The Andrea Mitchell Center for the Study of DemocracyFaculty Workshops
2017 Annual Conference - Politics on the Edge: Sex/Gender/Race
Graduate Workshops
Undergraduate Research Conference
Faculty Workshops
Although the privileges and protections provided by the state are never entirely secure, there are those whose gender, sexual, and racial positioning give them an especially precarious hold on both the legal and symbolic rights of citizenship. In its 2016-17 theme year, “Citizenship on the Edge: Sex/Gender/Race,” Penn DCC examines the struggles of vulnerable groups to gain or maintain their status as full citizens, recognizing at the same time that the edge they inhabit can be a cutting edge. In the U.S., women and men of color confront police violence, high rates of incarceration, and attempts to roll back voting rights, while women of all backgrounds contend with the persistence of sexual violence, labor exploitation, and family disintegration. And while 2015 saw great strides in LGBTQ rights with the achievement of marriage equality and growing public awareness of trans women and men, there is ongoing resistance to these developments. Globally, anti-gay legislation and violence, state repression, ethnic conflict, and human trafficking for sex and forced labor have all affected the meaning, status and enactment of citizenship, as well as the strategies individuals and communities have publicly mobilized for the recognition of their personhood.
Co-sponsored by the Alice Paul Center for Research on Gender, Sexuality & Women
Opening Event (Sept. 22, 2016)
Jane Mansbridge (Harvard), Dianne Pinderhughes (Notre Dame),
Katha Pollitt (The Nation), and Gary Segura (UC-San Diego).
Moderated by Nancy Hirschmann (U. Penn).
View Description.
Watch Video of "Politics on the Edge".
María Josefina Saldaña-Portillo (New York University).
View Description. Read Paper. Watch Video.
Ellen Samuels (University of Wisconsin - Madison).
View Description. Watch Video.
Valentine Moghadam (Northeastern University).
View Description. Watch Video.
Lynne Haney (New York University).
View Description. Watch Video.
Kamala Kempadoo (York University).
View Description.
Ange-Marie Hancock (University of Southern California).
View Description. Watch Video.
Alondra Nelson (Columbia University)
View Description. Watch Video.
2017 Annual Conference
Politics on the Edge: Sex/Gender/Race
Co-sponsored by the Alice Paul Center for Research on Gender, Sexuality & Women
ALTHOUGH THE PRIVILEGES AND PROTECTIONS PROVIDED by the state are never entirely secure, there are those whose gender, sexual, and racial positioning give them an especially precarious hold on both the legal and symbolic rights of citizenship. In its 2017 Annual Conference, “Citizenship on the Edge: Sex/Gender/Race,” Penn DCC examines the struggles of vulnerable groups to gain or maintain their status as full citizens, recognizing at the same time that the edge they inhabit can be a cutting edge.
Panel 1: Sexualities, Citizenship and Exclusion
Chair: Emily Hannum (University of Pennsylvania)
Paul Mepschen (Leiden University)
Tracy Robinson (The University of the West Indies, at Mona)
Discussant: Deborah Thomas (University of Pennsylvania)
Panel 2: Masculinity, From Margin to Center
Chair: Jerry A. Jacobs (University of Pennsylvania)
Erez Aloni (Whittier Law School)
Charles Mills (CUNY Graduate Center)
Discussant: David Eng (University of Pennsylvania)
Panel 3: Marginalized Populations and Civic Space
Chair: Amy Hillier (University of Pennsylvania)
Samantha Majic (John Jay College of Criminal Justice)
Michael Rembis (The University at Buffalo)
Discussant: Rogers Smith (University of Pennsylvania)
Panel 4: Sexual Violence, Violent States
Chair: Anne Teitelman (University of Pennsylvania)
Mishuana Goeman (UCLA)
Kimberly Theidon (Tufts University)
Discussant: Melissa Sanchez (University of Pennsylvania)
Graduate Workshops
Local and International Courts
Guillermo Garcia (Harvard Law)
“The Political Effects of Centralizing the Defense of the State in One Branch"
Aniruddha Jairam (Penn Political Science)
