Call for Papers
sx salon: a small axe literary platform invites essays and creative pieces for a special discussion section on the work of Lorna Goodison.
Key dates:
Continue reading The Grace Songs and Wicked Force of Lorna Goodison
On the Work of Rinaldo Walcott
Special issue of TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies, Spring 2025
Edited by Ronald Cummings (McMaster University) and Nalini Mohabir (Concordia University)
Full papers due by 1 September 2024
CALL FOR PAPERS:
This special issue of TOPIA invites essays and reflections on the work of Rinaldo Walcott. Since the 1990s, Walcott has been a major voice in contemporary critical theory. His interventions however have never been confined to academic writing. He has been a public scholar and vocal commentator on a range of topics, including Black and Queer life; the neoliberal university; the social and cultural landscape of Toronto; the politics of diaspora; Canadian politics and policies; Black-Indigenous relations; the problem of nation; border violence, and the list continues. He is currently the Carl V. Granger Chair in Africana and American Studies at the University at Buffalo, where he continues to mentor new generations of critical scholars. His output over the past decades has been prolific. However, at the heart of his concerns remains the centrality of Black life for understanding contemporary world making. He is the author of over a hundred publications, we highlight some of his books below. Continue reading Special issue of TOPIA: On the Work of Rinaldo Walcott
Conference Call for Papers
Austin Clarke, Black Studies and Black Diasporic Memory
26-27 September 2024
Toronto, Canada
Abstracts due: 15 July 2024
Notification of decisions: by 15 August 2024
Co-organizers: Ronald Cummings (McMaster University), Darcy Ballantyne (Toronto Metropolitan University),
Keynote Speaker: Rinaldo Walcott, Professor and Chair in Africana and American Studies, University at Buffalo
Continue reading Austin Clarke, Black Studies and Black Diasporic Memory
What: 42nd Annual Conference on West Indian Literature
When: 9-12 October 2024
Where: University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago
Abstracts: 300 words or less due by 31 May 2024
Conference Theme: “Making Us Better Than We Think We Could Be”?: Alternative Identities and Technologies
From the organizers:
Our theme this year acknowledges Professor Edward Baugh’s legacy. Through his creative work and scholarship spanning over fifty years he gave us opportunities to reflect upon ourselves as Caribbean people, and he provided a testament to our resilience and spirit. The quotation in the conference title is from his poem “It was the Singing” beloved for its authentic Caribbean voice and for a cadence that lifts readers and fills them with a sense of security and promise. His work demonstrates his lifelong commitment to “making us better than we think we could be.”
The promise conveyed in the poem is also implied in the sub-theme, “Alternative Identities and Technologies,” which anticipates the transformation we seek—transformation that reflects the protean nature of Caribbean identity. Today, global interchange and exchange encourage a continual reassessment of our place in the world and of ourselves in our own space. Contentious global issues such as immigration, populism, nationalism, inclusivity, our relationship with the environment, sexual citizenship, comprehensive sexuality education, social justice, indigenous peoples’ rights and human rights generally, resonate with us in the Caribbean and across the Caribbean diaspora. In addition, within these places / spaces, the literary output and scholarly criticism addressing LGBTQIA+ themes; societal issues, policies and debates surrounding gender diversity; and the inclusion of non-binary / non-gendered / gender neutral pronouns in affirming one’s gender identity are examples which reflect our changing and widening views in the Caribbean, although liberal and alternative views are variously rejected, accepted, or tolerated because of our heterogeneity.
The defining and shaping of Caribbean identities are further influenced by the opportunities for their metamorphoses presented by existing and emerging technologies. The evolution of Caribbean identities gestates between the algorithmic codes and frequencies that breathe life into digital communities, virtual assistants, artificial intelligence software, virtual reality, and brain-computer interfaces within the current technoscape. However, for as many ways that these technologies offer the means for creating and (re)inventing positive alternative identities, there are just as many ways that algorithmic biases and digital exclusions contour and create alternative identities that can be viewed as technological Othering. Therefore, engaging the questions embedded in this year’s conference theme involves not only considering the positive ways in which technology can enable the creation and proliferation of Caribbean identities, but also the necessary measures that need to be considered to ensure that possibilities for alternative identities are not detrimental to their present manifestations.
