The Dreamland Pavilion: Brooklyn and Development (CFP)

A friend from Kingsborough Community College's English department sends the following:

The Dreamland Pavilion: Brooklyn and Development
 
October 2-3, 2009, Kingsborough Community College, CUNY

 
CALL FOR PAPERS

How has Brooklyn become what it is--a place of nostalgia, imagination, or fantasy as much as a territorial space, an "outer borough" of New York City? Isn't it time to assess critically the rapid changes in the borough over the last decade? With tremendous growth comes certain costs, but how do we evaluate the present moment, poised between Brooklyn
past and Brooklyn future? How is "development" defined differently by different groups in different contexts? Finally, how do Brooklyn's diverse localities and populations reflect or even shape the future of New York, a global metropolis? This conference aims to be a space within which these and other questions will be addressed, discussed, even answered. The two-day gathering will combine moderated panels (in both traditional academic and roundtable formats), guided visits to local sites, artistic performances and discussion.

We welcome proposals from all relevant academic disciplines, including history, literary studies, political science, geography, and sociology. We are equally interested in proposals from those outside academia, including architects, artists, journalists, activists, urban planners and others concerned with Brooklyn in particular and urban space in general.

The primary areas we will focus on in the conference are:

• The Arts and Cultural Practices: the borough's relationship to film, literature, and the performing arts.
• Development Projects: the conflicts and controversies surrounding Brooklyn's most important contemporary development projects.
• Demographics and Diversity: the broader forces that have reshaped Brooklynites' lives in past and present, including migration, education, housing and urban politics.
  

Possible topics for panelists to address within these areas could
include:

• Renters and homeowners
• Decision-making processes
• Relationship of arts and culture to neighborhood geography
• Case studies of particular neighborhoods
• The Atlantic Yards project or Coney Island redevelopment
• Dynamics of race and/or ethnicity
  
• Environmental impact of development
  
• Access to local institutions
  
• Privatization and public space
  

Proposals should be submitted by February 1, 2009 and should include:

• A one-page description of your topic
• Contact information: Name, position and affiliation, telephone numbers (home and cellphone), mail address and e-mail.
  

Please email completed proposals to Dr. Rick Armstrong, Department of
English, Kingsborough Community College, City University of New York,
at: stephen.armstrong@kingsborough.edu.

For more information, contact:

Dr. Eben Wood, Department of English
Kingsborough Community College, City University of New York
2001 Oriental Blvd.
Brooklyn, NY 11235
(718) 368-5229
eben.wood@kingsborough.edu

or

Dr. Libby Garland, Department of History, Philosophy, and Political
Science
Kingsborough Community College, City University of New York
2001 Oriental Blvd.
Brooklyn, NY 11235
(718) 368-5624
libby.garland@kingsborough.edu

Please also visit the conference website.