Author: Kelly Baker Josephs

Legacies of Aimé Césaire

“The Work of Man Has Only Just Begun”
A two-day event and online resource to explore the “Legacies of Aimé Césaire”

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The Researchathon – Thursday, 5 December 10AM-5PM (detailed explanation available here)
Studio@Butler
Butler Library 208
Columbia University
New York, NY

The Forum – Friday, 6 December 10AM-5PM (full schedule below)
Maison Française
Buell Hall
Columbia University
New York, NY

From the event organizers:

Poet, statesman, and singular voice of the anti-colonial movements of the 20th century, Aimé Césaire continues to influence contemporary discussions of ethics and aesthetics, politics and history in this precariously postcolonial world. In an effort to contribute to Césaire’s living legacy, we have organized an online forum http://cesairelegacies.cdrs.columbia.edu in which four pairs of scholars, from a variety of disciplines, offer reflections along four different critical paths. Our aim is to think Césaire outside and beyond the usual frames, to generate provocative new ways of imagining possible Césairean futures at the close of his centenary year. We hope that you will not only join in our discussion, but also participate in our two-day event—a researchathon followed by a public forum—to be held in NYC on December 5 and 6. We hope, above all, that you will agree with Césaire that the work of man has only just begun.

Forum Schedule for Friday, 6 December Continue reading Legacies of Aimé Césaire

Caribbean Entanglements: Culture(s) and Nature Revisited

CFP deadlines: Abstracts due 15 February 2014; papers due 30 July 2014.

The editors of the forum for inter-american research (fiar) invite scholars to send articles (in English and Spanish) for a special issue of fiar: The Journal of the International Association of Inter-American Studies (IAS)—‘Caribbean Entanglements. Culture(s) and Nature Revisited.’ The deadline for abstracts is February 15, 2014.

Scholars of various disciplinary backgrounds are interested in understanding contemporary and historical effects and interrelations due to multiple culture-nature connections. However, studies on the theme remain often within the disciplinary boundaries. Therefore,  in this special issue of fiar we will focus on the diverse approaches and debates dealing with entanglements of culture(s) and nature in a dialogical and critical fashion. Continue reading Caribbean Entanglements: Culture(s) and Nature Revisited

Imagining Diaspora in the Shadow of U.S. Empire

African Diasporas: Old and New Conference
University of Texas at Austin
April 3-6, 2014

Panel CFP. Deadline: abstracts due 22 November 2013.

W.E.B. DuBois famously said that he didn’t give a damn for any art that was not propaganda. Just as famously James Baldwin denigrated what he considered the stock characters of the protest novel. Perceptions of propaganda and protest are in and of themselves ideological lenses that may sharpen, distort, or render invisible the range of rhetorical and imaginative strategies manipulated to inform diasporic identities. Identifying “new” formulations of diaspora at specific historical junctures means redefining the terms of social and political engagement. Through an examination of rhetorical and literary strategies in a variety of media and through a variety of discourses this panel seeks to understand how subjects imagine and enact diasporic communities in the midst of U.S. territorial occupations. We take as a point of departure the “new” diaspora created through primarily military invasions in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries beyond the contiguous U.S., with a particular focus on the Caribbean and Latin America.

Proposals should include a 250-word abstract and title, as well as the author’s name, address, telephone number, email address, and institutional affiliation.

Send all proposals to Kimberly J. Banks at [email protected] by 22 November 2013.

CFP adapted from email from panel organizer. Contact Kimberly J. Banks for further information.

Currents of the Black Atlantic

13-14 March 2014
The Graduate Center, CUNY
365 Fifth Ave
New York, NY

Opening Keynote: David Scott, Columbia University

Closing Keynote: Sibylle Fischer, New York University

CFP deadline: Abstracts of 300 words or less electronically to [email protected] by 31 December 2013.

Two decades since its publication, Paul Gilroy’s The Black Atlantic (1993) united conversations about race, place, diaspora, and slavery within the Atlantic world. This interdisciplinary conference takes as its point of departure Gilroy’s ethos of looking outside of and challenging established categories (such as those determined by nationalist modes of thought). In the spirit of thinking both with and beyond the Black Atlantic paradigm this conference seeks to create a space for scholars to negotiate its theoretical limits while gesturing towards alternative frames and futures for the Black Atlantic. This interdisciplinary conference revisits the roots and routes, the genealogies and the futures, of The Black Atlantic.

