[EDLING:77] CFP: International Symposium on Diaspora and Ethnic Studies

[Francis M Hult]

> The 2007 International Symposium on Diaspora and Ethnic Studies
> 
> June  16-17, 2007
> 
> Sponsored by the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature,
> 
> National Sun Yat-sen University and Ministry of Education on Taiwan
> 
> 
> 
> The symposium will explore the intersection of ethnic studies with diaspora 
> studies¡Xhow they connect and how they diverge in the trans-Pacific context. 
> At the intersection of ethnic studies with Asian diaspora, Native American 
> diaspora, African diaspora, Irish diaspora, and Queer diaspora lie not only 
> profound tensions but also creative possibilities. The symposium will 
> examine diaspora/ethnic texts and reassess current theoretical and 
> methodological issues in the field.
> 
> Exploring a wide range of visual, literary and artist forms by diasporic and 
> ethnic authors, this symposium will seek to transnationalize Diaspora 
> Studies and encourage dialogues among those dedicated to this field. 
> Bringing together scholars from the U.S., Japan, Korea and Taiwan, it will 
> provide a forum for globally/locally diverse approaches. Contextualizing 
> these approaches in different historical and cultural backgrounds, the 
> symposium will thus investigate a variety of diasporic and ethnic literary 
> and cultural issues, both thematically and methodologically.
> 
> The symposium will specifically examine the ways in which contemporary 
> ethnic visual, literary, and performing arts address the formation of 
> cultural identity/ies within shifting geographical, political, cultural, 
> artistic, disciplinary frameworks. Questions that the speakers' approaches 
> will address include, but are not limited to, the following: As one moves 
> across national boundaries, does one become less a ¡§national¡¨ than an 
> ¡§ethnic¡¨?  Where does one draw the line?  Is it possible, or, feasible, 
> for us to draw the line between the ¡§national,¡¨ the ¡§diasporic,¡¨ the 
> ¡§ethnic¡¨ or the ¡§cosmopolitan¡¨?  On the other hand, the migrancy of 
> identities and desires also initiates a crisis in cultural transmission and 
> transcultural communicability.  How should, that is to say, the two 
> generations, within the diasporic generations, address and comprehend each 
> other?  How does the diaspora negotiate with the melancholia of ethnicity, 
> in what political stance and with what narrative strategies?
> 
>         ¡§Diaspora and Ethnic Studies¡¨ will allow students and scholars to 
> exchange views on the above questions, plus a whole range of theoretical, 
> critical, and pedagogical issues that are pertinent to the studies of 
> ethnic/diasporic literature as an emergent academic field.
> 
>         This two-day symposium will include invited speeches given by 
> acclaimed scholars, Dr. Yu-cheng Lee, Philip Deloria, David Eng, Joni 
> Adamson, Kun Jong Lee, and Shin Yamamoto, among others, and roundtable 
> discussions participated by leading scholars both at home and abroad.
> 
> 
> 
> For further details, please contact
> 
> Fu-jen Chen,
> 
> Associate Professor
> 
> Department of Foreign Languages and Literature
> 
> National Sun Yat-sen University
> 
> Kaohsiung, Taiwan
> 
> fujen at mail.nsysu.edu.tw