"'The Law May Not Be Real, But the Lathi [Big Stick] Is': Dispute Resolution and State Capacity in an Indian District Court"
The Politics of Economic Transformation
Yakov Feygin (Penn History)
"From Economic Reform to A Crisis of Power: Institutional Change, Inflation, and the Collapse of the Soviet Fiscal State, 1986-1991"
Roberto Saba (Penn History)
“The Spirit of Enterprise: American Entrepreneurs in Brazil of the 1860s"
Consent, Liberty, and the Defense of Democracy
Beth Henzel (Rutgers University Philosophy)“Constructive 'Consent': A Dangerous Fiction"
Tom Leavitt (Columbia University Political Science)
"Rational Decision Theory and Its Implications for Normative Defenses of Democracy"
Political Language and Social Movements: Claiming Power on the Left and Right
Hadas Aron (Columbia University Political Science)
“Intimate Rivals or Enemies of the State: Responses to the Populist Far Right in Hungary"
James Morone (Penn Political Science)
“Community-Based Organizations, and the Reconstruction of Policy Frameworks During Political Crises"
Race-making, Labor, and Capitalism in Modern America
Minju Bae (History, Temple University)
“No More Phoney Contracts': Organizing Chinese-Restaurant Labor in 1980s New York"
Carly Regina (Political Science, University of Pennsylvania)
“Labor Market Segmentation and the Production of Ethnicity and Race Ideologies in Arizona Copper: Ethnic and racial group-making and the construction of tractable workforces"
Drawing National Boundaries: Citizenship on the Margins
Dannah Dennis (Anthropology, University of Virginia)
“In the Name of the Mother: Gendered and Regional Exclusions in Nepali Citizenship"
Beth Wellman (Political Science, Yale University)
“Does Citizenship Travel? Diaspora Voting Rights in Africa"
Social Protections and the State
Daniel Platt (American Studies, Brown University)
“From Contract to Status: Property Exemption in Nineteenth-Century American Law"
Tesalia Rizzo (Political Science, MIT)
"How the Experience of a Programmatic State Discourages Clientelism"
2017 Undergraduate Research Conference
AS THE CULMINATION of a year of meetings to refine their research projects, the DCC undergraduate research fellows present their projects in a one-day conference, with topics that include the career of John Dickinson, healthcare in Uganda, police reform in Northern Ireland, populist paranoia during the Gilded Age, the media treatment of free speech issues after 1960, midwives in South Africa, imperialism in ancient Athens, the desegregation of the University of Pennsylvania, the 1920 Cushendall Incident in Northern Ireland, and the construction of U.S. homelessness policies after 1980.
PANEL 1: Health Care and Homelessness
Mary CERULLI (Health and Societies)
“Go Ask the Midwife: Professional Identity in Cape Town, South Africa”
Jessie LU (Anthropology)
“Forgotten District: Non-Profit Governance in the Ugandan Welfare State”
Olivia WEBB (Health and Societies)
“Voiceless: The Construction of Homelessness Policies from 1980-2016”
Discussant: Cynthia CONNOLLY (Nursing)
PANEL 2: American Dilemmas
Rebecca HEILWEIL (Political Science)
“Media Coverage of Free Speech after 1960”
Samantha RAHMIN (History / Psychology)
“Who’s Invited? The Desegregation of Emory University, The University of Pennsylvania, and Princeton University”
Jordan ROSMAN (Political Science)
“Populist Paranoia: The Roots and Style of Agrarian Reform Throughout the Late Gilded Age”
Discussant: Walter LICHT (History)
PANEL 3: Policing the Troubles
Anna GARSON (History)
“Out of Control: The Ulster Special Constabulary, the Cushendall Incident, and Anglo-Irish Relations, 1920-1922”
Alec WARD (History)
“Orange, Green, and Blue: Police Reform and Sectarian Politics in Northern Ireland, 1922-2001”
Discussant: John HOLLWAY (Executive Director, Penn Law Quattrone Center)
PANEL 4: Identities and Empires
Alexis Montouris CIAMBOTTI (Political Science / Classical Studies)
“Imperial Democracy: Institutional Design and The Citizenship Law of 451/450 BC as an Athenian Strategy for Empire”
Benjamin FOGEL (History / Psychology)
“Trimming Liberty's Tree: John Dickinson Before He Was ‘A Farmer’”
Discussant: Jeffrey GREEN (Political Science)