This conference invites critical and methodological conversations among students and faculty who have been theorizing ways that rethink diaspora, transatlantic cultures, race, historiographies, and notions of “modernity.” This conference aims to bring together scholars across disciplines and bridge conversations that will shift the grounds, directions, and temporalities of the Black Atlantic.

Potential topics may include, but are not limited to:

  • Memory, Subjectivity, and the Black Diaspora
  • Remapping the Spatiotemporalities of the Black Atlantic
  • Early Modern Atlantic Crossings and Early Transatlantic Exchanges
  • Engenderings and Queerings of the Black Atlantic
  • Sounds and Music of the Middle Passage
  • Transatlantic Affective Economies
  • Black Atlantic Matter(s): Things and Objects of the Middle Passage
  • Ethics, Archives, and Historiographies of the Black Atlantic
  • The Black Pacific; Intersections of Race and Labor
  • Latin American and/or Caribbean Studies and the Black Atlantic

This is the annual conference of the English Student Association at the CUNY Graduate Center. Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words, along with a 3-5 line bio, contact information, and a/v requests to [email protected]. Additionally, feel free to submit abstracts as a fully formed panels and/or roundtables. We also welcome suggestions for non-traditional conference presentations. The deadline for abstracts and other proposals is December 31st, 2013. Participants will be notified by the end of January.

The above was adapted from the circulated CFP. For more information, visit the conference website.

Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture

The South Asian Women’s Creative Collective and the Asian American Writers’ Workshop present a celebration of Gaiutra Bahadur‘s book Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture (U of Chicago Press 2013).

Event details:

Saturday, 16 November
5-7pm
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
110-112 West 27th Street, Suite 600
New York, NY 10001

From the event announcement on the aaww site:

Guyanese are the second largest immigrant group in Queens and among the five largest in New York City, and their story of coming to America is tightly braided with their ancestral story of leaving India. In Coolie Woman, Bahadur pursues her great-grandmother’s story of indentured servitude in Guyana and recovers the lost voices and buried histories of other indentured women, whose passages were both transgressive acts of reinvention and unsuspecting exile.

Bahadur tells their story in a book that author Junot Diaz calls “an astonishing document… both a historical rescue mission and a profound meditation on family and womanhood.” Join as as we celebrate the publication of Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture in a multimedia evening of text, image, and song.

Read an excerpt from Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture here.

Cesaire Centennial at CUNY Graduate Center

On 22 November there will be two events at the CUNY Graduate Center commemorating Aimé Césaire’s Centennial.

1:00pm in Room C203

Heare Now Aimé Césaire!
Gary Wilder

Join Gary Wilder as he explores Aimé Césaire’s distinctive critical orientation to politics, culture, and knowledge during the period of decolonization as he pursued projects that were at once situated and world-historical, realist and utopian, pragmatic and aesthetic, timely and untimely.

3:00pm in Room 5409

Roundtable talk on Aimé Césaire’s Centennial
Barbara Webb
Christopher Winks

The Postcolonial Studies Group Colloquium Series hosts a roundtable discussion of Césaire’s Centennial, led by remarks from Christopher Winks (Queens College) and Barbara Webb (The Graduate Center and Hunter College).

 

Women of African Descent and Justice in World Societies

CALL FOR BOOK CHAPTERS

CFP deadline: Abstracts due 30 November 2013, electronically to [email protected]; Notification of acceptance: December 21, 2013; full essays due 1 January 2014.

Editors:
Katherine Bankole-Medina, Ph.D., History
Abena Lewis-Mhoon, Ph.D., History
Stephanie Yarbough, ABD, Africana Studies

From the CFP:

Women of African descent (Africana, African, Black, and Afro-…) have a long history of seeking, theorizing, and ensuring justice in the world.

