[SydPhil] CAVE Symposium: Replacing Race, Thursday, Macquarie

[Centre for Agency, Values, and Ethics]

Hi all,

Final call for registrations for the Macquarie University Research Centre for Agency, Values, and Ethics (CAVE) symposium “Replacing Race.” Please register by Monday with Adam, with your dietary requirements: adam.hochman at mq.edu.au<mailto:adam.hochman at mq.edu.au>

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?

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

Program: (Abstracts available on mq.edu.au/cave/events)

09:00 - 09:15 : Arrival tea and coffee
09:15 - 09:20 : Opening remarks
09:20 - 10:10 : Alana Lentin (WSU), “Relationality and the Doing of Race”
10:10 - 10:40 : Morning tea
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 - 13:20 : Lunch
13:20 - 14:35 : Keynote: Lionel McPherson (Tufts), “Socioancestral, not Racial, Identities”
14:35 - 14:40 : Closing remarks
14:40 - 15:00 : Afternoon tea

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.


Lionel McPherson will also be giving a seminar on Tuesday at 1pm, on "What Deflating “Race” Means". This is at W3A 501, Macquarie University. All welcome, no registration required.


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<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/Qv1bBRfg6pkFk?domain=facebook.com>

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