Class, Race and Place in the US South: American Politics Through the Lens of Michael Goldfield’s Work
Le Sud des États-Unis au cœur des enjeux politiques américains : classe, race et espaces au prisme de l’œuvre de Michael Goldfield
Published on Thursday, October 06, 2022
Abstract
Recent events in the United States remind us to what extent the South is both a place of distinctive identities and a space sharing a common heritage. According to the political scientist Michael Goldfield, “The South is a distinctive, atypical part of the United States; it is also, however, America writ large”. These specificities are inscribed in social, cultural, political and, according to the author, above all economic structures, in a configuration that makes any definition of the “South” problematic. On the occasion of the release of Michael Goldfield’s latest book, The Southern Key (2020) we want to address these issues during an international symposium in the presence of the author.
Announcement
Presentation
Recent events in the United States remind us to what extent the South is both a place of distinctive identities and a space sharing a common heritage.
According to the political scientist Michael Goldfield, “The South is a distinctive, atypical part of the United States; it is also, however, America writ large”. These specificities are inscribed in social, cultural, political and, according to the author, above all economic structures, in a configuration that makes any definition of the “South” problematic.
Still, however the South is defined, the ways class and race relations intertwine in that space requires a close attention for one to understand American political life, especially at decisive historical moments, when their articulation or competition is at stake.
According to Goldfield, white supremacy and issues of race are at the center of every critical turning point in American political history: the colonial era, the Revolutionary War and the Constitution, the Civil War and Reconstruction, the defeat of Populism and the System of 1896; the Great Depression and the New Deal; the civil rights movement (Goldfield, 1997). On the occasion of the release of Michael Goldfield’s latest book, The Southern Key (2020) we want to address these issues during an international symposium in the presence of the author.
Program
Wednesday, February 1, 17:00-19:00
Maison de la Recherche de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, 4 rue des Irlandais, 75005 Paris, Salle Athéna, rez-de-chaussée (Métro ligne 10 Cardinal Lemoine / RER B Luxembourg)
Conference-Debate: The Fight for Workers' Rights & Womens's Rights in the US Today
Keynote by Michael Goldfield and Cody R. Melcher
Followed by Round-Table: Donna Kesselman (UPEC-IMAGER), Elizabeth Faue (Wayne State University), James Cohen (Sorbonne Nouvelle-CREW), Fanny Gallot (UPEC-CRHEC), Christen Bryson (Sorbonne Nouvelle-CREW) et Émilien Julliard (CNRS-IDHE.S).
Thursday, February 2
Salle des Thèses, bât P CMC, Université Paris-Est Créteil (Métro ligne 8, Créteil-Université)
9:00 Conference Opening
Welcome from Université UPEC: Guillaume Marche, Directeur of IMAGER, UPEC
For the Conference Organizing Committee:
Donna Kesselman (UPEC-IMAGER), Hélène Le Dantec-Lowry (Sorbonne Nouvelle-CREW), James Cohen (Sorbonne Nouvelle-CREW)
9:30 Introduction
- Cody R. Melcher, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Loyola University, “On Michael Goldfield”
9:45-11:15 Panel 1: Reframing Southern Narratives
Chair: Barry Eidlin, Associate Professor of Sociology, McGill
- Dan Labotz, Teacher, School of Labor and Urban Studies, CUNY, “Using Michael Goldfield’s Approach to Examine the Latino Southwest”
- Matthew Nichter, Associate Professor of Sociology, Rollins College, Orlando, “The Lost Opportunity Thesis and the Sociology of the Civil Rights Movement”
11:15 - Coffee Break
11:30-1:00 Panel 2 Mobilizing Workers: Labor & Race
Chair : Mathieu Hocquelet, Chercheur, Sociologie du Travail, Céreq
- Charles Post, Graduate Center-CUNY, “The World War II ‘No-Strike Pledge’, anti-Black “Hate Strikes” and Racial Divisions in the CIO”
- Anissa Khamkham, Doctoral Candidate, Université Toulouse-Jean Jaurès-CAS, “Organize the South!”: Black Workers for Justice and Black Political Power in North Carolina, 1980s-1990s”
- Kalilou Barry, Doctoral Candidate, UPEC-IMAGER, “Not Just a Class Issue! The Dynamics of Organizing at Amazon Minnesota and Staten Island Warehouses”
1:00 - Lunch break
2:30-4:00 Panel 3 Interactions and Intersections, part (I)
