SPECULATIVE FUTURES OF RACE SYMPOSIUM
FRIDAY 14TH APRIL 2017 • DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION STUDIES
ART • ACTIVISM • THEORY • PERFORMANCE • PRAXIS
The Speculative Futures of Race Symposium is a one-day conference addressing speculative and futurist approaches to critical issues of race in theory and practice, art and activism.
The Symposium highlights the evolving political, social, and artistic movements of Afrofuturism, Arabfuturism, Latinofuturism, Indigenous Futurism, Afrosurrealism and Astroblackness. These social movements emphasise imaginative, speculative, and futurist approaches to antiracist praxis, operating at the intersection of liberatory politics and the speculative arts.
The Symposium addresses critical issues of speculative race theory, including radical ontologies of becoming, posthumanism, and performance, by turning to the impact of these lived experiences and their discourses upon identity, global citizenship, politics, art, and ecological networks.
The Symposium draws together speakers and perspectives from critical communications and media studies, gender and sexuality studies, critical race theory and African-American studies, philosophy, music, art, activism, and literature.
Find us on Facebook: fb.me/speculativefuturesrace | @speculativefuturesofrace
SPECULATIVE FUTURES OF RACE SYMPOSIUM
14th April 2017, California State University, Northridge
Morning Session
Aronstam Library, Room 240, Second Floor, Manzanita Hall
10:30am — 11:30am • Speculative Artists Panel I
Beatriz Cortez (Los Angeles), Migration, Nomadism, and Imagining the Future
Marton Robinson (San Jose, Costa Rica), Identity and Representation in Costa Rica:
Visual Strategies of Imagination
11:45am — 12:30pm • Keynote Address
Dark Speculative Futurity, Afrofuturism, and the Rise of Neo-Nationalism
Reynaldo Anderson (Harris-Stowe State University)
12:30pm — 1:15pm
Lunch
1:30pm — 2:00pm • Visiting Scholar Address
Afrofuturism and the Race for Utopia: Speculative Futures of Posthumanism
tobias c. van Veen (CSUN)
2:00pm — 3:00pm • Speculative Artists Panel II
Zeal Harris (Los Angeles), Signifiers of Race & Speculation in My Art
Pavithra Prasad (CSUN), Notes on Terrestrial Performance of Outer Space
3:00pm — 3:15pm
Coffee break
Afternoon Session
Armer Theater, Room 100, First Floor, Manzanita Hall
3:30pm — 4:15pm • Keynote Address
The Vertigo Tango: Crosspasts, Liminal Selves, and the Speculative Futures of Race
Valorie Thomas (Pomona College)
4:30pm — 5:30pm • Keynote Address
Whose Afrofuturism?
Nalo Hopkinson (UC, Riverside)
5:45pm — 7:00pm • Performance/Pieces
8 Star
T. Carlis Roberts and Anand Jay Kalra (Oakland)
Moderated by Dr. Pavithra Prasad (CSUN)
We are grateful for the invaluable support extended by:
Department of Communication Studies • Associated Students • Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and
Communication • Office of Research and Graduate Studies • Division of Student Affairs • Civil Discourse & Social
Change Initiative • College of Humanities • Department of Art • Department of Central American Studies
Department of Sociology • Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies • Department of Africana Studies
Oviatt Library • Department of Asian American Studies Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies Program
Department of Religious Studies