The IAS is again curating the Radical Theory Track at the National Conference on Organized Resistance, American University, Washington, DC. The full line-up of ten talks is now available at http://www.anarchiststudies.org/node/54.

Saturday, February 9 at 7:30 pm

at the New Community Church
614 S Street NW
Washington, DC
(directly across from Shaw/Howard Metro, green line;
use Howard University exit)

How might we think about politics and political action in this period of political despair? One way is to consider political action--at least democratic political action--as collective action out of the presupposition of equality. We'll discuss what this means, how it works, and where we find it in our world.

For those unfamiliar with him, Todd is probably best known (in our circles) for his text "The Political Philosophy of Poststructuralist Anarchism," but is also widely known for works on the philosophy of Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, and more recently Jaques Ranciere. This weekend's discussion will be focused on what Ranciere offers in the way of reclaiming equality from the liberal tradition, in favor of a more radical application in collective political action, and what that might look like on the ground, in ongoing social movements.

Co-sponsored by the IAS and
the National Conference on Organized Resistance (NCOR)

Free! Donations appreciated!

Sunday, February 10, 2008 / 5:00 p.m.
at the Brian MacKenzie Infoshop
1426 9th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001
(202) 986.0681 / http://www.dcinfoshop.org/

Nearly as early as Hillary or Obama, anarchists were hot on the campaign trail. Plans to resist the 2008 U.S. presidential elections were afoot in 2006. As German Jewish anarchist Gustav Landauer once observed in relation to "anarchist assassination politics" that they "proceed from the intentions of a small group... following the example of the big political parties. ...What they are trying to say is: 'We are also political.' ...[Yet] these anarchists are not anarchic enough." His comments apply to electoralism too: being political is the right impulse, but the tactic(s) and indeed the focus are wrong. Certainly, in the United States, presidential elections represent rare moments when many people "participate." But why the anarchist fascination with something that's far from anything we'd recognize as politics? And why, if we choose to engage, do anarchists frequently use strategies that mirror statist and/or liberal forms, or are simply unimaginative? Perhaps, in zeroing in on presidential elections, we aren't anarchic enough either.

Cindy is an anarchist activist and educator from Vermont. She has been involved with the Institute for Social Ecology, and is currently a board member with the Institute for Anarchist Studies and a co-organizer of the Renewing the Anarchist Tradition conference. She is also a collective member of the all-volunteer Black Sheep Books in Montpelier, Vermont.

A FREE EVENT. Donations encouraged to benefit the IAS.

Saturday, January 26, 2008
OPIRG Windsor's Conscious Change conference
For more details, see http://opirg.uwindsor.ca/

The IAS would like to remind everyone that our Winter 2008 grant deadline is rapidly approaching: January 15, 2008. Twice yearly, the IAS funds radical writers and translators around the world. We want to see YOUR ideas in this round of proposals, so get to it! Apply on this same Web site (see "Grants" section), where you can also find more information including past grant recipients and other IAS projects.

The full schedule of the Renewing the Anarchist Tradition Conference, as well as panel and presentation descriptions and presenters' bios, is now online. Check it out here.

Registration for RAT is full. However, we will be audiotaping the conference sessions, so you should be able to listen online in a couple of months.

Stay tuned for a listing of RAT presentations and panels for the fall 2007 conference. We hope to audiotape some of the talks and then post them online later, for those who can't attend RAT.

RAT registration is now open, but is limited to 150 people, on a first-come, first-serve basis until we're full--with registration definitely closing by October 12 at the latest. Everyone coming to RAT (presenters and participants alike) must all register and pay the registration fees in full by or before October 12. RAT has no outside or independent funding to cover the expenses of renting space and providing room/board, so everyone who attends contributes financially to making this conference possible. Those who register for RAT can also book a table(s) for bookstores, infoshops, magazines, and other projects.

For full details, go to the "Projects" section on this Web site, and from there to the RAT Conference subsection.

We are pleased to announce the grant recipients of the summer 2007 cycle of IAS awards for critical scholarship:

A Scholarly Conference
November 2-4, 2007 in Montpelier, Vermont

(Proposals Due on or before September 1, 2007)

The eighth edition of the Renewing the Anarchist Tradition (RAT) conference, sponsored by the Institute for Anarchist Studies, once again aims to provide a participatory and scholarly space in which to reexamine, reinvigorate, and make relevant the social and political tradition of anarchism. (For more details, see the "Projects" section on this Web site.)

We are once again accepting proposals for a limited number of presentations. In addition, we will be curating a series of panels that build on previous conversations and provoke even more dynamic debate than at past conferences.

If you are interested in presenting, please take a look at the RAT archive (currently at http://www.homemadejam.org/renew) to get a sense of the topics that have been explored in the past. If you feel alienated when you look at this list, or think that important issues that should be considered through an anarchist lens have been left out, do not panic or decide not to attend. Please send us a proposal. We particularly encourage non-academics, working people, women, indigenous people, people of color, queer and trans people, and others frequently marginalized in scholarly life to submit proposals.

Each proposal should include: a succinct presentation title; a maximum 150-word description of your presentation and the question or topic you wish to address; a maximum 50-word description of yourself; and your full name and e-mail.

You can submit multiple proposals, and proposals for panels are also welcome. Please note, however, that we will be choosing from the proposals by September 15, and not every proposal will be selected.

If your proposal is accepted, you are automatically registered. All presenters must pay the registration fee, since RAT has no funding other than all of us contributing to make this space possible.

Send your proposal(s), by or before September 1, to:
rat-presentations@anarchiststudies.org.