COCAL X Conference in Mexico City
August 10-12, 2012
Call for Papers
COCAL (Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor) is an international coalition of higher education contingent faculty in Canada, the United States and Mexico. Every two years for over a decade, delegates and participants from these three nations have been coming together at conferences in order to share information and analysis, promote activism, and advocate on behalf of contingent faculty in North America and beyond.
This is a call for papers by individuals and organizations that represent contingent faculty in higher education in Canada, the United States and Mexico. Presentations should not exceed 5 pages (time: 10 minutes) and should address a topic specified by one of the workshops listed below. There are three over-arching themes of this conference, each addressed by one of the plenary sessions listed below, and the workshops following each plenary session address some aspect of that central theme. Workshop presentations should have a experiential and practical focus, that can be applied by contingent faculty in diverse situations.
Abstract proposals are to be submitted to the COCAL X Organizing Committee, by June 15, 2012 at the email address indicated at the end of this document. Once accepted, presenters will be contacted to submit their papers so that they can be translated into the other two languages prior to the conference.
Plenary 1: Changes in academic work in the context of neoliberal globalization
Workshops:
1) Teaching, researching, and disseminating knowledge to the larger community, including academic management of e-learning
2) Gaining and maintaining health, unemployment, and retirement benefits
3) Supporting academic improvement, evaluation processes, and recognition
Plenary 2: Organization and new forms of struggle by academic workers; challenges and strategies for the 21st century
Workshops:
4) Forming and building unions, associations, federations, networks and coalitions
5) Expanding employment rights: hiring, retention, tenure, wages, health benefits, and safety
6) Strengthening union rights: institutional recognition, alliances and federations, collective bargaining rights, and labor laws and regulations
7) Supporting political rights, cultural rights, and academic freedom
8) Exploring forms of struggle and achievements: campaigns, negotiations, demonstrations, work stoppages, strikes, and use of new technologies and social media
Plenary 3: Culture and identity of the new academic citizens in North America and the world
Workshops:
9) Creating a sense of academic culture and university identity: freeway flyers and working with multiple assignments and institutions
10) New forms of academic citizenship, new work and the changing university community: finding spaces of resistance to the corporate model of higher education
11) Fighting discrimination and inequality: multicultural identity, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and different capabilities
12) Building connections between the contingent academic worker and the university community: tenure-track faculty, research faculty, students, staff, and administrators
Guidelines for submitting abstracts:
• Send submissions as Word documents only.
• Font and font size: Arial or Times New Roman, font size 11 or 12 point
• Format: 1.5 line spacing; letter size
• Abstract should be no more than 250 words
• The presentation should not exceed 5 pages or 10 minutes.
• Please include: your name, your educational institution, your union or faculty organization, the numbered workshop topic, and the title of your proposed presentation.
• The presentation may be in French, English or Spanish. There will be simultaneous translation at the conference.
• Please Include, in addition to your abstract, a one-paragraph CV with your full name , your best contact phone number and email, and name of the institution/organization you will be representing.
• In order to participate in the Conference, you will need to register and pay all applicable registration fees. Please visit the COCAL X website at: http://cocalinternational.org
• Deadline for submitting abstracts: June 15, 2012
• Email address for submitting abstracts: cocalmexico@hotmail.com (You will receive a confirmation from the same address.)