While Black women have experienced various forms racial, gender, social and political struggles, they have responded to a wealth of issues involving social justice, civil rights, human rights abuses, and equal rights. This project encompasses a range of issues associated with Africana women’s attempts to come to terms with justice within variety of venues. Continue reading Women of African Descent and Justice in World Societies

An AfroCuban Journey

An AfroCuban Journey From the Literary Camp to Social Activism: A Conversation with Roberto Zurbano

Wednesday, October 30th, 2013, 6:00 p.m
King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center (KJCC) Auditorium
53 Washington Square South
New York University, New York NY 10012

Join the afrolatin@ forum and co-sponsors for a public conversation with Roberto Zurbano about his journey towards social activism.

Roberto Zurbano is the Fall 2013 Scholar/Writer in residence of the Connecticut College Center for Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity. Zurbano’s career began in the field of literary criticism and from there he went on to support the Cuban Hip Hop movement and proceeded to his current focus, antiracists social activism in Cuba. Zurbano informs us that “…new paths are now opened for Cuban society, but that these do not open on their own and a new active force is the phenomena with which Blacks in Cuba defend their right to a place in society, one free of marginalization and racism.” Continue reading An AfroCuban Journey

The Question of Africa

The Question of Africa

8 November 2013, 4pm
CUNY Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue
Sociology Lounge – 6112

Inaugural event in the “Question of Africa” Series from the Institute for Research on the African Diaspora in the Americas & the Caribbean (IRADAC). The series will feature new writing from within the Diaspora. This event celebrates the publication of three new books in African American and African Diaspora Studies by members of the CUNY Community:

Professors Gray, Josephs, and Schmidt will present selections from their works. A reception will follow.

For more information, see the IRADAC announcement here.

Race and Nation in the Age of Emancipations

A Symposium on the Atlantic World
February 21-22, 2014
Rice University, Houston, Texas

CFP deadline: Abstracts (300 words) due 1 November 2013 via email to [email protected] (snail mail option below)

Of note: Presented papers will be considered for publication in an anthology from a major university press. A limited amount of funding for travel may be available for those unable to obtain funding from their own institution.

The Department of History at Rice University invites proposals for a special conference and anthology exploring the complicated relationship between race, citizenship, and national identity during the era of emancipations. Historians working within the framework of Atlantic History have reoriented our understandings of the past away from the nation-state and towards an Atlantic, hemispheric, continental, or global approach. Without such movement away from a nationally-based framework, much of the innovative and enlightening scholarship on people of color in the Atlantic World would have been impossible. Yet by de-privileging the nation-state, historians have obscured the discussion of how nationality and citizenship figured into blacks’ conceptions of their own identities, as well as whites’ conceptions of people of color within the nation. Nationality, whether legal citizenship or cultural imagination, played an integral role in the formation of individual and group identity. By examining race, identity, and nation in particular contexts, this symposium will contribute to a better understanding of if, how, and why people of color throughout the Atlantic World came to understand themselves as citizens during the long nineteenth century.

The organizers welcome a wide variety of topics both individually and in completed panels.Successful proposals may:

  • Consider a range of topics relating to race, citizenship, and national identity.
  • Explore a single national context or those employing a transnational analysis
  • Span the era of emancipations, roughly from the Haitian Revolution through Brazilian abolition.

Proposals should include an abstract of approximately 300 words and a single page CV. Submissions from graduate students, junior and senior scholars are encouraged, as are those that draw on interdisciplinary methods. Additionally, presented papers will be considered for publication in an anthology from a major university press. A limited amount of funding for travel may be available for those unable to obtain funding from their own institution.

Proposals must be received by 1 November 2013, and should be sent by email to [email protected] or by post to Race and Nation Symposium; c/o Whitney Stewart; History Department – MS 42; Rice University; PO Box 1892; Houston, TX 77251-1892.

Above adapted from full CFP. For more information, go to http://raceandnation.wordpress.com/.

Sexing Empire

CFP for a special issue of Radical History Review #123

Abstract Deadline: 1 February 2014

Abstracts (300 words)  to be submitted electronically as an attachment to [email protected] with “Issue 123 submission” in the subject line.

