Call for Papers: Re-Memory/Remembering: Indian Women in Caribbean Colonies

Deadline: 300 word abstract by 21 March 2014

Send to Mayuri Deka: mayurideka.deka@cob.edu.bs and Alison Klein: alisonjlklein@gmail.com.

Although Kemla Persad-Bissessar, a woman of Indian descent, was recently elected Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, the role of Indian women in Caribbean history remains largely invisible. However, the last decade has seen a dramatic increase of writers such as Ramabai Espinet, Peggy Mohan, and Gauitra Bahadur pushing against this invisibility. These authors imagine the experiences of the thousands of Indian women who labored under indenture on British plantations in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, often structuring their stories by overlapping events from the present with memories of the past.

The panel invites papers that examine depictions of Indian women in the indenture period of the Caribbean, considering the ways these texts bring the lives of these women back into public memory. They are especially interested in papers that explore the ways these women negotiated constricting gender roles and life in a new country to construct a sense of home.

 

Message adapted from email.