Brandeis University Postdoctoral Fellowship

BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY:  Postdoctoral Fellowship – Revolutionary Studies

Application deadline: 1 December 2012

Modified text from email announcement below:

Brandeis University has received a Mellon Foundation grant to host a
year-long Sawyer Seminar, “Rethinking the Age of Revolution: Rights,
Representation, and the Global Imaginary,” during the 2013-2014 academic
year. The seminar, which will draw faculty from around the region and doctoral
students from the Brandeis campus, explores the American, French, and Haitian
revolutions in comparative and interdisciplinary perspective, with a particular
eye on the implications of the age of revolution in the early twenty-first century. Continue reading Brandeis University Postdoctoral Fellowship

Postdoctoral Fellowship in Critical Caribbean Studies

Rutgers University
New Brunswick, NJ

Applications deadline: Friday, January 12, 2013

Critical Caribbean Studies at Rutgers, in collaboration with the Department of Latino and Hispanic Caribbean Studies is pleased to announce a one-year competitive postdoctoral fellowship for a scholar pursuing research in Caribbean Studies. Scholars working on comparative cultural studies especially the Dutch or the French Caribbean, with focus on transnationalism, migration and/or queer feminist studies are encouraged to apply, but we welcome applications from all scholars who feel that their work would benefit from affiliation with Rutgers. The selected fellow will receive a stipend of $65,000 as well as an annual research allocation of $3,000 and Rutgers University health benefits. The successful applicant must have the doctorate in hand at the time of application (defense date no later than May 31, 2013), be no more than three years beyond the Ph.D., and be able to teach one course during their tenure at Rutgers. Continue reading Postdoctoral Fellowship in Critical Caribbean Studies

Celebrating African American Literature conference

Celebrating African American Literature – US and Afro-Caribbean Poetry
Penn State University, October 25-26, 2013
Abstract deadline: March 1, 2013
Circulated CFP:
The organizers for the next Celebrating African American Literature Conference invite paper, panel, and roundtable proposals on various theoretical, critical, or pedagogical approaches to African American and Afro-Caribbean poetry.  We welcome proposals on specific authors and/or historical periods–from the earliest poetic writings through contemporary spoken word. Papers may engage formal, thematic, contextual, and other concerns and representational strategies. Continue reading Celebrating African American Literature conference

Inter-American Foundation (Doctoral) Fellowship Program

The Inter-American Foundation (IAF) Fellowship Program: Doctoral Fellowships

Deadline for application: January 22, 2013

From the IAF announcement:

The Inter-American Foundation (IAF) was created in 1969 by the United States Congress to fund the self-help initiatives of the organized poor in Latin America and the Caribbean and the groups that directly support them. To complement its work, the IAF fellowships provide support for Ph.D. candidates from United States universities to conduct dissertation research in Latin America and the Caribbean on topics related to grassroots development.

IAF’s Fellowships are intended to increase awareness of grassroots development efforts while building a community of professionals and scholars knowledgeable in the subject. Fellows examine the efforts of the rural and urban poor to improve their lives, their methods of organization and production, and the policies and programs designed to alleviate their poverty. Funding is for between four and 13 months. The Inter-American Foundation expects to award up to 15 Doctoral Field Research Fellowships in 2013.

For more information and to apply, please visit www.iie.org/iaf

ASWAD 7th Annual Biennial Conference

7th Biennial Conference of the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora (ASWAD)

CFP deadline: January 15, 2012

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
October 30 – November 2, 2013

Transformative Visions:
Confronting Change and Creating Opportunity in Africa and the African Diaspora