Full paper deadline: 1 July 2014
From the CFP:

This special issue will contemplate empire as a global process involving sexualized subjects and objects. Contributions from across several disciplines will reconsider the history of sex and (or in) empire, critically engaging scholars’ recounting of those pasts in recent decades. From steam ships to steam rooms and sweat lodges to sweat shops, processes of pleasures and desire shaped the regulation and classification of bodies. On beaches, in boardrooms, from temples to taverns, sexual practices have always shaped imperial power relations. And in the many places and relationships where colonialism still shapes economics (slavery, debt peonage, underemployment, and their legacies), sex and sexuality remain a driving—if sometimes compounding or hidden—force in power relations. Continue reading Sexing Empire

Documentary Film Series – Jamaican Narratives

The Caribbean Cultural Theatre of New York City will present a series of films for Jamaica National Heritage Week on October 25 and 26.

This Documentary Film Series will bring together four narratives, their creators, and commentators in an exploration of the journey of the Jamaican nation from the military exploits of the Maroons, through Marcus Garvey’s international struggle for social justice, to the emergence of the contemporary spiritual and cultural phenomena of Rastafari.

All films will be shown at Medgar Evers College
1650 Bedford Avenue (corner Crown Street), Brooklyn, NY 11225

Bob Marley – The Making of a Legend
Fri, Oct 25 @ 7PM
Directed by Esther Anderson; Gian Godoy
Based on footage shot in the early 1970s that was missing for more than thirty years, Esther Anderson journeys to her youth to see and hear a young Bob Marley before he was famous.
Post screening discussion with jurnalist and Marley biographer, Chistopher John Farley.
Trailer

Marcus Garvey – A Giant in Black Politics
Sat., Oct. 26 @ 2PM
Directed by Mike Wallington
One of the most controversial figures in the twentieth century, the film traces the complex and multifaceted life that catapulted Garvey from organizing West Indian contract labor to the phenomenal status of the preeminent Black Nationalist pioneer.
Post screening discussion with Marcus Garvey’s son, Dr. Julius Garvey.

Akwantu: The Journey
Sat., Oct. 26 @ 4:30PM
Directed by Roy T. Anderson
The struggle for freedom of the Maroons inspires both immense admiration and derision. This personal investigation into heritage and military exploits against the most powerful army in the world in the 18th century to flee plantations and slave ships to gain political auto
Trailer

Bad Friday: Rastafari After Coral Gardens
Sat., Oct. 26 @ 7PM
Directed by John L. Jackson, Deborah A. Thomas; Junior “Gabu” Wedderburn
As a successor to the history of violence, within a year after gaining independence from Britain, the Jamaican government launched a military-style incursion on the Rasta community of western Jamaica.
Trailer

Above adapted from email announcement from the Caribbean Cultural Center. Contact [email protected] for more details.

Islands in the Mainstream – CFP

Kevin Browne, author of Tropic Tendencies: Rhetoric, Popular Culture, and the Anglophone Caribbean, seeks chapter proposals for an anthology project on Caribbean rhetoric currently titled: Islands in the Mainstream: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Caribbean Rhetoric

Deadlines: 30 Nov 2013 for proposals; 31 August 2014 for full papers.

Call for Papers

Proposals are sought from scholars, teachers, practitioners, and researchers in rhetoric, communication, literature, Caribbean studies, indigenous studies, diaspora studies, cultural studies, gender studies, and the visual and performing arts for contributions that explore aspects of Caribbean rhetorical expression from an interdisciplinary perspective. In particular, original essays are sought that will contribute to and fortify emerging work in the study of Caribbean rhetoric by envisioning the scope and dimension of what such work might entail. Such essays will engage, challenge, and move beyond the traditional perimeter of rhetorical analysis, encompassing the epistemic, pedagogical, and public work that occurs in a broad range of Caribbean texts: oral/aural, visual, scribal, tactile, digital, environmental, supernatural, etc.. Essays about the anglophone, francophone, and hispanophone Caribbean are strongly encouraged, though authors are asked to submit their proposals (and their essays, if accepted) in English, except in the case of specialized terms, phrases, and concepts (annotated accordingly).

