstrate strengths in research and teaching and will be expected to secure external funding for research. Examples of desirable research areas include: urban economies, urban health, urbanization in the global South, changes in the rural-urban interface, urban environmental sustainability and other major issues in a rapidly globalizing and urbanizing world. The successful candidate will also have methodological skills that complement and extend existing departmental strengths and be able to teach graduate and undergraduate courses in urban and economic geography. Salary and benefits are highly competitive, and commensurate with qualifications and experience. A completed Ph.D. in geography or a related area is required. Applicants should provide a statement of interest that details research and teaching goals, a curriculum vitae, names and contact information for three references, up to five publications and evidence of teaching effectiveness. All applicants must submit their materials electronically to Marnie Deibler at mpr5@psu.edu. Direct questions to Melissa Wright (mww11@psu.edu), search committee chair. Review of applications will begin on January 3, 2012. Penn State is committed to affirmative action, equal opportunity, and the diversity of its workforce.

This policy will be in effect for the next two years (2011-2012, 2012-2013). However, the board will re-evaluate the policy annually in light of possible problems or questions that might arise. For questions and/or comments please contact either Mat Coleman and/or Reece Jones.

These awards will be given to support graduate student travel to present a paper on a political geography topic at the PGSG pre-conference and/or the AAG annual meeting. This competition is open to all MA/MS/PhD students and up to five (5) awards of $200.00 will be given each year. The submission deadline is December 15, 2011. Awards will be announced by 15 January 2012 and the funds will be distributed soon thereafter.

Complete details are available at the political geography website:

http://politicalgeography.org/aagsessions.html

The PGSG is pleased to announce that the 2012 PGSG Preconference will be held at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie NY, north of Manhattan on the Hudson River. The conference will start off with a keynote talk and discussion on Wednesday February 22nd; paper sessions will be scheduled for Thursday February 23rd.

The PGSG is particularly excited to announce that Christian Parenti, contributing editor at The Nation, CUNY visiting scholar, and most recently author of Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence, will give the preconference keynote address. More details on Dr. Parenti’s work can be found: http://www.christianparenti.com/books/#toc.

Please submit a paper title and a brief 200 word abstract, along with author contact details, to Mat Coleman and Reece Jones at aag.pgsg@gmail.com no later than January 14 2012.

As with our past preconferences, there will be a nominal registration fee for faculty only.

Complete details are available on the Political Geography website:

http://politicalgeography.org/aagannounce.html

As climate change and resource scarcity continue to affect harvests and food prices, food-related issues will only continue to become more salient. The study of food security is an interdisciplinary field, having been examined by scholars in a range of disciplines. Recently, more inclusive concepts have gained popularity. Such concepts propose moving beyond food security and moving towards examining the holistic food system. Such ideas include community food security (Hamm & Bellows, 2003), food sovereignty (La Via Campesina, 2011), and food justice (Just Food, 2011). This session seeks to include any and all of these concepts from food security to food justice.
Geography has contributed to the food security literature with food desert research and GIS technology; however, it has yet to lead the conversation on food-related issues, nor has it elucidated methods to study them, despite these issues being inherently geographic. Various geography subfields—such as health, transportation, political, and feminist—can contribute unique methodologies to food-related research.

This session has the goal of bringing together scholars, and practitioners from all subfields to discuss topics that relate to working towards food-related goals including:
- innovative approaches to examining food security (e.g. community-based participatory research, participatory GIS)
- municipal food policies
- regional, national, international food systems
- innovative programs and policies contributing to food security
- emergency food system/community-based food services and programs (e.g. food banks and school meal programs)

To be considered for this session, please e-mail the organizers with an AAG submitted abstract and PIN by 25th September.

Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers (AAG), New York, 2012

Co-Organizers: Tovi Fenster (Tel Aviv University) and Lynn Staeheli (Durham University)

Rubbish as domestic, industrial , environmental as personal, community or national is gaining a growing interest in public, political and international discourses. Following some existing research the aim of this session is to re-define some substantive issues such as what is rubbish? Whose rubbish do we talk about? Whose responsibility? These are significant questions in particular regarding issues such as equal distribution, collection and disposal of rubbish and the focus on the end line of consumption as rubbish. The starting point of this session is the identification of rubbish as physical or material but other insightful definitions and researches are welcomed.

This session welcomes empirically- and conceptually-focused papers that employ qualitative, quantitative or mixed methodologies as well as theoretical contributions which engage issues of rubbish as consumption and production oriented , the ethics involved in its existence and how they are manifested in environmental politics, citizenship and urban management.

We encourage submissions that explore topics such as:

-The feminist perspectives of rubbish ethics (production and consumption)

- The ethics of equal distribution, collection and disposal

- Value judgment and rubbish

- Conflicts in various scales on rubbish

-Cultural, ethnic and nationalized constructions of rubbish

Dr Dariusz Wójcik
School of Geography and the Environment
and St. Peter’s College Oxford