Creative response to change and challenge has long been a hallmark of the African diaspora experience, from the multiple ways enslaved peoples carved autonomous spaces across the Americas and Caribbean, to the use of new technologies to move politics and re-imagine communities throughout Africa and the African diaspora today. In 2013, the seventh biennial conference of the Association for the Study of the World Wide African Diaspora (ASWAD) will take place in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic. The conference aims to address how transformative visions, past and present, have been brought to bear on the challenges confronting peoples of Africa and the African diaspora, from historically overlooked individuals to mass movements. How have African diaspora people marshalled activism, spirituality, creativity, and the unique resources of diaspora to re-fashion challenges into new opportunities? How are diasporic solidarities and fissures affected by global conflicts and movements? ASWAD seeks creative explorations of diaspora through innovative framings, methodologies, and discourses as we address these questions. We welcome submissions from all disciplines on both historical and contemporary topics and on all geographic areas including Africa, the Americas and Caribbean, the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. Paper and panel proposals that incorporate new categories of diasporic analysis and that stimulate discourse across traditional boundaries are encouraged, as are roundtables and panels on diaspora and comparative diaspora studies.  Continue reading ASWAD 7th Annual Biennial Conference

The Accursed Circumstance: Virgilio Piñera Conference

The Accursed Circumstance:
Virgilio Piñera Centennial Conference at Stony Brook University
Nov 8-9, 2012

Nov 8, 1:00pm – 4:15pm
Stony Brook Univ, Main Campus
Wang Center, Lecture Hall 1


Nov 9, 9:30am – 8:00pm
Stony Brook -Manhattan
387 Park Avenue South, 3rd Floor
(entrance at 101 East 27th Street)


With the participation of Gerard Aching, Mariana Amato, Thomas Anderson, Jorge Brioso, Lena Burgos-Lafuente, Ana María Dopico, Abilio Estévez, Licia Fiol-Matta, Javier Guerrero, Noel Luna, Modesto Milanés, Antonio José Ponte, Juan Carlos Quintero-Herencia, José Quiroga, Enrique del Risco, Rafael Rojas, Aurea María Sotomayor.

Writing through the Visual/Virtual (CFP)

Writing through the Visual/Virtual: Inscribing Language, Literature, and Culture in Francophone Africa and the Caribbean

Center for African Studies 2013 Conference
March 7‐9 2013

CFP deadline: 100 to 200‐word abstract and panel proposal by November 1, 2012

This two‐day conference at Rutgers University (New Brunswick) is designed to foster trans‐disciplinary understanding of the complex interplay between language/literature/arts and the visual and virtual domains of expressive culture in Francophone Africa and the Caribbean. It will explore the varied patterns of cultural, and especially writing, formations and practices arising from contemporary and historical forces that have impacted on the cultures and peoples of this trans‐Atlantic region that includes countries such as Algeria, Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Comoro Islands, Congo (Brazzaville), Congo (DR), Dominica, Guadeloupe, Guiana, Haiti, Louisiana (USA), Mali, Martinique, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Senegal, Seychelles. Special attention will be paid to how scripts, though appearing to be merely decorative in function, are often used by artists and performers in the production of material and non‐material culture to tell “stories” of great significance, co‐mingling words and images in a way that leads to a creative synthesis that links the local and the global, the “classical” and the “popular” in new ways.  Possible topics for the conference include (but are not limited) to the following: Continue reading Writing through the Visual/Virtual (CFP)

Alien Bodies: Race, Space, and Sex in the African Diaspora

Alien Bodies: Race, Space, and Sex in the African Diaspora
The African-American Studies Collective
Emory University, Atlanta, GA
February 8-9, 2013

CFP Deadline for abstracts: October 7, 2012

From CFP:

Was it why I sometimes felt as weary of America as if I too had landed in what was now South Carolina in 1526 or in Jamestown in 1619? Was it the tug of all the lost mothers and orphaned children? Or was it that each generation felt anew the yoke of a damaged life and the distress of being a native stranger, an eternal alien?
–Saidiya Hartman, Lose Your Mother

We are not the same. I am an alien.
–Lil’ Wayne, “Phone Home”

Born out of a desire to articulate the position of Black bodies in the Americas as well as the African Diaspora writ large, “Alien Bodies: Race, Space, and Sex in the African Diaspora” continues conversations initiated among members of the African American Studies Collective at Emory University.  Of particular concern are the ways in which the African Diaspora–as climactic environments, biological/zoological/botanical/geographical subjectivities, or colonized economies–has been made alien from within as well as without, and the ways that the major discursive trajectories of race, space, and sex have contributed to this mapping.  The conference explores such questions as: how do we begin to understand the ways in which race, space, and sex configure “the alien” within spaces allegedly “beyond” markers of difference? What are some ways in which the “alien from within as well as without” can be overcome, and how do we make them sustainable? In doing so, this conference also seeks to provide a forum for discussion on what Afro-Diaspora Studies as a field and as a network of analytical approaches can further contribute to the examination of the positions of Blacks around the world. Continue reading Alien Bodies: Race, Space, and Sex in the African Diaspora