Chair : Hélène Le Dantec-Lowry, Professeure émérite, Sorbonne Nouvelle-CREW
- Marie Ménard, Doctoral Candidate, UPEC-IMAGER, “Resisting Despite the Odds: the Case of the Oklahoma Teacher Walkout of 2018”
- Jody Noll, Lecturer of History, Georgia State University, “Claiming Power: Race, Gender, and the Successes of the 1968 Statewide Florida Teachers’ Strike”
- Tristan Pinet-Le Bras, Doctoral Candidate, EHESS-CENA, “For Better or for Worse, You are Opinion-Makers in the Community”. A Political History of Black Radio and Disc-Jockey Organizing (1940-1970)”
4:00 - Coffee Break
4:15-5:30 Panel 3 Interactions and Intersections, part (II)
Chair : Cécile Coquet-Mokoko, Professeure de Civilisation des Etats-Unis, UVSQ
- Matthew Stanley, Associate Professor of History, University of Arkansas, “Where Are the Workers?: The Class Question in Civil War Memory Studies and the Political Economy of Blue-Gray Reunion”
- Augustus Wood, Assistant Professor, School of Labor and Employment Relations, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, “‘Get the Pharaoh Off the Community’s Back!’: Interracial Class Struggle, Social Movements, and Repression Under Gentrification in Neo-colonial Atlanta, 1966-2015”
Evening: Conference Banquet
Friday, February 3
Maison de la recherche de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, 4 rue des Irlandais, 75005 Paris, Salle Athéna, rez-de-chaussée (Métro ligne 10 Cardinal Lemoine / RER B Luxembourg)
9:00 Opening & Coffee
9:30-11:00 Panel 4 (Re)Defining / (Re)Thinking the South, Part (I)
Chair : Anne Stefani, Professeure en civilisation américaine, Université Toulouse-Jean Jaurès-CAS
- Toni-Michelle Travis, Professor Emerita George Mason University, “Northern Virginia (NOVA) vs. The Rest of Virginia (ROVA)”
- Esther Cyna, Associate Professor of American Studies, UVSQ-CHCSC, “The Legacy of Jim Crow in School Finance: A Southern Story?”
- Manuel Bocquier, Doctoral Candidate, (EHESS, Mondes Américains, CENA / Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne), “Segregation and Music Selling: Rethinking Southern Distinctiveness through Consumption”
11:00 - Coffee Break
11:15-12:15 Panel 4 (Re)Defining / (Re)Thinking the South, Part (II)
Chair : Jean-Christian Vinel, Professor, Histoire américaine, Université de Paris Cité-LARCA (CNRS-UMR 8225)
- Andrew Y. Elrod, Historian & Writer, Los Angeles, “Spreading the Open Shop: Non-Union Construction, the Business Roundtable, and the Rise of Sunbelt America”
- Nicolas Raulin, Ph.D in American studies, EHESS-CENA, “A Return Home or a Yankee Invasion? The Reverse Migration to the South and to Atlanta since the 1970s and the Regionalization of the Black Identity”
12:30 - Lunch break
2:00-3:00 Panel 5 Imagining Another Civil Rights Movement: Counterfactual Analyses
Chair : Pauline Peretz, Maîtresse de conférences HDR en histoire contemporaine, université Paris 8 Vincennes Saint Denis, Membre senior de l’Institut Universitaire de France
- Olivier Maheo, Post-Doctoral Researcher, TEMOS, CNRS-Université Le Mans, ANR RelRAce, “L’United Steel Workers of America, Africans-Americans, and mccarthyism, 1945-1955”
- Robert R. Korstad, Professor Emeritus of Public Policy and History, Duke University, “Revisiting “Opportunities Found and Lost”: Labor and Social Reform Movements in the 1940s US South”
3:00 - Coffee Break
3:15-5:00 Round Table “WHAT IF”
Chair: Nelson Lichtenstein, Distinguished Professor in History, University of California, Santa Barbara
- Brian Kelly, Reader in US History, Queen’s University Belfast
- Bryan D. Palmer, Professor, Canadian Studies, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario
- Mary Anne Trasciatti, Professor of Rhetoric and Public Advocacy and Director of Labor Studies, Hofstra University: “The Intersectional Politics of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn”
- Alex Callinicos, Emeritus Professor of European Studies, King’s College
5:00 Keynote - Michael Goldfield, Professor Emeritus, Wayne State University
6 : 00 Cocktail
Organizing Committee
- Kalilou Barry, Doctorant en Civilisation américaine, UPEC-IMAGER
- Lyais Ben Youssef, Doctorant en Civilisation américaine, UPEC-IMAGER
- James Cohen, Professeur, Sorbonne Nouvelle-CREW
- Esther Cyna, Maîtresse de Conférences, UVSQ-CHCSC
- Hélène Le Dantec-Lowry, Professeure émérite, Sorbonne Nouvelle-CREW
- Mathieu Hocquelet, Chercheur en Sociologie du Travail, Céreq
- Donna Kesselman, Professeure, UPEC-IMAGER
- Olivier Maheo, Post-Doctoral Researcher, TEMOS, CNRS-Université Le Mans, ANR RelRAce.