As we engage in this annual conference which is now beyond its fortieth year, we explore to what extent we have become better. The Baugh quote allows for us to consider the varied and continued means by and ways in which we continue to transform our existence as Caribbean and diasporan peoples.
The conference invites papers that include but are not limited to topics such as:
Presentations may be in any of the formats listed below.
We welcome presentations from scholars and practitioners who are involved or interested in research, discussions or activities that reflect these and other topics.
Please submit an abstract of not more than 250 words and a short profile (approximately 150 words). Identify the topic and presentation type, and include information on resources that would be required.
Deadlines:
May 31st, 2024 Deadline for submission of abstracts
June 15th, 2024 Deadline for notification of acceptance
Submissions should be sent to: Conference Email: WILitConf42@sta.uwi.edu Enquiries should be sent to: Dr Geraldine Skeete Geraldine.Skeete@sta.uwi.edu and/or Dr Karen Sanderson Cole Karen.Sanderson-Cole@sta.uwi.edu Continue reading CFP: 42nd Annual Conference on West Indian Literature
Applications due: Monday, 1 April 2024
The Caribbean Digital (TCD) and Alice Yard invite applications for the annual virtual residency program for artists of the Caribbean and its diasporas who work in digital media. The residency aims to facilitate the development of new artworks in digital media that investigate ideas and practices in Caribbean Digital Humanities and engage with scholars in the TCD network and community. The residency is offered in conjunction with the annual Caribbean Digital (TCD) conference, an international event hosted annually at locations in the United States and the Caribbean since 2014, in partnership with Alice Yard, a contemporary art collective based at Granderson Lab in Belmont, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. This program, sponsored by the Mellon Foundation, offers a cash stipend to support research and creative work, curatorial mentorship, virtual studio visits, publication by a professional art writer to document artist’s work, and travel accommodations to present at the annual TCD conference in December 2024.
For more information, including the requirements for submission and application form, please see our Call for Applications here: https://thecaribbeandigital.org/residency/
The deadline for applications is Monday, 1 April 2024
The Caribbean Digital Scholarship Collective (CDSC) invites applications for their inaugural week-long residential digital humanities institute, to be held at the University of Miami in June 2023. The CDSC supports the growth and development of digital humanities scholarship, training, and infrastructure for the Caribbean and its diasporas. The Caribbean Digital Scholarship summer institute (CDSsi) will train scholars, at all levels, working at the intersections of Caribbean Studies and digital humanities. Thanks to a generous Mellon Foundation grant, the CDSC will be able to cover travel and accommodations for fellows selected for participation in the summer institute.
For more information, including the requirements for submission and application form, please see the Call for Applications.
Our deadline for applications is Tuesday, 31 January 2023 and there will be a virtual information session on Tuesday, 17 January 2023. Register for that information session here.
7 October 2022
10am-12pm
via Zoom
Register here
Panelists presenting papers:
Published by the University of the West Indies Press, New Political Culture in the Caribbean, co-edited by Holger Henke (Independent scholar) and Fred Reno (Universite des Antilles), is a completely new edition of their 2003 work Modern Political Culture in the Caribbean. In the book, the editors and authors revisit some of the themes in Caribbean political culture explored some eighteen years earlier. The quality of political discourse – in terms of its content and forms of presentation – has significantly shifted over the first decades of the twenty-first century, and the impact of social media and a concomitant rise of political fringe discourses have accelerated the fragmentation of the public and polity, leading to sharper confrontations in the political sphere and giving once again rise to crude forms of nationalism. There are also various stressors and pressures that run counter to simplistic notions of nationalism and point to a great urgency for more transparent, sustainable, participatory and equitable modalities of political engagement and discourses in the region.
