University Symposium: The Politics of Populations
Each year the Institute for Advanced Study will offer a University Symposium—a series of connected events which will explore a critical issue from a variety of vantage points. The first University Symposium will be on the topic of "The Politics of Populations." Public discussions on urgent concerns ranging from immigration policy to preparing for the next pandemic to the tragedy of genocide, and scholarly research ranging from demographic history to multicultural encounters in ethnic borderlands to changing technologies of population surveillance and administration, come together under the broad theme of "The Politics of Populations." Currently, conversations about the politics of populations take place in somewhat specialized circles, often in isolation from each other. Much is to be gained by bringing these different discussions together in creative new ways—for example by bringing immigration historians into dialogue with members of new immigrant communities and with the policymakers who shape their options. Or, in the case of current concerns about pandemics, much could be gained by conversations that involve the perspectives of demography, cultural anthropology, and public health. "The Politics of Populations" will pursue these intersections—across the disciplines and between academic and public participants—through a series of interdisciplinary research collaboratives, graduate seminars, undergraduate honors colloquia, and public events during the academic year 2005-06. The rich resources of the University in relevant areas—for example, the faculty and students affiliated with the Minnesota Population Center, the Institute for Global Studies, the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, the Human Rights Program, and the Immigration History Research Center in CLA; the Law School’s Human Rights Center; the International Women's Rights Action Watch at the Humphrey Institute for Public Policy; and the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy of the School of Public Health—make the University of Minnesota an ideal place to start these conversations. These issues concern scholars and citizens in our state, and also are of national and international urgency.
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