- Guillaume Marche, Professeur, UPEC-IMAGER
- Cody R. Melcher, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Loyola University
- Marie Ménard, Doctorante en Civilisation américaine, UPEC-IMAGER
Scientific Committee
- Mathieu Bonzom, Maître de Conférences en études nord-américaines, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne-CESSP
- Audrey Célestine, Maîtresse de Conférences, Université de Lille-CECILLE
- Cécile Coquet-Mokoko, Professeure de Civilisation des Etats-Unis, UVSQ-CHCSC
- Elizabeth Faue, Professor of History, Wayne State University
- Rosemary Feurer, Associate Professor of History, Northern Illinois University
- Errol A. Henderson, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Pennsylvania State University
- Ambre Ivol, Maîtresse de Conférences en Civilisation des États-Unis, Université de Nantes-CIL
- Emilien Julliard, Chargé de recherche en Sociologie, CNRS-université Paris-Nanterre-IDHE .S
- Nelson Lichtenstein, Research Professor, Department of History, University of California, Santa Barbara.
- Hélène Quanquin, Professeure de Civilisation des États-Unis, Université de Lille-CECILLE
- Caroline Rolland-Diamond, Professeure d’histoire des Etats-Unis, Université Paris-Nanterre-CREA
- Anne Stefani, Professeure en Civilisation américaine, Université Toulouse-Jean Jaurès-CAS
Chair
- Jean-Christian Vinel, Professor, Histoire américaine, Université de Paris Cité-LARCA (CNRS-UMR 8225)
- Karel Yon, Chargé de Recherche en Sociologie, CNRS-Université Paris-Nanterre-IDHE.S
Subjects
- Political studies (Main category)
- Zones and regions > America > United States
- Society > Sociology > Sociology of work
- Periods > Modern > Twentieth century
- Society > Political studies > Political history
- Society > Political studies > Political and social movements
- Mind and language > Epistemology and methodology > Historiography
- Society > History > Social history
Places
- Maison de la Recherche de la Sorbonne Nouvelle. Salle Athéna, rez-de-chaussée - 4 rue des Irlandais
Paris, France (75005) - Salle des Thèses, bât P CMC, Université Paris-Est Créteil - Université Paris-Est-Créteil,
Créteil, France (94000)
Event attendance modalities
Hybrid event (on site and online)
Date(s)
- Wednesday, February 01, 2023
- Thursday, February 02, 2023
- Friday, February 03, 2023
Keywords
- Etats-Unis, sud, Michael Goldfied, syndicat, histoire du travail, labor history, social movement
Contact(s)
- Donna Kesselman
courriel : dkessel11 [at] gmail [dot] com - olivier maheo
courriel : raconterlesminorites [at] gmail [dot] com
Reference Urls
Information source
- olivier maheo
courriel : raconterlesminorites [at] gmail [dot] com
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
To cite this announcement
« Class, Race and Place in the US South: American Politics Through the Lens of Michael Goldfield’s Work », Conference, symposium, Calenda, Published on Thursday, October 06, 2022, https://doi.org/10.58079/19lj