Specific chapter titles and contributors can be found below:
Continue reading Book Announcement | New Political Culture in the Caribbean
On 11 April 2022, Dr. Faith Smith presented the The Annual Barbara Paul-Emile Lecture in English and Media Studies. The lecture was presented via Zoom and recorded. Below, Dr. Tzarina T. Prater, Associate Professor of English and Media Studies at Bentley University shares with us an introduction to the lecture as well as a link to a streamable recording of the lecture.
Continue reading Dr. Faith Smith gives the Annual Barbara Paul-Emile Lecture
May 11th, 2022
6 PM EDT
Available for viewing on Facebook or Youtube at the event start time.
As part of The Abyss of the Ocean, art critic Tatiana Flores and artist Juana Valdés, will discuss their recent projects and exhinitions and discuss issues of race and Latinidad within the categories Cuban, Latin American and Latinx Art.
Further information below.
Continue reading Event | Visualizing Racial Complexity w/ Tatiana Flores and Juana Valdés
April 11th, 2022
12PM EDT
Register here.
As part of the digital exhibition, The Abyss of the Ocean, curators Suset Sánchez and Aldeide Delgado will discuss a history of institutional and independent exhibitions that address the problem of race and racism in Cuba.
More information can be found below.
Continue reading Event | Curators in Conversation: Suset Sánchez and Aldeide Delgado
A digital exhibition, guest curated by Aldeide Delgado, is now live. The Abyss of the Ocean focuses on identity and resistance through the practices of five artists living and working in the United States, Mexico, and Spain.
The exhibit can be viewed here.
More information can be found below.
Continue reading Event | The Abyss of the Ocean: Cuban Women Photographers, Migrations and the Question of Race
The Future of West Indian Literature
40th West Indian Literature Conference and
11th Critical Caribbean Symposium
University of The Bahamas Nassau, The Bahamas
13th-15th October 2022
CFP: Abstracts due 16 May 2022 (extended deadline)
Notification of decision: 30 May 2022
The Future of West Indian Literature, Creative Practices, Culture, and Criticism is in flux as the Caribbean region faces new and old burdens and challenges. It is imperative that we consider how we address impending crises that include climate change and its impacts on the region, public health crises, cultural commodification in the global marketplace, Caribbean literary criticism and its metropoles, regional publishing, creative cultural studies, and the literary imagination. As Caribbean futures continue to be yoked to tourism and extractive and consumptive practices, the political and social needs of local residents are overlooked, often in favor of tending to visitors. How do literary scholars, West Indian writers at home and in the diaspora, tackle these realities through the critical discourses in the field? How might academic institutions engage more fully in these conversations and provide innovative interventions that benefit local economies, intellectual communities, and cultural production? These are some of the questions we will consider when we meet next in the Bahamas.
This will be a hybrid conference and proposers are encouraged to state which modality they would prefer. The abstract should state whether the presentation will be virtual or in-person. The conference organizing committee encourages submissions from literary scholars and critics, and from all sectors of the creative community. The proposal accompanying each paper/abstract should indicate how the work fits within one of the following thematic threads: Continue reading CFP: The Future of West Indian Literature
Intellectual Publics and Centro presents Trouillot Remixed, a virtual conversation moderated by Yarimar Bonilla on the occasion of the publishing of Trouillot Remixed: The Michel-Rolph Trouillot Reader.
Vincent Brown, Marlene Daut, and Rinaldo Walcott will discuss the late Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s ideas about history and power and his impact on public scholarship, and especially on Black Studies.
February 7th, 2022
6:30pm–8:00pm EST
Further information can be found here.
Register for the event here.
The Association of Caribbean Women Writers and Scholars Presents: A Talk with Haitian Writer and Scholar Beaudelaine Pierre featuring her new book, You May Have the Suitcase Now.
January 26th, 2022
6pm EST
Broadcast on the ACWWS Youtube Channel: Talk Di Tings.
Continue reading Event | A Talk With Haitian Writer & Scholar Beaudelaine Pierre
