ABOUT THE SOCIAL THEORY FORUM
Histories of sociology tell us how the discipline was formed in the nineteenth century struggles to understand the combined upheavals of socio-political revolutions and the industrial revolution that gradually expanded throughout the world. These events radically changed the established order and posed various questions that are still with us today: questions about class, race, community, gender, the nature of social integration, and processes of social change, among others. But as we all know, the world again changed radically during the twentieth century, with great implications for social theory.
The Social Theory Forum (STF) is an annual conference organized jointly by the sociology and other departments, interested faculty and students at University of Massachusetts Boston, in order to creatively explore, develop, promote, and publish cross-disciplinary social theory in an applied and critical framework. STF offers faculty and students of UMass Boston and other area colleges and universities an interactive medium to discuss various aspects of the way in which particular theoretical traditions can be relevant to present everyday issues, as well as to the current state and the future of social theory.
Social Theory Forum's goals are:
• To critically engage with and evaluate classical and contemporary social theories in a cross-disciplinary and comparative cross-cultural framework in order to develop new integrative theoretical structures and practices;
• To foster individual and collective self-reflexivity in exploring social theories in global and world-historical contexts to aid people effectively address social problems;
• To foster an interactive and dialogical learning experience and research in theory within and across faculty, students, and community divides on and off campus;
• To foster exchange of ideas open to constructive and integrative exploration of diverse and conflicting viewpoints, modes of thinking, and world-views;
• To foster theoretical education and research within a praxis-oriented and applied sociological framework capable of addressing concrete issues arising from intrapersonal, interpersonal, and global contexts;
• To foster theoretical education and research as practices of freedom in favor of transformative and emancipatory personal and global experience.
Previous Events
The Fifth Annual Social Theory Forum was held on April 16 and 17, 2008, at UMass Boston. Keynote speakers included Charles Lemert (Wesleyan University), Barbara Cruikshank (UMass Amherst), James Brenauer (Boston College), and Margaret McClaren (Rollins College). For the complete program click here. For information about its call for papers click here. For further information please contact the chair of the STF organizing committee, Jorge Capetillo-Ponce.
The Fourth Annual Social Theory Forum, March 27-28, 2007, the Ryan Lounge, McCormack Building, UMass Boston. Theme: "The Violences of Colonialism and Racism, Inner and Global: Conversations with Frantz Fanon on the Meaning of Human Emancipation" (call for papers, poster1, poster2, program, for the online STF 2007 proceedings navigate to vol. V, Special Summer 2007 Double-Issues, of Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge)
The Third Annual Meeting of the Social Theory Forum, April 5-6, 2006 - Theme:"Human Rights, Borderlands, and the Poetics of Applied Social Theory: Engaging with Gloria Anzaldúa in Self and Global Transformations" (call for papers, poster1, poster2, program, for the online STF 2007 proceedings navigate to vol. IV, Special Summer 2006 Double-Issues, of Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge)
The Second Annual Meeting of the Social Theory Forum, April 6-7, 2005 - Theme:"Theories and Praxes of Difference: Revisiting Edward Said in the Age of New Globalizations" (call for papers, poster, program, for the online STF 2005 proceedings navigate to vol. 7, Double-Issues 1&2, of The Discourse of Sociological Practice)
The First Annual Meeting of the Social Theory Forum, April 7, 2004 - Theme:"Liberating Social Theory: Inspirations From Paulo Freire for Learning, Teaching, and Advancing Social Theory in Applied Settings" (call for papers, program, for the online STF 2005 proceedings navigate to vol. 6, Issue 2, of The Discourse of Sociological Practice)
Correspondence Address
Attn.: Social Theory Forum
Department of Sociology
University of Massachusetts Boston
100 Morrissey Boulevard
Boston, MA 02125
U.S.A.