TORONTO, April 24, 2008 -- "Will capitalism destroy the environment? Will China overtake the United States? Will Latin America blaze a new path to socialism? These are among the questions that an international gathering of radical scholars will debate during a conference at York University this week.
The conference, taking place at York from today to Saturday (April 24 to 26), is sponsored by York’s Department of Political Science and Founders College on behalf of Historical Materialism A Journal of Critical Marxist Research. It is the first time the journal, based in London, England, has brought its conference to North America.
There will be more than 50 sessions during the three-day conference, including the following:
– Opening plenary session “Imperialism Today”, featuring Giovanni Arrighi, a sociology professor at Johns Hopkins University, whose work The Long Twentieth Century reinterpreted the history of capitalism since the 13th Century. Arrighi’s current research focuses on the causes and consequences of inequalities in the wealth, status and power of nations. (Thursday, 5 p.m.)
– “Land, Food, ‘Fair Trade’ and the Agrarian Question” including discussion by York professor emeritus Rob Albritton of a starvation epidemic and failure in capitalist food provision. (Friday, 9:30 a.m.)
– “Resistance and Revolt in Latin America” with Saint Mary’s University professor Henry Veltmeyer, who has written extensively about Latin America, globalization and multinationals (Friday, 11:15 a.m.)
– “Iraq and the Political Economy of Empire” with Colgate University visiting professor Nayna Jhaveri, who has written about U.S. oil interests and the Gulf War, and Iraqi-born York University professor Sabbah Alnasseri, on understanding Iraq. (Friday, 3:15 p.m.)
– “China and the Imperial Order,” with University of Utah professor Minqi Li, who was a political prisoner in China from 1990 to 1992, and York University professor Leo Panitch, Canada Research Chair in Comparative Political Economy.
– Plenary session “Marxism, Ecology and the Third World”, with Bard College Professor, author and activist Joel Kovel, Michelle Mawhinney of York University, and Oxford University professor Pritam Singh. (Saturday 3:45 p.m.)
For more information, visit the Historical Materialism conference website.
York University is the leading interdisciplinary research and teaching university in Canada. York offers a modern, academic experience at the undergraduate and graduate level in Toronto, Canada’s most international city. The third largest university in the country, York is host to a dynamic academic community of 50,000 students and 7,000 faculty and staff, as well as 200,000 alumni worldwide. York’s 11 faculties and 24 research centres conduct ambitious, groundbreaking research that is interdisciplinary, cutting across traditional academic boundaries. This distinctive and collaborative approach is preparing students for the future and bringing fresh insights and solutions to real-world challenges. York University is an autonomous, not-for-profit corporation.
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Media contact:
Janice Walls, Media Relations, York University, 416 736 2100 x22101 / wallsj@yorku.ca
