A Possible World

The World Prout Assembly was established in January 2005 to study ways to create a holistic, socio-economic, political, cultural and spiritual transformation throughout the world. The vision is for activists in all countries fighting for justice in all spheres of life to come together to form one universal coalition so as to create global change. By providing solidarity to all local and global anti-exploitation struggles, the World Prout Assembly envisions the mobilization of humanity to end the economic hegemony of Empire and to usher the revitalization of local communities and local, self-sustaining economies. Specific topics of concern include (1) economic democracy and cooperatives, including worker, producer and consumer cooperatives; (2) energy and water self-sufficiency, including solar, wind and water cooperatives; and (3) bioregional, independent, self-sustaining, locally self-sufficient, ecological-agricultural communities that can provide the minimum necessities of life to all inhabitants; (4) countering racisms and fundamentalisms; (5) health and health care; (6) immigration; and (7) future visions.

The First Summit of the World Prout Assembly will open on Monday, May 19, with Registration and the Keynote Address. The General Conference begins on Tuesday morning, May 20 and concludes Sunday morning, May 25. It will feature Presidential Sessions, Critical Issues sessions, and Paper, Poster and Workshop presentations. Evenings will offer documentaries, entertainment, Veterans' Voices, and roundtable brainstorming for solutions.

The First Summit of the World Prout Assembly 2008 will be held at Radford University, in Radford, Virginia, from May 19-25, 2008.

About the Theme: Building a New World: Moving Past Nation and Empire Toward New Local and Global Paradigms

When we are faced with the fact that 80 percent of the world's population lives in absolute poverty, defined as missing one or more of the five necessities of life: food, clothes, shelter, health care and education, when we are further faced with the fact that inhuman war crimes and crimes against humanity are being perpetrated in the Middle East, when megacorporations by their policies are committing economic genocide, economic terrorism, against millions of unsuspecting, hapless, simple human beings, whose only desire is to lead a peaceful life that includes the five minimum necessities, it then behooves us to find solutions and determine courses of action. It behooves us to educate each other on the issues, on the sins of the leaders and the sufferings of the people.

We need to move past the unbounded military and economic crimes of empire and seek new local and global paradigms. For this reason, the First Summit of the World Prout Assembly will have sessions focusing on both problems and solutions, including Ending Empire, After Capitalism, Immigration, Health Care, Fundamentalism, Racism, Economic Freedom, Cooperatives, Localization, Bioregionalism, Secession, Neohumanism, Predatory Lending, Global Warming, New Monetary Policy, Animal Rights, Venezuela and the Bolivarian Revolution, Solidarity Economy, World Government, Water Crisis, Women's Liberation, Surviving Economic Depression, Community Currencies, and Iraq Veterans Speak Out.

The overall theme of "building a new world" is broad enough to invite various forms of interdisciplinary and disciplinary inquiry as well as the full array of pedagogical, activist, cultural and spiritual work. Possible proposal topics from interdisciplinary or disciplinary perspectives in contemporary or historical contexts could include but are not limited to:

Empire building

Collapsing empires

Critiques of militarization

Resisting empire through the arts

Transnational perspectives on empire

The cultural work of empire in popular discourses

Fundamentalisms and terrorisms

Theorizing race and racism across national boundaries

From Katrina to Lebanon to Iraq: the politics of displacement, migrations and movements

Venezuelan Bolivarian revolution

The fight for economic freedom

Solidarity economy

Economic localization

Water crisis

Short and long-term effects of global warming

Women's movements inside and outside the lines of imperialism

Women's local and global, economic, intellectual and spiritual liberation

WPA invites all of those interested to submit proposals for panels, papers, workshops, and performances that represent the wide range of anti-hegemonic scholarship in the US and beyond. The World Prout Assembly also welcomes proposals that do not directly address the theme, but are relevant to the topic categories found on the WPA website, which include: Academic freedom, Sustainable agriculture, Animal rights, Bangalistan, Bioregionalism, Secession, Capitalism, Casteism, Civil liberties / Constitutional rights, Class war, Global warming, Cooperatives, Crimes against humanity, Depleted uranium, Disabilities, Endogenous development, Energy, Exploitation, Fascism, Genocide, Prout economy, Globalization, GM foods, Immigration, Guantanamo, Health/Health care, Human rights, Impeachment, Indigenous rights, Iraq, Iran, Localization, Microcredit finance, Community currencies, Morality, Nationalism, Neohumanism, Participatory budget process, Solidarity economy, Peak oil, Predatory lending, Pan-Hispanic solidarity, Pan-African solidarity, Secession, Slavery, Human trafficking, Torture, Genocide, Social Security, Pensions / Security, Vegetarianism, War, Water Crisis, World Government, and more.

