More than 500 people have pre-registered for the 75th annual convention of the Western States Communication Association to be held in Albuquerque Feb. 13-17.
Local host Ken Frandsen, professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism at the University of New Mexico, said the 500 advance registrations is the largest number of advance bookings that the conference has attracted in the past 15 years.
"This tells me that Albuquerque is a very attractive destination," Frandsen said.
Dr. Myron W. "Ron" Lustig, president-elect of the association, organized the conference around the theme "Widening Our Circle." Lustig said the theme is "designed to encourage us to focus on issues of inclusiveness of the individuals we teach and serve, of the ideas we research and apply, of the methodologies we accept and encourage, of the practices we value and espouse, and of the people we welcome and invite."
Lustig teaches at San Diego State University.
Two top researchers in the area of ethnic studies will be major speakers.
Dr. Ronald Takaki, a leader in the study of the future of the United States as a multicultural society, will deliver the convention kick-off presentation Saturday, Feb. 14. He will present his speech, "Widening Our Circle: Multicultural America," at 5:30 p.m. in the Sendero III room at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. The grandson of Japanese plantation workers who immigrated to Hawaii, he has been a professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, for more than 30 years.
In his speech, Takaki said, he will "challenge the master narrative of American history - the pervasive but mistaken story that our country was settled by European immigrants and that Americans are white or European in ancestry. Why is a multicultural alternative narrative needed today? The war against international terrorism has been generating fears of difference and diversity in the world and also within our society. Also the 21st century has been witnessing a tremendous expansion of our nation's racial and ethnic diversity. The 2000 Census has revealed that Americans of European origins have become a minority in California - like African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans. What has happened in the Golden State will happen across the country by 2060. Indeed, we will all be minorities."
Takaki is the author of a book titled "A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America." Publishers Weekly called it "a brilliant revisionist history of America that is likely to become a classic of multicultural studies." He also has written "Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans," which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
Dr. Michael Omi, who chairs the department of ethnic studies at the University of California, Berkeley, will deliver the keynote address for the conference on Sunday. His speech, "Rethinking the Language of Race and Racism," will be presented in the Pavilion at the Hyatt Regency at 10:30 a.m. Sunday.
Omi, along with Howard Winant, is the author of "Racial Formation in the United States" and numerous articles on racial theory and politics. He has written extensively on racial stratification, racist and anti-racist social movements, and the racial and ethnic categories used in the U.S. census.
In addition to several speeches and organizational meetings, the conference will have about 140 panel presentations and discussions of academic research papers.
The Western States Communication Association includes New Mexico, Washington, California, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Wyoming, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Utah and Hawaii.
But local host Frandsen said the conference each year attracts a substantial number of communication researchers and teachers from other states as well. "This conference is attended by more people from outside the region than any other regional communication conference in the country," Frandsen said.
Additional information is available at: www.westcomm.org.
Contact: Laurie Mellas-Ramirez (505) 277-5915
Posted by kwentworth at February 11, 2004 04:46 PM