Relational Histories, Inter-Ethnic Alliances:

Chican@/x Coalition Politics in Tejas
Texas A&M University, College Station

The National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies Tejas Foco Program Committee invites proposals for sessions on the approaches, challenges, and expansive terrain of inter-ethnic alliances and politics in Tejas. We welcome proposals for panels, roundtable discussions, individual papers and alternative session formats that allow for audience participation and community engagement. Proposals that fall outside the theme of the conference, but that speak to the Chican@/x experience in Tejas, will be considered as well. The Program Committee is excited to share that Texas A&M University will serve as the local host for the 2017 conference, which will be held February 23-25, 2017.

The conference situates race as a starting point for examining the multiple oppressions that have governed life in Texas. Building on the idea that citizenship, sexuality, gender, labor organizing, class, pop culture, and religion serve as modalities through which race is lived and performed in Texas, the program committee invites papers that explore political moments of juncture and disjuncture where groups organized across race and culture. With an eye toward examining the relational nature of racializations (the idea that racialization takes place not only in relation to whiteness but also in relation to other marginalized groups such as Central Americans, Puerto Ricans, African Americans, Asian Pacific Islanders, and Native Americans) the program committee seeks individual papers or complete panels of 3 papers (4 max) that highlight the moments of political collaboration as well as the moments of political friction, and the ways in which the rapidly changing demographics of the state require us to (re)imagine Chican@/x studies in Tejas.

Chican@/x Studies is an expansive and growing field. Our collective histories, our testimonios, offer stories of Mexican and Mexican American life in Texas that illuminate the broader realities of racism, heterosexism, violence, colonialism, and nationalisms. As Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans, we have a history that has struggled alongside other aggrieved groups and pushed back against the indignities of our oppressors, even as the uneven political ground that has rooted these movements has challenged notions of a collective “we.” There is an urgency today for scholarship to reflect the history of inter-ethnic organizing, to better explain the ways racism takes place in Texas, and how Chican@/x communities—from El Paso to Dallas/Fort Worth to the Rio Grande Valley—are engaged in political and artistic struggles that reflect the dignity, justice, and the soul of our communities.

All submissions should be sent via email to naccstejas2017@gmail.com and are due by December 1, 2016.

In your email, please include the following:

• Your name

• University affiliation

• If Individual paper: include a one-paragraph abstract and a one-page CV

• If Panel proposal: include a brief description of the panel, a one-paragraph abstract for each paper presentation, a one-page CV for each panel participant.

• If Roundtable proposal: include one participant as contact and a one-page description of the roundtable along with a one-page CV for each participant.

• If proposals for alternative format: include one-page description of the session including its format and goals, as well as a one-page CV for each participant.

• Indicate Audio/Visual equipment needs.

​