Transatlantic Memories, Blackness, and Diasporic Identity Formation in the 21st Century and Beyond
Date: September 2- September 4, 2020
Place: The University of the West Indies – Mona Campus, Jamaica
Deadline: April 10, 2020
A Joint Conference organized by the Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on Africa and its Diasporas (York University), the Audiovisual Media Lab for the Study of Cultures and Societies (University of Ottawa), and the Institute of Caribbean Studies & Reggae Studies Unit (University of the West Indies)
Location: The University of the West Indies – Mona Campus, Jamaica
Date: September 2- September 4, 2020
The Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on Africa and its Diasporas (York University), the Audiovisual Media Lab for the Study of Cultures and Societies (University of Ottawa), and the Institute of Caribbean Studies & Reggae Studies Unit (University of the West Indies, Mona Campus) invite you to participate in a joint conference focusing on ‘Transatlantic Memories, Blackness, and Diasporic Identity formation in the 21st Century and Beyond’.
On the 23rd of December 2013, the United Nations’ General Assembly Resolution 68/239 proclaimed 2015-2024 The International Decade for People of Africa Descent. In proclaiming this decade’s theme, the UN General Assembly recognizes the historical distinctiveness and experience of peoples of African descent, whose basic human rights continue to be violated throughout modern human history. It therefore became urgent to work on: (a) Recognizing African descendants’ distinctive experiences, (b) Establishing justice for all, and (c) Developing economic opportunities for more than 200 million Africans who live in the Americas, and many other hundreds of millions outside and inside the African continent. From these subthemes many nations and institutions have marked the decade with different manifestations. For example, Ghana’s president, Nana Akufo-Addo, declared 2019 the “Year of Return”, which symbolically marked the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first known African slave ship on America’s shores.
For this joint interdisciplinary conference, we are looking for papers drawing upon transnational and multidisciplinary perspectives: e.g., history, anthropology, education, performance, media, material culture, economy, development and justice as long as these shed light on the African descendants’ transatlantic memories, blackness, and diasporic identity formation and experiences. Papers mobilizing comparative dimensions that emphasize the link between the Caribbean, Africa and Canada (North America) or that investigate how memories of enslavement and colonization impact diasporic identity formation and the experience of blackness in diaspora (in Canada and the Caribbean, in particular) are more than welcome.
We welcome theoretical and empirical papers focusing on, but not limited to, this non-exhaustive list of sub-themes:
1. Histories and geographies of blackness;
2. Space and black bodies (historical, contemporary occupation of);
3. Blackness and performing arts (Music, Film, Theatre, and Visual Arts);
4. Diasporic identity formations and the continent;
5. Perspectives of blackness in the continent;
6. Migration (African and Caribbean) and blackness in Canada;
7. Memory/memories (identity, cultural, etc.);
8. Western justice and economic system and the African Diasporas;
9. Ethics in a global economic system;
10. Reparations and the African present;
11. Moving forward Africa tomorrow – Diasporic/African futures.
Format & Submission Deadline
1. Please submit an abstract of 200 to 250 words in Times New Roman 12-pt. font along with your official contact information to tubman@yorku.ca
2. Submission Deadline: April 10, 2020.
3. Registration fees:
For Faculty and people in the Caribbean region $100 CAD
For Students from the Caribbean region* $20 CAD
For Faculty and people from Outside of the Caribbean region $150 CAD For Students from Outside of the Caribbean region: $50 CAD
For Students from York and Ottawa University $40 CAD
*Students from the Caribbean region can pay the equivalent in Jamaican dollars (approx. JA
$2,000).
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