Category: CFPs

Special issue: Intersections of Postcolonial studies and Indigenous studies

CFP: Special issue of Ariel: a Review of International English Literature, slated for publication in 2020
Due dates: 250-word abstracts due August 1, 2018; final articles due January 15, 2019.

Call for Papers

This special 50th anniversary issue of Ariel: a Review of International English Literature,  will unpack the tensions and interrelationships between postcolonial studies and Indigenous studies. When Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin published The Empire Writes Back (1989), the ensuing recognition of Canada and the United States as products of imperialism and colonization necessarily provoked questions about the people who preceded settlers. Indigenous literary studies became recognized as a necessary missing piece of those conversations. However, the vocabulary and approaches of postcolonial theory often failed to address–or even obstructed–questions that Indigenous literary scholars, particularly those with community obligations, needed to consider. Ariel’s 50th Anniversary Issue is an opportunity to reconsider the trajectory of discussions among Indigenous and postcolonial studies scholars and practitioners. At this historical juncture of increased visibility of issues concerning Indigenous rights, migration, displacement, and global imperialism among other pressing urgencies, now is the moment to return to these debates and recast the dialogue.

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The Caribbean Digital V

6th to 7th December 2018
University of the West Indies
St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago

CFP Deadline: 15 June 2018

Conference website: caribbeandigitalnyc.net

Beginning in 2014, The Caribbean Digital has sought to create a generative, multidisciplinary space within which to engage critically with the digital as practice and as historicized societal phenomenon, reflecting on the challenges and opportunities presented by the media technologies that evermore intensely reconfigure the social and geo-political contours of the Caribbean and its diasporas. We are thrilled, in the fifth iteration of this gathering, to site these conversations in the physical space of the region via our collaboration with Dr. Kevin Adonis Browne and the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine.

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37th Annual West Indian Literature Conference *Deadline Extended

3rd to 6th October 2018
Miami, Florida

CFP Deadline: 1 June 2018

This year’s conference recognizes the vast routes/roots that link the Caribbean to the hemisphere and the globe. As many writers and literary scholars have noted, the immense bodies of water that appear to isolate belie the currents that intimately connect, and at times, destroy shelter, lands, and peoples. Deploying Arjun Appadurai’s concept of “scapes” that work to enable the exchange of ideas and information, we hope to engage a breadth of issues relevant to Caribbeanists in the region and its diasporas. Throughout the conference our aim will be to explore the intersections between disciplinary approaches to problems that are borne out of the shifting tides of globalization and cultural expression.

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‘Seamed by its own bitter juice’: Voice, Visibility, Literacies – Diasporic Dialogues’ Conference

19th to 20th June 2018
London, UK

CFP Deadline: 20 April 2018

The Centre for Caribbean and Diaspora Studies (CCDS), in collaboration with the Eccles Centre at the British Library, is hosting its third ‘Diasporic Dialogues’ conference on 19th – 20th June, 2018. The conference will be held at the Knowledge Centre, British Library, London, UK. The deadline for panel and paper proposals is 20 April 2018.

Confirmed Keynote: Professor Robert F. Reid-Pharr, City University of New York

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Afro-Latinx Futures Series

The Afro-Latinx Futures series is committed to publishing scholarly monographs and edited collections that center Blackness and Afrolatinidad from a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives in the humanities and social sciences. Taking a hemispheric approach, we seek work that foregrounds the lives and contributions of Afro-Latinx peoples across Latin America, the Caribbean, and the diasporic U.S. and Canada. We welcome projects that introduce new historical figures and archival findings, focus on understudied regions and communities, establish innovative interdisciplinary frameworks, and challenge conventional canonical formations.


Belkis Ayón, “Sin título (Sikán con chivo)” 1993, collograph; Cuba.

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Modern Political Culture in the Caribbean

CFP Deadline: 30 September 2018

In their 2003 book Modern Political Culture in the Caribbean (University of the West Indies Press) Fred Reno and Holger Henke argued – along with various contributors – that political culture in the Caribbean was circumscribed by “a great complexity of social relations and the influence of such variables as race, ethnicity, migration and multi-faceted dependency (for example, of institutional mimicry, strategies of reproduction of metropolitan model by local elites, socio-economic conditions, popular culture) on politics.”  In this reader they then asked questions such as “What role do race, historical experience, ethnic fragmentation and economic conditions play?  How can civil society – and, thus, the people – come to play a greater role in the political process?”

Much has changed in the last fifteen years and new dimensions exerting palpable influence on the region’s and its various and diverse national units’ political life that warrant renewed attention and examination.  Henke and Reno are now tempted to argue that in this age of social media and instant access to information the very nature of civil society is experiencing profound changes.  At the same time, the rise of the notion of so-called fake news and the open questioning by many of the – for well-functioning democracies – critical role of the media, and of experts and watchdog institutions poses a severe challenge for the political culture of Caribbean states. Continue reading Modern Political Culture in the Caribbean

Haitian History Journal: Haiti and the Atlantic World/Revue d’histoire d’Haïti: Haïti et le Monde Atlantique

CFP Deadline: 1 May 2018

The Haitian History Journal: Haiti and the Atlantic World, published by the Centre International d’Information et de Documentation Haïtienne, Caraïbéenne et Afro-Canadienne (CIDIHCA) in Montreal, is devoted to the history of Haiti and the impact of Haiti`s history throughout the Atlantic region. It will be published once a year. The first issue, projected to appear in late summer/early fall of 2018, will highlight the most recent scholarly research on the Haitian Revolution and its broader impact in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Atlantic.

