The 35th Annual Hawaii Sociological Association Conference
University of Hawaii at Manoa, Campus Center

February 15, 2014

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Conference Theme: Pursuing Social Justice: Examining the Intersections of Race, Class, Gender, and Nation.

 

Adams, Bell and Griffin (1997) define social justice as both a process and a goal. "The goal of social justice education is full and equal participation of all groups in a society that is mutually shaped to meet their needs. Social justice includes a vision of society that is equitable and all members are physically and psychologically safe and secure."  Hawaii's unique socio-demographic environment and colonial history creates a social laboratory to examine the inter-sectionalities of race, class, gender, and nation.  While the concept of intersectionalities has been in use for several decades in numerous disciplines, societies are fluid entities that continue to change, as do their conceptions of and activities in pursuit of a just society.  In 2014, indigeneity, immigration, and identity are projects where analysis REQUIRES simultaneously understanding issues of power and inequality, and how they are implicated in the production of knowledge.

 

 

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Amy Wilkins, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Colorado-Boulder. The title of her keynote address was Becoming Black Women: Intimate Stories and Intersectional Identities. 

Dr. Wilkins also spoke at the Research Friday Workshop, hosted by the Sociology Department at University of Hawaii at Manoa.  The title of her talk was Race, Gender, and Identity Dilemmas in the Transition to College: Bringing Age In.