Located in the "heart of the New River Valley" near the scenic Blue Ridge Mountains of Southwestern Virginia, Radford University offers the perfect blend of serenity, community atmosphere, competitive rates and high-tech facilities. Adjacent to campus, and bordered by the New River, the Dedmon Center complex houses a variety of recreational amenities, including a natatorium, a jogging track / bike trail that runs along the New River through multiple parks, five racquetball courts, a weight-training and fitness room, and outdoor walking / jogging trails, tennis courts and sports fields. Radford University's Selu Conservancy, located just a few minutes from campus on 380 acres along the Little River, provides beautiful views, abundant trails, including the Native Grassland Wildlife Trail, which traverses three types of habitat: prairie (also called meadow), edge and oak-hickory forest; retreat center and a river-front boathouse and canoes for rental.

On-campus residence halls are centrally located near the meeting and dining facilities.  Linen service is included with air-conditioned residence halls and is available for an additional fee of $6.83 in the non-air conditioned residence halls.  Air-conditioned, single double rooms are available at $26.09 per night, and single rooms at $36.08 per night. Non-air-conditioned double rooms are available at $16.10 per night and single rooms at $24.98 per night. Vending machines, kitchens, and laundry facilities are available in each residence hall for your convenience.  

One and two bedroom furnished apartments, with cable TV, are available for special guests.  

The campus cafeteria will be open for breakfast from 7:00 am - 9:00 am, lunch from 11:30 am - 2:30 pm, and dinner from 4:00 pm - 7:00 pm.

Radford is just 36 miles southwest of Roanoke and within easy driving distance of many mid-East Coast metropolitan areas.  Richmond is only a three and a half-hour drive, while Washington DC and the Tidewater area are only four to five hours away.

Transportation by car - From Interstate 81, exit 109 onto US Route 177 North.  Follow Route 177 which becomes Tyler Ave.  Turn right onto Main Street at the end of Tyler Ave.  A large University sign marks the main entrance on your right at the second stop light.

A detailed map of Radford University is available at http://www.radford.edu/~conf-serv/

The World Prout Assembly will make every effort to provide reasonable accommodations to presenters and attendees with disabilities. Please indicate your need for accommodations on the registration form. We must receive requests for accommodations by April 15, 2008.

February 1, 2008 - Accept and decline notifications will be sent via email.

April 15, 2008 - Conference attendees with disabilities should request accommodations by this date; requests may be made on the conference registration form.

Additional deadlines will be listed here as they become available.

The World Prout Assembly especially encourages complete panel/session submissions. Note that full panels must include at least three presenters with complete contact information and affiliation for ALL panel participants as well as a non-presenting moderator, who will be charged with introducing speakers, keeping time, and coordinating discussion. Moderators will be listed in the conference program and must register for the conference. WPA will assist with assigning moderators for individual proposals.

Proposals for poster sessions are also invited. Selecting this option increases the likelihood of acceptance.

WPA requests that all speakers, panelists and presenters provide a one-page synopsis of their presented material along with their proposal, which can later be distributed to participants and posted on the WPA Conference website.

WPA has a variety of formats for examining and presenting the conference themes: panel sessions, paper sessions, poster sessions, performances, workshops and roundtables.

Panels provide an opportunity for examining specific problems or topics from a variety of perspectives given that they include 3-5 participants. Panels may present alternative solutions, interpretations, or contrasting points of view on a specified subject or in relation to a common theme. Panel members are expected to prepare papers addressing central questions described in the proposal. WPA especially encourages prospective participants to network and find colleagues with whom to develop complete panel sessions.

Paper proposals are typically submitted individually and arranged into sessions by the Proposal Review Committee. In paper sessions, authors present 10-12 minute papers followed by audience discussion. A typical structure with four papers allows approximately 5 minutes for the moderator to introduce the session, 10 minutes for each presenter, and 30 minutes for discussion.