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19th Conference on Theology in the Caribbean Today

11th to 15th June 2018
Paramaribo, Suriname

CFP Deadline: 11 April 2018

In keeping with the theme of SURINAME 2018 “Laudato Si”: Caribbean Responses, the Conference on Theology in the Caribbean Today (CTCT) sends out this call for papers to theologians, pastors, pastoral workers, scholars, theology students, activists and other persons interested in exploring the relationship between theological reflection, religious activities and the everyday experience of Caribbean peoples.

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Caribbean Vistas Journal Volume 2.2 (Summer 2018)

CFP Deadline: 30 March 2018

Volume 2.2 (Summer 2018) will highlight the work of Caribbean Writers, Performance Artists, and Visual Artists working from Canada.

  • Critical essays on all aspects of Caribbean Writers [working from Canada] are welcomed entries.
  • Previously unpublished poetry and literary nonfiction from Caribbean artists [working from Canada] are welcomed entries.
  • Visual art images and video links to performances by Caribbean artists [working from Canada] accompanied by artistic statements also will be accepted for publication consideration.
  • Interviews with Caribbean Artists [working from Canada] will be considered as a special feature of Volume 2.2 (Summer 2018).

For consideration by the editorial board, abstracts of 100-200 words may be sent to the editor Dr. Emily Allen Williams at [email protected]. The deadline for abstracts is  March 30, 2018.

Important Note:  Volume 2.2 was to be published in Summer 2017. Due to geographical relocation by the editor, Caribbean Vistas 2.2 will be published in late Summer 2018. All persons who previously submitted and are still interested in publishing their work, please forward abstracts to Dr. Emily Allen Williams by March 30, 2018.

For further information on publication specifications, visit the online journal at https://caribbeanvistas.wordpress.com/

Above text adapted from webpage.

“The Unexpected Caribbean” Symposium

18th to 20th October 2018
Lawrence, Kansas

Application Deadline: 31 March 2018

In 1779, the first permanent resident of what was to become Chicago, IL was arrested by the British army, who suspected him of being an American sympathizer in the U.S. Revolutionary War. Jean Baptiste Point du Sable later moved to St. Charles, MO, where he died in 1818. While his home at the mouth of the Chicago River is now established as a National Historic Landmark, few people realize that this key figure in Midwestern history was of African descent, and likely of Haitian origin, arriving to the Upper Midwest through French Louisiana. He represents one of the most prominent examples of the “Unexpected Caribbean” in the Midwest, and in the greater United States.

Far from being exotic and isolated islands suitable only as tourist destinations or the site of natural disasters, epidemiological crises, and charity work, Caribbean societies have long been integral to U.S. history, economies, and cultural production (as well as the histories, economies, and cultures of England, France, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, and their territories and former colonies). The interplay between Caribbean cultures and people and the rest of the world reveals dynamic relationships and many instances of the Unexpected Caribbean—both within the Caribbean and outside its geographical borders.

The Association of Caribbean Women Writers & Scholars (ACWWS), partnering with KU’s Institute of Haitian Studies and Center of Latin American & Caribbean Studies, is planning a two-day interdisciplinary symposium and an educator workshop for regional teachers focusing on THE UNEXPECTED CARIBBEAN, to be held on the University of Kansas campus in October 2018.

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MOKO

CFP Deadline: 31 March 2018

Moko is a non-profit journal that publishes fiction, poetry, visual arts, and non-fiction essays that reflect a Caribbean heritage or experience. We were founded in 2013 with a goal to create networks with a Pan-Caribbean ethos in a way that is also sensitive to our location within the Virgin Islands. The journal embraces diversity of experience and self-expression, seeking submissions from both established and emerging writers, artists, and scholars.

Moko is pleased to announce a new special issue for Spring 2018 focusing on Carnival in all its forms edited by Trinidadian writer and editor Anu Lakhan.

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3rd Biennial International Dance Conference

Decolonizing Bodies: Engaging Performance

23rd to 26th May 2018
University of the West Indies
Cave Hill Campus, Barbados

CFP Deadline: 15 February 2018

The University of the West Indies Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination (EBCCI) invites proposals for papers; movement workshops; performances; site-specific works; academic posters; dance for the camera; theater, and multidisciplinary projects for the Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination 3rd Biennial International Dance Conference, May 23rd to 26th, 2018.

We welcome dance professionals, practitioners and scholars across disciplines from around the world whose research focuses on decolonization to contribute to dynamic discussions and cultural encounters on the topic: “Decolonizing Bodies: Engaging Performance”.

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Tepoztlán Institute 2018 Conference

Black Lives/Black Deaths: Disposession, Disappearance, and Enclosure/Vidas Negras y Muertes Negras: Dispojo, Desaparicion y Cercamiento

18th to 25th July 2018
Tepoztlán, Morelos, Mexico

CFP Deadline:  10 February 2018

The Tepoztlán Institute hosts an international bilingual conference that meets annually in the town of Tepoztlán, Morelos, Mexico, for a unique week of study and exchange around shared theoretical readings and participant works-in-progress. This summer, the Institute will run from 18 to 25 July. 

Summer of 2018 will mark our fourteenth year of bringing together scholars from across the hemisphere and from multiple disciplines around a general theme of interdisciplinary salience to the Americas. Our theme this coming summer is: Black Lives/Black Deaths: Disposession, Disappearance, and Enclosure/Vidas Negras y Muertes Negras: Dispojo, Desaparicion y Cercamiento

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