Race, ethnicity and indigeneity studies are focus of two-day conference

In 2002 Provost Biddy Martin created a Task Force on Ethnic Studies dedicated to strengthening Cornell's Africana Studies and Research Center, American Indian Program, Asian American Studies Program and the Latino Studies Program. Based on recommendations from that task force, the provost's office created the Committee on the Comparative Study of Race, Ethnicity and Indigeneity in 2003.

The result of that committee's work will be showcased during a conference titled "Questions of Comparison: New Approaches to Race, Ethnicity and Indigeneity," to be held Friday, Oct. 15, and Saturday, Oct. 16, in the A.D. White House Guerlac Room.

What the committee found is that methods of comparative analysis can offer new ways of studying race, ethnicity and indigeneity.

Wong

"Comparative analysis, though by no means a new methodology, has recently begun moving in rich new directions," said Shelley Wong, Asian American Studies director and associate professor of English. She also is a member of the Comparative Study of Race, Ethnicity and Indigeneity committee that organized the two-day event. "The conference will foreground not only some of these new directions, but also the shift towards more interdisciplinary practices in this area of study, as well as an examination of the very terms 'race,' 'ethnicity' and 'indigeneity.' The word 'questions' in the title is no accident -- we have plenty of them."

The conference draws on social sciences and humanities scholars hailing from the United States, Canada and England who, along with presenting their respective comparative projects, also will address the underlying question of comparative methodology. Such inquiries include: What are the many varieties of comparative research today? What can we learn from comparative analysis? How does it complement and extend single-focus studies? What are the challenges of undertaking comparative analysis?

"There never seem to be enough opportunities for scholars from different fields and disciplines to meet and deliberate over topics of common interest," said Wong. "We're hoping that this conference will provide one such opportunity and that it will, in turn, lead to many more occasions for intellectual dialogue and cross-fertilization."

The conference schedule can be found at http://www.arts.cornell.edu/english/comparison.html.