[SydPhil] CAVE Symposium: Replacing Race, 17 August, Macquarie

[Centre for Agency, Values, and Ethics]

Hi all,

You are warmly invited to attend the Macquarie University Research Centre for Agency, Values, and Ethics (CAVE) symposium “Replacing Race.”

The future of the category of race is uncertain. If there are no biological races within our species, as scientists increasingly accept, what should we do with the concept? Should we revise it, defining race as a social category? Or should we reject race as an illusion: a failed scientific category that does not accurately describe human biological diversity, and which provides fodder for racists? If we endorse the former option, we may be able to keep using the term, putting ‘race’ in scare quotes to indicate that it does not refer to a biological kind. If we favour the latter option, we probably shouldn’t keep using the term ‘race’ as a descriptor, because race doesn’t exist. Those who argue that race does not exist, or that we should eliminate the category on normative grounds, face a dilemma. Racial classification has been used to justify some of the most heinous crimes of modernity, but it has also been embraced by groups that have been treated as inferior “races” as a way to assert and defend themselves collectively. A race-like category seems necessary for purposes of social justice. This symposium will explore issues surrounding “replacing race”. Should the category be replaced, and if so, with what, and how?

All are welcome, but please register for the symposium with Adam Hochman (adam.hochman at mq.edu.au<mailto:adam.hochman at mq.edu.au>) for catering purposes. (Deadline extended to next Wednesday.)

Date:                Thursday the 17th of August, 2017
Time:                9-3pm
Location:          Macquarie University, North Ryde, Sydney
MGSM Executive Conference Centre
Unilever Amphitheatre 101
https://www.executivecentres.mgsm.edu.au/macquarie-park/location

Preliminary Program:

09:00-9:15                         Arrival tea and coffee (provided)

09:15-9:20                         Welcome

09:20-10:10                       Alana Lentin (WSU) – “Relationality and the Doing of Race”

10:10-10:40                      Morning tea (provided)

10:40-11:30                      Adam Hochman (MQ) – “Racialisation: A Defence of the Concept”

11:30-12:20                      Albert Atkin (MQ) – "Pragmatic Pluralism about Race, and Social Justice Conservationism"

12:20-1:20                        Lunch (provided)

1:20-2:35                          Keynote: Lionel McPherson (Tufts) – “Socioancestral, not Racial, Identities”

2:35-2:40                          Closing remarks

2:40 – 3:00                        Afternoon tea (provided)

Just send a quick email to adam.hochman at mq.edu.au<mailto:adam.hochman at mq.edu.au> to register, with your dietary requirements.



Macquarie University Research Centre for Agency, Values and Ethics (CAVE)
Department of Philosophy
Macquarie University
Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia
CAVE website: mq.edu.au/cave<http://cave.mq.edu.au>
www.facebook.com/MQCAVE<http://www.facebook.com/MQCAVE>

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