[lg policy] Fwd: Going Local: African Texts Call for Papers

[Harold Schiffman]

*Going Local: African Texts and Cultures*

*A Postgraduate-led Conference and Workshop at the University of
Birmingham, Monday 27th May 2013*

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:

·       How do we read texts whose aesthetics, politics or forms can’t
necessarily be understood by a global audience?

·       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?

·       How can texts from different locales speak to each other? How do
African texts conceive of the idea of ‘localness’?

·       Can we talk about the ‘local’ without it becoming a slippery
synonym for ‘authentic’ or ‘exotic’?

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:

·       Literature

·       Historical texts, travel writing and other ‘non-fictional’ texts

·       Personal papers and diaries

·       Art

·       Music

·       Film

·       Material, media and popular cultures.

 We are particularly keen to encourage conversations between scholars
working in different African languages (including English, French,
Portuguese and Arabic).

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.

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.

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.

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 rkj982 at bham.ac.uk and Tom
Penfold twp005 at bham.ac.uk, by Monday 15th April 2013. For more information,
please visit goinglocalconference.wordpress.com.




-- 
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

-------------------------------------------------
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lgpolicy-list/attachments/20130316/c0d6a43b/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Going Local - African Texts and Cultures CFP.docx
Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document
Size: 16447 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lgpolicy-list/attachments/20130316/c0d6a43b/attachment.docx>
-------------- next part --------------
_______________________________________________
This message came to you by way of the lgpolicy-list mailing list
lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu
To manage your subscription unsubscribe, or arrange digest format: https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/lgpolicy-list