The Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies and the Department of Geography are pleased to announce that Taking Care: A Conference for Engaging the Politics, Processes, and Ethics of Care Work will be held on May 3-4, 2019 at the University of Washington Seattle.
The conference is being organized by Samantha Thompson (PhD Student, Geography) and Kim England (Harry Bridges Endowed Chair of Labor Studies). We aim to bring together researchers who broadly engage with care theory in their work in some way: whether through care labor, politics of care, feminist care ethics, the racialization of care, representations of care, care networks, or any other framing that helps us to understand care in new ways. We are particularly interested in ways that power, politics, identity, and socio-spatial processes intersect to shape how we understand, value, and think about care. This opens possibilities for numerous orientations, including care as work, care as practice, and care as relationships.
This conference aims to bring together scholars and community members who engage with different facets of care work in their research and in their everyday lives. We invite participants to think about care with each other in new and different ways, including the politics, processes, precarity, and ethics of care work. The conference provides an opportunity for presentations on care research and advocacy, small group seminars, and other spaces to develop our own networks of care. A detailed schedule will soon be posted online at takingcareconference.wordpress.com.
The conference will take place on the University of Washington’s Seattle campus. Our Seattle campus is located on Duwamish land, and the University of Washington acknowledges the Coast Salish peoples of this land, the land which touches the shared waters of all tribes and bands within the Suquamish, Tulalip and Muckleshoot nations.
We encourage scholars, particularly graduate students, to submit abstracts to present their work at this conference. Interdisciplinary approaches and backgrounds are both welcomed and encouraged.
To apply, please visit takingcareconference.wordpress.com/register/. You will need a title for your abstract, a short (250 words) abstract, and your name, affiliation, and email address. We welcome working abstracts/papers as well. Paper presentations will be 15 minutes long and will take place on May 4. The deadline for submissions is April 1, 2019, and applicants will be notified of whether or not their abstracts have been accepted by April 12. The deadline to register (without presenting) is April 19, 2019. All conference participants are asked to please register online to attend the conference regardless of whether they intend to present their research.
If you have any questions, please email Kim England and Samantha Thompson at care2019@uw.edu.