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<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Going Local: African
Texts and Cultures<u></u><u></u></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>A Postgraduate-led
Conference and Workshop at the University of Birmingham, Monday 27<sup>th</sup>
May 2013</b></p><p class="MsoNormal">Theorisations of transnationalism, diaspora, the translocal
and globalisation have all broken new ground in studies of African literature
and other texts in recent years. But in our excitement to make African texts
speak to the world, do we risk ignoring texts which speak to or about the
local?Some of the questions this conference and workshop seeks to
address include:</p><p><span style="font-family:Symbol"><span>·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span>How do we read texts whose aesthetics, politics
or forms can’t necessarily be understood by a global audience?</p><p><span style="font-family:Symbol"><span>·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span>Does the notion of the local (and, implicitly,
the foreign or the global) have any relevance in the way we read African texts,
or is it a tired dichotomy? </p><p><span style="font-family:Symbol"><span>·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span>How can texts from different locales speak to
each other? How do African texts conceive of the idea of ‘localness’?</p><p><span style="font-family:Symbol"><span>·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span>Can we talk about the ‘local’ without it
becoming a slippery synonym for ‘authentic’ or ‘exotic’?</p><p class="MsoNormal">This postgraduate conference invites papers from
postgraduates and early career scholars interested in any aspect of ‘the local’
in African texts, with ‘texts’ having as broad a meaning as possible, to
include: </p><p><span style="font-family:Symbol"><span>·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span>Literature</p><p><span style="font-family:Symbol"><span>·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span>Historical texts, travel writing and other
‘non-fictional’ texts</p><p><span style="font-family:Symbol"><span>·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span>Personal papers and diaries<a name="13d747224e0435f3__GoBack"></a></p><p><span style="font-family:Symbol"><span>·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span>Art</p><p><span style="font-family:Symbol"><span>·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span>Music</p><p><span style="font-family:Symbol"><span>·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span>Film</p><p><span style="font-family:Symbol"><span>·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span>Material, media and popular cultures.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>We are
particularly keen to encourage conversations between scholars working in
different African languages (including English, French, Portuguese and Arabic).
</p><p class="MsoNormal">Papers which discuss texts from any part of the African
continent and its diaspora are welcomed. We would also like to offer shorter
slots for papers using innovative presentation formats such as visual art, film
or interactive forms; please indicate in your email if you would be interested
in such a slot.<span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal">The conference will take the format of panels of 20 minute
papers, and a participatory workshop focusing on methodological and theoretical
issues, led by postgraduate students and senior academics. </p><p class="MsoNormal">This is the second conference in a series of conferences in
2012-13 organised by the Department of African Studies & Anthropology at
the University of Birmingham, the first being Sites of Memory, in February 2013.
Presenters of outstanding papers from both conferences will be invited to a
writing and peer review workshop at the University of Birmingham at a later
date.<span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal">To submit a paper, please email an abstract (or a statement
of how you wish to present your paper, if not in traditional format) of no more
than 250 words, and a short biography, to Rebecca Jones <a href="mailto:rkj982@bham.ac.uk" target="_blank">rkj982@bham.ac.uk</a> and Tom Penfold <a href="mailto:twp005@bham.ac.uk" target="_blank">twp005@bham.ac.uk</a>, by Monday 15<sup>th</sup>
April 2013. For more information, please visit
<a href="http://goinglocalconference.wordpress.com" target="_blank">goinglocalconference.wordpress.com</a>.<span> </span></p>
</div></div><br></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>
University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br>
<a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------
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