UNSPOKEN is a cooperative forum of Colgate University, Hamilton College, Utica College, Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, UNHCR, LIRS and the Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees.

We invite you to consider participating as a panelist in our upcoming forum titled UNSPOKEN October 13-15, 2011 in Utica, NY. (www.iamunspoken.com) This  gathering will combine film, art, music, and a conference into one festival. This multi-faceted forum seeks to give a voice to human rights violations from around the globe, explore issues of integration of refugees and immigrants, and to offer practical solutions in order to shape a better tomorrow and give hope to the future.

It is fitting that UnSpoken be held in Utica New York. This city was built by wave after wave of people driven from their homes, or who were seeking something better.  Today, Utica, called “The Town that LOVES Refugees” by the United Nations, is the largest city in Oneida County and has one of the highest concentrations of refugees per capita in the United States. Utica serves as a home to thousands who have experienced and fled human rights violations and abuses. People from myriad cultures and lands live, work, and play together to build their futures. In Utica they are UNSPOKEN no longer.

 
This year’s UNSPOKEN conference will provide an opportunity for academicians and professionals from various fields with cross-disciplinary interests to engage with one another through a series of panel discussions. These panels will explore the experience of people who have been forced from their homelands and faced with building new lives and communities through resettlement. We will consider war-driven forced migration and human displacement, as well as domestic reception of refugees through resettlement and integration programs. Central to the conference conversation is the role of culture, heritage and the arts in processes of flight, migration, settlement and integration.

 Dr. Carolyn R. Nordstrom, a professor of Anthropology and International Studies at Notre Dame University, will be the keynote speaker for the UNSPOKEN conference. She has done fieldwork in Sri Lanka, Mozambique, Angola, and many other war zones. Her work vividly portrays the effects of armed conflict and human rights violations at both local and global levels, but she also captures the resilience of communities in the face of war. Her books include Shadows of War: Violence, Power and International Profiteering in the Twenty-First Century; A Different Kind of War Story; Girl and Warzones—Troubling Questions; and the co-edited Fieldwork Under Fire: Contemporary Studies of Violence and Survival.

 The organizing committee of 2011 UNSPOKEN invites submission of proposals from those who would like to participate in one of three panel discussions. Selections for participation will be made by the organizing committee based on quality of proposals and bearing on the themes of the conference. The committee is especially interested in receiving proposals from panelists who bring practice-based and other non-traditional means of exploring one of the three sub-themes of the conference: 

The Challenges (Panel Discussion 1)
TBD, FacilitatorExamine the structural issues that emerge when the cultural traditions and norms of emerging populations clash with those of the dominant local culture. What are the consequences for the host community, for example, schools, employers, and civil society?

 The Experiences (Panel Discussion 2)
April Oswald, Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Facilitator
Examine the complexity of reactions among community members, families and social groups to cross-cultural encounters. What are the consequences for migrant culture and heritage? April Oswald is the Museum Education Director at MWPAI in Utica, NY. Her BA is from SUNY Purchase, and she did graduate study for her MA in Art History at the University of Chicago. She serves on the board of Sculpture Space. In 2010 she chaired a panel titled, "Putting the Museum at the Heart of the Diverse Community," at the American Association of Museums Conference.

The Fruits (Panel Discussion 3)
Dr. John Frazier, Binghamton University, Facilitator
Examine how the cultural arts and traditions of emerging populations add to the fabric of society. What does it mean to live in a culturally rich community and what are the broader benefits? Dr. John Frazier is a Geography professor at Binghamton University. His research interests include urban geography, race & ethnicity studies, and applied geography.

  

Proposals
Proposals may be submitted by online form available at http://www.iamunspoken.com by August 15, 2011. The proposal should include:

 ·      Presentation Title
·      Panel Preference
·      Speaker's Name

·      Affiliation
·      Email Address
·      Contact Information
·      A detailed abstract of no more than 300 words that includes a description of your presentation and details about how your presentation will relate to your panel preference.

·      A short (100 word limit) biography

 
Authors of proposals will be notified about their selection for participation in the conference by September 1, 2011.

Further details about the forum and the conference can be found on the UNSPOKEN website at http://www.iamunspoken.com. email conference@iamunspoken.com for more information.