Failed State?

Crisis and Renewal in California Politics and Culture

What are the roots of our crisis? What are its implications for Californians and the world? And what hope do we have for reforming our way out of it? Join us in Davis as we explore causes, consequences, and prospects for renewal.

California lurches through a severe global recession seemingly unable to address its emergency. Once a model of deliberative democracy, the state's various levels of government now work at cross purposes until the institutions barely function. State revenues are in such poor condition that the Golden State verges on inability to sell its bonds - - despite having the world's eighth largest economy. How did we get here? Might there be tools and materials for building a new future amidst the experiences, stories, and visions of our vast, cultural kaleidoscope? Can the state renowned for self-renewal renew itself?

Co-sponsored by Boom: A Journal of California, the California Studies Association, the New America Foundation, UC Consortium for California Studies, and the Davis Humanities Institute.

Space is limited, please RSVP here.

Agenda

8:30am - 10:00am "Constitutional Crisis: Remaking California & Reclaiming the Public Good."
Jeff Lustig, Dan Walters, Lenny Goldberg, and Jean Ross
8:30am - 10:00am "Regionalizing Politics and Power in California"
Frank J. Gruber, Juan D. De Lara, Ron Loveridge, and Terry O'Day
10:15am - 11:45am "Remapping California: Race, Place, and Community"
George Lipsitz, Clyde Woods, Francisco Fuentes, and Robin DeLugan
10:15am - 11:45am "Iconography from a Fallen State: A Filmmaker, Printmaker, and Journalist Take on Images of California"
Craig Baldwin, Bill Boyarsky, Tom Killion, Pauline Borsook
12:00pm - 1:00pm Lunch: "How to Fix a Broken State"
Mark Paul and Joe Mathews, authors of California Crackup
1:15pm - 2:45pm "Civil Rights in California: Education, Incarceration, Political Representation"
Charles McDonald, Daphne Kwok, and Kenneth Burt
1:15pm - 2:45pm "Reimagining California: Perspectives from the Embedded Arts"
Sara Wookey, Dick Hebdige, Matthias Gieger, Micha Cardenas, Kim Yasuda
3:00pm - 4:30pm Plenary Session: "Initiating Failure: Populist Governance and the Golden State"
Peter Schrag, Lisa Garcia-Bedolla, John Douglass, Daniel HoSang, Louis Warren
4:30pm - 5:30pm Keynote: "(re)Thinking California: Memory, Borders, and Place" Roberto Alvarez, Professor of Ethnic Studies and Director of California Cultures in Comparative Perspective at UC San Diego
5:30pmReception

Event Time and Location

Friday, April 16, 2010 - 8:30am - 7:00pm
The Lodge (near the Rec Pool), UC Davis
Peter J Shields Ave
Davis, CA 95616

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