The first of its kind to specifically consider the rhetoric of Caribbean cultural production from interdisciplinary perspectives, this collection will provide scholars, teachers, and students with innovative approaches for discussing the range of motives, histories, and social realities that necessitate inquiry and inclusion in rhetorical studies. Similarly, it will contribute to Caribbean studies and other disciplines represented in the volume by providing a dynamic set of robust rhetorical theories for reading Caribbean culture. In addition to defining theoretical parameters for reading Caribbean rhetoric and exploring areas of practice for further research, contributors will be encouraged to consider the pedagogical implications of their ideas. This can include developing curricula (introductory, intermediate, or advanced courses in rhetorical education among undergraduate writing majors, or courses that respond to particular writing-intensive programs, writing centers, or Writing Across the Curriculum), community literacy/publishing initiatives (ongoing or envisioned), or research studies (archival, ethnographic, qualitative, quantitative, etc.) on projects that engage students on matters of Caribbean import. Essays that are collaboratively authored by faculty and students and/or faculty and professionals are particularly welcome.

While the following list is not exhaustive, possible chapters may fall within these broad categories: Continue reading Islands in the Mainstream – CFP

Caribbean Writers at the Brooklyn Book Festival

Below are the panels featuring Caribbean writers at the Brooklyn Book Festival this Sunday, 22 September. Events are listed in chronological order, with location noted at the end of each description. Of special note is the “Bookend” event on Thursday, 19 September, 6pm at MoCADA. More information available at the Brooklyn Book Festival’s site.

**Bookend event**

Thursday, 19 September, 6:00 – 8:00 PM

The Best in Caribbean Literature.  Presented by Akashic Books, Bocas Lit Fest, MoCADA, and Caribbean Cultural Theatre. Featuring Robert Antoni (As Flies to Whatless Boys), Montague Kobbé (The Night of the Rambler), Oonya Kempadoo (All Decent Animals), Elsie Augustave (The Roving Tree), Barbara Jenkins (Sic Transit Wagon), Diana McCaulay (Huracan) and Ifeona Fulani (Ten Days in Jamaica).

MoCADA, 80 Hanson Place (btw. S. Portland & S. Elliott)

_________________

Festival events
Sunday, 22 September

10:00 A.M. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter: We love to talk about love: new love, old loves and—the worst kind of all—love interrupted. More than that, we love to read about love. Jess Row (The Train to Lo Wu),Colin Channer (Lover’s Rock), and J. Courtney Sullivan (The Engagements) bring us stories about the history of the diamond ring across America, the decline of a marriage in London, and the intimate lives of characters in Hong Kong. Moderated by Rachel Fershleiser.
BOROUGH HALL COMMUNITY ROOM (209 Joralemon Street)

11:00 A.M. Personal Stories, National Memory: Fiction can be as narrow or contained as a single consciousness, or open up and embody something intrinsic to an era or nation. Alexander Maksik (A Marker to Measure Drift), probes the shattered inner world of a Liberian war refugee; Colombian author Juan Gabriel Vásquez (The Sound of Things Falling) captures the dread and violence of his country’s drug war years, and Oonya Kempadoo (All Decent Animals) offers a polyrhythmic, panoramic view across contemporary Trinidadian society. Moderated by Anderson Tepper. Special thanks to the Colombian Film Festival New York.
BOROUGH HALL COMMUNITY ROOM (209 Joralemon Street)

11:00 A.M. Mommy Dearest: Some women would sacrifice anything to have a child. Others consider having a child a sacrifice in itself. The complications of adoption, of lost chances, and of the relationship between past and present are all held together by a mother’s instinct, or lack thereof. Jennifer Gilmore (The Mothers), Claire Messud (The Woman Upstairs), and Jamaica Kincaid (See Now Then) debate the different roles that motherhood plays in their latest novels.  Moderated by Harold Augenbraum, National Book Foundation.
ST. FRANCIS AUDITORIUM

12:00 P.M. Lessons Learned: We all like to think of what could have been. Christopher Beha (What Happened to Sophie Wilder), Paul Harding (Enon), and Robert Antoni (As Flies to Whatless Boys) discuss how their characters look to the past to find peace in the present, whether that means reconnecting with ex-lovers, facing the death of a loved one, or reflecting on decisions could have, should have, would have changed the world. Moderated by Erika Goldman.
BROOKLYN LAW SCHOOL STUDENT LOUNGE (250 Joralemon St.)