The Fifth Charles Town International Maroon Conference

“Maroon Lands, Laws, and Cultures”:
The Fifth Charles Town International Maroon Conference,
Portland, Jamaica
20-23 June, 2013

Deadline for abstracts: September 30, 2012

The Fifth Charles Town International Maroon Conference, “Lands, Laws, and Cultures,” invites papers that explore the relationships between place and tradition in Maroon communities throughout the Atlantic world. Issues to consider might include: Continue reading The Fifth Charles Town International Maroon Conference

Caribbean Writers at the Brooklyn Book Festival

Caribbean writers will be represented at the Brooklyn Book Festival this Sunday, September 23. Below are the panels featuring Caribbean writers. Of special note are the 2pm and 3pm panels (in the Community Room) focused on Caribbean writing. More information available at the Brooklyn Book Festival’s site.

10:00 A.M. Home Is Not A Place. Four authors read and discuss their books whose protagonists are challenged to create and negotiate their identity in a new homeland–a journey fraught with confusion, rebellion and uncertain outcomes. Graphic novelist Leela Corman (Unterzakhn), and authors Patricia Engel (Vida), Luis Alberto Urrea (Into the Beautiful North) and Jose Manuel Prieto (Nocturnal Butterflies of the Russian Empire). Moderated by Tiphanie Yanique (How to Escape from a Leper Colony). At Saint Francis Screening Room (180 Remsen Street).

11:00 A.M. Another Fine Mess You’ve Gotten Me Into.  Marie-Helene Bertino (Safe as Houses), Karen Thompson Walker (The Age of Miracles) and Earl Lovelace (Is Just a Movie)plop their characters into almost unbelievable, surreal situations. Join us as they discuss the inspiration behind these settings. Moderated by Anderson Tepper, Vanity Fair. At Saint Francis Auditorium (180 Remsen Street).

12:00 P.M. Rewriting History. Jamie Manrique (Cervantes Street), Esmeralda Santiago(Conquistadora) and Ellis Avery (The Last Nude) read and discuss their historical novels, filled with vivid characters ranging from Avery’s Parisian lovers and Santiago’s nineteenth century love triangle to Manrique’s fictional account of the life of Miguel de Cervantes, author of the classic Don Quixote.  Moderated by Albert Mobilio. At Brooklyn Historical Society Library (128 Pierrepont Street).

12:00 P.M. Characters on Characters. Best-selling literary lions Walter Mosley, Edwidge Danticat and Dennis Lehane discuss their unforgettable characters and the darkness that often enshrouds them. The program will also feature short readings. Moderated by Harold Augenbraum of the National Book Foundation. At Brooklyn Borough Hall Courtroom (209 Joralemon Street).

2:00 P.M. Literary Lions. Readings by award winning authors Pete Hamill (Tabloid City),Edwidge Danticat (Create Dangerously) and Paul Auster (Winter Journal). Whether their point of view is a palimpsest of Brooklyn fiction or set in other places, they have each lived in Brooklyn and been influenced by it. Followed by Q & A. Introduced by Johnny Temple, Publisher, Akashic Books and Chair of the Brooklyn Literary Council. At Saint Ann and the Holy Trinity Church (157 Montage Street).

2:00 P.M. Calabash Presents. Jamaica’s legendary Calabash International Literary Festival celebrates 50 years of Jamaican independence with readings by premier Jamaican-born novelists and poets Chris John Farley (Kingston Noir), Jacqueline Bishop (Snapshots from Istanbul), andIshion Hutchinson (Far District). Moderated by Calabash co-founder Kwame Dawes. At Brooklyn Borough Hall Community Room (209 Joralemon Street).

