Dear Colleagues,

The organizer of the conference below has asked 
me to bring it to your attention.

Best wishes,
Gad




International Conference




“CARNIVAL, ‘PEOPLE’S ART’ AND TAKING BACK THE STREETS”

                                     July 31-August 3, 2008, Toronto, Canada
        Accolade Centre at York University and 
Kofler centre at the University of Toronto
                              <http://www.yorku.ca/CarnivalConference>www.yorku.ca/CarnivalConference 



FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS


Spreading from Trinidad through the Caribbean, to Brazil, the United
States and Canada, England, as well as Germany, and with analogues
elsewhere, Carnival has developed into one of the most important global
expressions of popular identity. Both as celebration, and as resistance
art, it builds on the collision of cultures of Catholic European
colonizers and enslaved West Africans. The 
claiming of public space in the use of the street 
is a statement of presence that is as much 
political as artistic.  Organized to coincide 
with the Caribana Festival on the streets of 
Toronto, this conference addresses such important 
issues as Globalization and Commercialization, 
the formation of Diasporas, Pan-Cultural 
Hybridity, the origins and development of 
Carnival, Gender and Racism, the nature of Postcolonialism today.

Being designed to overlap with the Caribana Festival and Parade, the
conference encourages merging theory with practice


The conference will explore the social, political 
and cultural aspects of Carnival and street 
theatre, as well as themes of 
exclusion/otherness, exoticism and cross-cultural 
acceptance, diasporic links and the connections/ 
comparisons between Carnival in Africa, the 
Caribbean, South and North America, Europe and 
the UK. Papers that address any aspect of these 
areas are welcome; and there will be a New 
Scholars Panel, for which students are 
particularly invited to submit papers.  Both 
individual-paper submissions and proposals for 
seminars are welcome.  While taking African 
Carnival and its spread across the Caribbean to 
other continents as its base, this conference is 
also intended to focus on the widest 
socio-cultural aspects of this performative 
street art: hybridity and the negotiation of 
identity in the post-colonial context ; 
anthropological takes on historical developments, 
the politics of carnival and street theatre, the 
economics and commercial pressures.  Suggested 
topics include, but are not limited to:


Carnival and theatricality
Images of Africa / Carnival in Africa
The Trinidad Carnival Tradition
Myth, Magic and Religion
Gender / Economics and Carnival
Social Activism & Carnival/Street Theatre
Popular Art, Globalization & Copyright
Syncretism, Hybridity and Cultural Identity
Caribana: history, performance
The Carnival Diaspora
Cross-Cultural Influences: Brazil, Bolivia, UK, USA, Berlin, Toronto

Proposals for seminar topics also are welcome; 
and submissions are invited for seminars on:

Theorizing Carnival as Cultural Patrimony: Exercising Cultural Rights in a
Transnational Festival
Carnival as a Vehicle for Protest
Carnival in Literature
Anthropological Approaches to the Politics of Carnivals and Festivals

Submissions:

This is a Preliminary Call. Prospective 
participants who wish to for EARLY consideration 
should submit abstracts of between 100 and 300 
words, for individual papers, seminars or workshops, by the FIRST deadline of:

OCTOBER 19th 2007.

Abstracts should be sent to Carnival Conference, 
303 Goldfarb Centre, York University, 4700 Keele 
Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3 or by 
email to [log in to unmask]   Abstracts must include the title of the
paper or presentation, the name(s) of presenter(s); institutional
affiliation; email address, phone & Fax numbers. 
Students should identify themselves as New Scholars.

Special Features:  *  Staging of a new calypso musical by Tony Hall *
Major Exhibition of Carnival Art  *  Opportunity to view Kings and Queens
competition and Caribana Parade  * Workshops on * Producing Carnival ­
and on Carnival Artists and Design

CONTACT: Prof. Christopher Innes, Canada Research Chair, 303H Goldfarb
Centre, York University - [log in to unmask]


Prof. Gad Heuman
Dept of History and Centre for Caribbean Studies
University of Warwick
Coventry CV4 7AL

Tel:  +44 (0)2476 523408
Fax: +44 (0)2476 524451