Call for Papers!
Conference: “A Global Crossroads?:
Caribbean Studies beyond the Disciplines”
September 9, 2015:
Opening Lecture and Poetry Reading by Mervyn Morris at the University of Maryland, College Park.
September 10, 2015:
Keynote Addresses, Presentation of Papers, and Culturefest at Howard University, Washington, D.C.
Keynote Speakers and Writers include Mervyn Morris, Professor
Emeritus, University of the West Indies, Mona and Poet Laureate,
Jamaica; Merle Collins, poet, novelist and professor, University of
Maryland.
The Caribbean Studies Program of Howard University with the
participation of the University of Maryland invites revolutionary, multidisciplinary papers for “A Global Crossroads?: Caribbean Studies beyond
the Disciplines.”
Positioned at the crossroads of the Americas (the so-called ‘New World’), the Caribbean is noted as a hybridic space, with
multiple histories of global and diasporan crossover, connection and dialogue. Wilson Harris proposes this Caribbean as
an entryway into a more revolutionary way of thinking about not only race, culture and difference but also the academic
enterprise—particularly the problematic separation between systems of thought such as arts and sciences. More
expansively, Harris suggests that the ‘Caribbean crossroads’ offers space for fresh and dynamic reflections on the ethical
and moral bases by which we have defined the human in contemporary times. Harris’ assertion of the provenance of
Caribbean studies belongs to a long line of such propositions by Caribbean and non-Caribbean intellectuals alike, and like
most such statements, it comes with a caveat—that it is as much in its failures as its advances that the Caribbean
becomes a model for global relationalities.
“[It is an act] of profoundest creativity
to throw bridges across chasms, to
open an architecture of space within
closed worlds of race and culture. For
without complex revisionary bridges
between art and science conscience is
paralysed by dogma, and freedom
grows increasingly susceptible to a
hidden mafia or ruthless
establishment within civilization.”
–adapted, Wilson Harris
KEY QUESTIONS: To what extent may a study of the historical and contemporary
Caribbean and its diasporas offer ideas, questions and modalities—‘complex revisionary
bridges’ — for addressing the issues, such as race, culture, ethics, knowledge systems,
and relationality that confront us in the global present? And can the Caribbean be
proposed as such a model without sacrificing the sovereignties of small, vulnerable nationstates or the self-identities of dependencies? What tensions are created between the
impetus towards localized identities and the assertion of difference on the one hand, and
the currents that move us inexorably towards multiple forms of globalization and globality
on the other? How may such questions be addressed from the point of view of literature,
language and the arts; science and technology; medicine; politics and economics; media/
internet studies; migration studies; environment studies; history and culture studies;
gender, sexuality and queer studies; ethics, philosophy, education and law; or crossovers
among any of these disciplinary areas?
PANEL TOPICS—Papers are invited from but are not limited to the following areas:
Caribbean Cultures as Global Cultures
Globalization, Imperialism and Culture
Mass Media, Education and the Caribbean
ABSTRACTS/DEADLINE:
Gender, Sexuality and the Global Caribbean
Send 150 word abstracts for 15 minute
Medicine, Society and Caribbean Crosscurrents
Wilson Harris and the Cross-Cultural Imagination
papers, along with brief bio, to:
Philosophy, Ethics, Legal Systems and Globalization
caribbeanconferencehu@gmail.com.
Science and Technology at the Caribbean Crossroads
Abstracts for four person panels and poster
Microstates, Urban Planning and the Global Megacity
Border Politics, Tourism, Migration and the Caribbean
presentations may be submitted.
Blurring Boundaries: Interdisciplinary Caribbean Studies
Deadline for abstracts: April 17, 2015.
Social Media, the Internet and the Caribbean Crossroads
Cross-Cultural Literatures, Speculative Genres and the Caribbean
National, Indigenous and Endangered Languages in the Global Age
Rethinking Negritude, Pan Africanism, Pan-Caribbeanism and Diaspora
Developing Nations/LDCs, the Global Environment and Climate Change
Caribbean Economies, Small Business, Entrepreneurship and Global Trade/Economic Systems
Caribbean Arts at the Global Crossroads: Music, Dance, Ritual, Performance and the Visual Eye