CFP: The Future of West Indian Literature

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:

    • The Independent Creative Economy (including but not limited to visual arts, design, sustainable food, virtual experiences/web 3.0 and film)
    • Imaging/Imagining the Green Economy in the Caribbean Region
    • LGBTQI Representation in Politics, the creative arts and culture
    • Writing/Righting the Calabash
    • Cultural and Literary Criticism: New Terrains of Exploration
    • Creative Practices and Productions in the Wake of (Neo)colonialism
    • Representing Trauma in Contemporary Literature and Art
    • Critical/Creative Praxis and the Problem of Pornotroping
    • Creative Art at the Crossroads of Social Justice and the Global Marketplace
    • Higher Education and the Creative/Critical Enterprise
    • Pedagogy in the Wake of Demographic and Democratic Shifts
    • Continental Shifts: The Changing Caribbean Literary and Cultural Landscapes
    • Digital Diasporas and New Knowledge Centers: Leveling the Field of Play in Publishing
    • Education in the virtual space/EdTec
    • Film legacies, black bodies on screen
    • Centre-metropole/periphery onshore/offshore dynamics in creative industries
    • All other topics related to West Indian Literature and Culture will be considered.

Abstract length should be 200-250 words
Deadline for abstract submission is 16 May 2022
Notification of decision on Abstract 30 May 2022
Submission of paper (this has not traditionally been a feature/requirement of previous conferences since the late 1990s, though it had been prior to that, but conference organizers hope to be able to work towards publishing some work from the conference) /art work is 31st August 2022

Submission Procedure:
Abstract should contain contact information (name, institutional affiliation, email, and mailing address) The abstract must be in English and submitted in Word format.

Please send abstracts/inquiries to westindianliterature2022@gmail.com

Conference registration rates:

      • Caribbean-based and virtual: $100
      • Student: $75
      • Non-Caribbean based: $150

Above based on emailed (updated) CFP.