On May 7-8, 2021, Ohio State’s East Asian Studies Center (EASC), Center for Latin American Studies, Center for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies, and Department of Political Science partnered to host "Worlds in Contention: Race, Neoliberalism, & Injustice." The virtual conference brought together an interdisciplinary body of scholars with expertise on capitalism and neoliberalism around the world, with special emphasis on how these systems affect and are challenged by racialized groups. 

Through funding from their Title VI grants from the U.S. Department of Education, the three Area Studies Centers awarded the faculty organizers, Profs. Benjamin McKean and Ines Valdes of the Department of Political Science, an OIA Area Studies Center Conference Grant. The funds sponsored honoraria for guest experts to speak on topics related to the conference theme in each of their respective regions. EASC supported the following guest speakers:

• Charmaine Chua, “The Logistics Counter-revolution: Decolonial Struggle along the Transpacific Supply Chain”
• Megan Ming Francis, “The Crimes of Freedom”
• Hyun Ok Park, “The Desire for the Real: Disaster, Capitalism, and Fascism”
• Quinn Slobodian, “Apocalypse Economics: Moneydeath and Racial Purity on the Far Right”

(Abstracts for these talks, as well as those sponsored by the Center for Latin American Studies and the Center for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies, can be found here).

The Area Studies Centers also supported Ohio State graduate students through a conference fellowship program. The selected graduate students who attended the conference wrote short reflections connecting the work of the guest speakers and relating the conference content to their own research agendas. Reflections relating to East Asia include:

• "Migrants Workers and the Art of Resistance" By Jenn Marie Nunes
• "Materiality of Phenomena" By Dominic Pfister
• "Neoliberalism and the Aftershocks of Natural Disasters" By Hannah Slater
• "New Battlefields: How Do Bodies Negotiate Between States and Corporations in Neoliberalism" By Menghang Wu

(Read more graduate student reflections sponsored by the OSU Area Studies Centers here.)