3:00 P.M. BOCAS Presents. Trinidad’s groundbreaking annual NGC Bocas Literary Festival comes to Brooklyn to celebrate 50 years of Trinidad & Tobago independence with readings by Earl Lovelace (Is Just a Movie), Victoria Brown (Minding Ben) and Anton Nimblett (Sections of an Orange). Moderated by Nicholas Laughlin, BOCAS organizer and editor of the CaribbeanReview of Books. At Brooklyn Borough Hall Community Room (209 Joralemon Street).

3:00 P.M.  Location, Location, Location. Colin Channer (Kingston Noir), Mark Leyner (The Sugar Frosted Nutsack) and Jessica Hagedorn (Toxicology) discuss themes of violence, drug use and crime in the very different locations of Jamaica, Dubai and Manhattan’s West Village. It just goes to show that almost every place in the world is united by the dark and devious. Moderated by Brigid Hughes. St. Francis McArdle (180 Remsen Street).

 

 

The 2013 Hollick Arvon Caribbean Writers Prize

Announcing The Hollick Arvon Caribbean Writers Prize for creative writers. Deadline for submissions is 30 September, 2012, at 6 pm (TT time).

Information from the Bocas Lit Fest site:

The Hollick Arvon Caribbean Writers Prize is an annual award which allows an emerging Caribbean writer living and working in the Anglophone Caribbean to devote time to advancing or finishing a literary work, with support from an established writer as mentor. It is sponsored by the Hollick Family Charitable Trust and the literary charitable trust the Arvon Foundation, in association with the non-profit organisation the Bocas Lit Fest.

The Hollick Arvon Caribbean Writers Prize will be offered annually, initially for the next three years, and across three literary genres: fiction in 2013, non-fiction in 2014, and poetry in 2015.

The Prize

The Hollick Arvon Prize, with a total value of £10,000 (approx. US$16,000), consists of:

1.    a cash award of £3,000 (approx. US$5,000)
2.    a year’s mentoring by an established writer
3.    travel to the United Kingdom to attend a one-week intensive Arvon creative writing course at one of Arvon’s internationally renowned writing houses
4.    three days in London to network with editors and publishers, hosted by Arvon, in association with the Free Word Centre and the Rogers, Coleridge & White literary agency.

The winner of the 2013 Hollick Arvon Caribbean Writers Prize will be announced in April 2013 at the NGC Bocas Lit Fest.

Eligibility

To be eligible for entry, a writer must:

1.    be of Caribbean birth or citizenship, living and working in the Anglophone Caribbean and writing in English
2.    be over the age of 18 by 30 September, 2012
3.    have had at least one piece of creative writing of no less than 2,000 words published.

How to enter

Each entrant may make only one submission for the 2013 Hollick Arvon Prize. Each submission must include:

1.    a maximum of 3,000 words from a work in progress which the Prize will allow the writer to advance or complete. This may be an excerpt from a novel or from a series of short stories
2.    an outline of the entire work in progress and how the writer plans to develop it
3.    a statement of no more than 500 words about why your work should be supported by this Prize
4.    a copy of up to two pieces of previously published creative writing (not exceeding 2,000 words each). An extract from a longer work is acceptable. State the date and place of publication and the name of the publisher
5.    a completed entry form

Note: all submissions should be typed with double spacing.

Submissions must be made electronically. Please send all submission materials attached to a single email addressed to [email protected]. The email subject line should read “Hollick Arvon Prize”.

Deadline

The 2013 Hollick Arvon Prize opens for entries on 30 June, 2012. The closing date is 30 September, 2012, at 6 pm TT time. No late entries will be accepted.

Judging

The Hollick Arvon Prize will be judged by a panel comprising representatives of the Hollick Family Charitable Trust and the Arvon Foundation, an agent from the Rogers, Coleridge & White literary agency, and up to three representatives of the NGC Bocas Lit Fest. The Prize will be administered by the Arvon Foundation and Bocas Lit Fest, in conjunction with the Hollick Family Charitable Trust.

For any queries about eligibility requirements or the submission process, please contact the prize administrators at: [email protected]

Download the Prize guidelines and entry form here.