1:00 P.M. Storytelling: How Do We Tell Our Most Essential Stories?This discussion about narrative and the art of storytelling features a trio of voices from around the globe. With Antiguan-American writer Jamaica Kincaid (See Now Then), Guatemalan writer Eduardo Halfon (The Polish Boxer) and Nigerian writer Chinelo Okparanta (Happiness, Like Water). Moderated by Eric Banks.
BOROUGH HALL COMMUNITY ROOM (209 Joralemon Street)

2:00 P.M. Creating Dangerously in a Dangerous World: How do different forms—fiction, reportage, memoir and essay—capture different realities, especially when the principal subject is the trauma of war and violence? Join three authors whose work explores horrific visions from a variety of angles: Edwidge Danticat (Claire of the Sea Light), Courtney Angela Brkic (The First Rule of Swimming) and Dinaw Mengestu (How to Read the Air). Moderated by Bhakti Shringarpure, editor of Warscapes.
BOROUGH HALL COURTROOM (209 JORALEMON ST.)

3:00 P.M. Real People, Imagined Stories: These novels are so fascinating that it’s easy to forget they’re based on the lives of very real historical figures. Amy Brill (The Movement of Stars), Colum McCann(TransAtlantic), and Montague Kobbé (The Night of the Rambler) examine the lesser-known stories of the first female astronomer, a fifteen-hour revolution in Anguilla, and three generations of Irish women whose stories of hope and survival are played out against a century and a half of Irish-American history. Moderated by Jeffrey Lependorf (CLMP)
ST. FRANCIS AUDITORIUM

3:00 P.M. Rolling the Dice: These characters are doing some risky business. A woman leaves behind a life in New York City to return to Jamaica as an outsider. A man ditches an unfulfilling but innocent life of cab-driving to steal a Nigerian artifact. A woman terrorizes another woman’s wedding with a wedding dress, a gas mask, a shotgun and a bomb trigger. Okey Ndibe (Foreign Gods), Lisa Zeidner (Love Bomb), and Diana McCaulay (Huracan) discuss what drives us to risk everything—love, honor, or the greater good? Moderated by Jon Fine (Amazon).
ST. FRANCIS MCARDLE (180 Remsen Street)

3:30 P.M. Idols, Gods, and Kings: Literary forces Teddy Wayne (The Love Song of Jonny Valentine), Tom Wolfe (Back to Blood) and Cristina García (King of Cuba) explore the concept of power with three very different casts: an eleven-year-old superstar’s road to fame; the varied, shady folks running an election in Miami; and a fictionalized Fidel Castro and his vengeful exile. Moderated by Greg Cowles (The New York Times).
ST. ANN & THE HOLY TRINITY CHURCH (157 Montague Street)

5:00 P.M. Something to Hide: Writers Against the Surveillance State.  Recent leaks have revealed the breathtaking reach of the National Security Agency’s secret surveillance programs. Should writers and readers be concerned? Brooklyn Book Festival authors Edwidge Danticat,Francine Prose, Andre Aciman, and radio host Leonard Lopate join an NSA whistleblower, Tom Drake, and others for a reading to provoke reflection on the dangers surveillance poses to the freedom to think and create, and to celebrate the role writers have played in defying those dangers. Presented by PEN American Center, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the New York Civil Liberties Union)
ST. ANN & THE HOLY TRINITY CHURCH (157 Montague Street)

5:00 P.M. Visitors and Intruders: Talented writers A.X. Ahmad (The Caretaker), Jessica Hagedorn (Manila Noir) and Robert Antoni (As Flies to Whatless Boys) remind us of the thin line between visitor, intruder, and citizen in these tales about immigration, lost homelands, and, always, the power of location. Moderated by Karolina Waclawiak (The Believer).
BOROUGH HALL COURTROOM (209 JORALEMON ST.)