Where: The University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida
When: October 8-11, 2025
Abstracts: 250-300 words, via online submission form
Proposals Due: April 2, 2025,

Call for Papers

The Time of the “Bruggadung”:
States of EmUrgency

‘but leh murder start an’ bruggalungdung/ yu cahn fine a man to hole up de side’ (Kamau Brathwaite)

Today, Caribbean societies and, by extension, Caribbean writers, reckon with crises that feel both new and cyclical. Increased volcanic activities, record-breaking hurricanes, droughts and heatwaves are only some of the environmental pressures we face. States of Emergency in response to political and social violence have become commonplace in Haiti, Trinidad and Jamaica. As a group of Caribbean critics, we have also had to reckon with the passing of a generation that helped to establish and define our field. In its broadest sense, this year’s Conference of West Indian Literature, convened around the theme, ‘The Time of the Bruggadung: States of EmUrgency,’ asks the simple question: what are Caribbean writers reckoning with today?

That almost comic word of Bajan creole, ‘bruggadung’, becomes something even larger than the onomatopoeic sound of a bang or commotion in the mytho-poetic world of Brathwaite. Instead, it becomes the sound of environmental disaster (“all uh know/ is that one day suddenly so/ this mountain leggo one brugg-a-lung-go” – “The Dust”), or else the sound of social and cultural disaster (“but leh murder start an’ bruggalungdung/ yu cahn fine a man to hole up de side.” – “Rites”), or even the sound of the collapse of Apartheid (‘bongo man a come/ bongo man a come/ bruggadung’ – “Soweto”). Always, the bruggadung signals a time of reckoning.

For this convening of the conference, we are particularly interested in papers that might approach the theme in a broad context. Critical considerations might include:

• • How have Caribbean writers and other cultural producers been engaged in ringing the warning bell to alert us of the impending social and environmental urgencies of the time?
  • To what extent has Caribbean literature historically grappled with the intersection of natural disasters and colonial legacies, and how have these narratives foreshadowed the Anthropocene’s emergence as a dominant paradigm?
  • How has a new generation of Caribbean writers understood and reimagined the emUrgencies of their own times? Moreover, how might we understand these generational differences and the new dialogues that may be required from its critics? 
  • In a world increasingly characterized by physical and ideological barriers, how might the expansive imaginative landscape of mytho-poetics foster cross-cultural understanding and solidarity in the face of various social, economic, and environmental challenges? 
  • Given the prominence of “resilience” discourse in disaster contexts, how have cultural producers challenged the prevailing narratives of trauma and immobility, offering alternative modes of representation that empower affected communities? 

While we expect the themes to give some direction to our proceedings, as the flagship conference for the study of Caribbean Literatures in English, we are open to proposals that engage a variety of literary topics across the French, Dutch, and Spanish Caribbean.  We are also interested in papers that participate in, challenge, and expand the fields, disciplines, and languages of Caribbean literature and culture broadly.

Please note that membership in WILC’s umbrella association WIACLALS (West Indian Association of Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies) is mandatory for presentation at the West Indian Literature Conference. If your proposal is accepted, you will need to confirm paid membership in WIACLALS within two weeks of acceptance. You may become a member here. Included in membership is a year’s subscription to the Journal of West Indian Literature. 

We welcome abstracts of 250-300 words in length. Abstracts should include name, academic affiliation, contact information, and short bios. Please submit using this form (requires Google sign-in): https://forms.gle/Y323Tj43Dkz2ZuY76 by April 2, 2025. We will send notification of acceptance by May 15, 2025.

Queries may be sent to [email protected].