Creative Writing Series announces a call for submissions to WPA's First Summit of the World Prout Assembly in Radford, Virginia. Sessions in the series run concurrently with conference panels and papers and are a supportive and lively venue for presenting creative work. The Creative Writing Series Committee is especially interested in receiving manuscripts that address the conference theme of Building a New World: Moving Past Nation and Empire Towards New Local and Global Paradigms, but other themes/topics will be considered as well. We look forward to making space for writing which expresses ideals related to pressing political, cultural and social issues in poetry, fiction, non-fiction, dramatic monologue, and experimental creative writing.

Submit creative works using the online proposal form. Provide a 50-100 word abstract or description of your work and in place of the proposal description, submit no more than 10 double-spaced pages of sample work in any genre.

Film Series - The WPA Film Series announces a call for submissions to the First Summit of the World Prout Assembly 2008 in Radford, Virginia. The two-day Film Series runs concurrently with the panels and papers and is a supportive and lively venue for screening films and videos. WPA is interested in receiving work that responds to the conference themes of (1) Resisting hegemonies and empire; (2) The politics of race in and across nations and regions; (3) After capitalism: solutions for new economic, political, agricultural and cultural paradigms.

Films will be accepted until January 1, 2008, and selections will be made by February 1, 2008. The films selected are then loaned to the WPA for projection during the conference and are returned to you by mid-July 2008. Films are projected as CD/VHS/DVD. The WPA Program Book carries (1) 75-100 word description of the film; (2) Name of the film producers/sponsors; and (3) Ordering information, including names, addresses, and websites of distributors. Videos should be submitted with a cover sheet to:

World Prout Assembly

7 Bordeaux Drive

Highland Heights, KY 41076

USA

Roundtables typically include a moderator and 4-6 presenters who make brief, informal remarks about a specific idea or project. It allows for extensive discussion and audience participation.

Poster sessions are an efficient format given their informal nature and their networking potential. Therefore we will provide ample space for poster sessions and encourage prospective participants to consider this option. Poster sessions present research or analysis on a topic by combining graphics and text on a 4' x 8' board. The poster session presenter is available during an assigned session time in order to interact on a one-to-one basis with the attendees viewing the poster. A well-planned poster communicates its message in a visually and textually powerful way, allowing the attendee to grasp the information quickly.

Workshops provide an opportunity to exchange information or work on a common problem, project or shared interest. Workshops are typically experientially oriented and include brief presentations that allow adequate time for reflective discussion and interaction.

Note: All panel proposals must include complete contact information for participants, plus a non-presenting moderator. Incomplete panels with less than three participants will not be considered for review. Workshops and roundtable proposals that feature multiple participants must include all participants' names and contact information at the time of proposal submission. One-person workshops will also be considered.

Abstracts for all proposals should be 50-100 words. Abstracts explain to potential attendees the topic, foci and/or goals of the presentation or reading in a clear and succinct manner in the conference program book. Abstracts may be revised or edited for the printed program.

One to two-page proposal descriptions (250-500 words) will serve as the basis for evaluation by the Proposal Review Committee and thus should include some or all of the following as appropriate: (1) Objective or purpose of the paper, panel, workshop, etc. (2) Perspective and/or theoretical framework and/or references to relevant, specific texts, authors, or research, or on-going debates in related fields; (3) Results and/or conclusions and point of view; (4) Relevance to the conference theme; (5) Discussion of how the session will be structured. Proposal descriptions will assist proposal reviewers with evaluating the appropriateness of the session or paper for inclusion in the conference program. Abstracts and proposal descriptions may not exceed the word limits given above.

All conference proposals will be reviewed anonymously (without author identification). Depending upon the format and type of scholarly work being proposed, the appropriate criteria from among the following will be used to evaluate the proposals: (1) topic (originality, choice of problem, importance of issues, relevance to conference theme); (2) quality, appropriateness and relevance of frameworks or theoretical perspective; (3) balance of topic areas, levels of expertise, institutional locations; (4) written proposal (quality of writing, clarity, logic, organization); (5) audience appeal (member appeal, journal article quality); (6) format (appropriateness of format to content, issues or themes); (7) opportunities for interaction (opportunities for contributions from audience or exchange of multiple perspectives).

WPA will send accept/decline notifications by February 1, 2008 for all prospective participants in the conference.

Submission of a proposal represents a commitment by all presenters to register for the First Summit of the World Prout Assembly, which includes payment of the registration fee. Your proposal will not be officially accepted unless you are registered for the conference by March 15, 2008.