Dear colleagues,
Please find below the link to the website of EMMA where you will find
all the necessary details if you want to attend the symposium in June
on "Diasporas and Cultures of Migrations", the first of a series of
four international events.
You will find the bio-bibliographical notices of the speakers,
synopses, and the registration form, to be sent to Isabelle Ronzetti <[log in to unmask]
>.
The precise programme will be posted in April.
http://recherche.univ-montp3.fr/pays_anglophones//index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=48&Itemid=100
Best regards,
Judith Misrahi-Barak
Montpellier 3
Diasporas, Cultures of Mobilities, “Race”
EMMA (Etudes Montpelliéraines du Monde Anglophone, Université Paul-
Valéry, Montpellier 3, France) in partnership with:
· CAAR (Collegium for African-American Research);
· the Centre de Recherches Littéraires et Historiques de l’Océan
Indien (CRLHOI, University of La Réunion);
· the Centre of South Asian Studies (CSAS, University of
Edinburgh, UK);
· the Department for Continuing Education (University of Oxford);
· the Institut de Recherche Intersite Etudes Culturelles (IRIEC,
Université Paul-Valéry, Montpellier 3);
· the International Institute of Migration (IMI, University of
Oxford);
· the MSH-Montpellier (Maison des Sciences de l’Homme-Montpellier);
· Wake Forest University (North Carolina, USA);
· Wesleyan University (USA).
is organizing a series of four events around the notions of race and
diaspora.
Co-convenors:
· Dr Sally Barbour (Wake Forest University, USA)
· Dr David Howard (University of Oxford, UK)
· Dr Thomas Lacroix (IMI, University of Oxford, UK)
· Dr Judith Misrahi-Barak (Montpellier 3, France)
· Pr Claudine Raynaud (Montpellier 3, France).
Over the last decade “Diaspora Studies” have become a full-fledged
discipline: numerous conferences have taken place, specialized
publications have emerged and centers have been created around this
field of research. The aim of our initiative is to identify and assess
the different evolutions of this field to better understand: 1) how
socio-economic and political changes have affected diasporic
communities; 2) how literature and the arts, the social sciences and
cultural studies have seized that question. This reflection entails a
redefinition of terms and concepts, some of which have at times been
used in a loose way, and the confrontation of different, but not
necessarily divergent, perspectives.
1. Preparatory Symposium: ‘Diasporas and Cultures of Migrations’, June
20-23, 2011, Université Paul-Valéry – Montpellier 3
In a global and increasingly trans-national context, numerous terms,
such as “diaspora,” “migration,” “displacement,” “dispersion,” refer
to populations of refugees, displaced persons, exiles, migrants and
immigrants. Why has one term been preferred to another at a certain
period of time or in a certain place? Why has one concept dominated
when another was rejected? What are the specificities of and the
common points between these diasporas? Specialists of these questions
from various disciplines (anthropology, sociology, political science,
literature, comparative literature), will be asked to assess the state
of the debate in their field, to share reflections and to put them in
dialogue in round tables and discussions in preparation for the
following event.
It will be our pleasure to welcome:
· Pr Deepika Bahri (Emory University, USA);
· Pr Shaul Bassi (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy);
· Pr Crispin Bates (Centre for South Asian Studies, Edinburgh
University, UK);
· Pr Aïda Boudjikanian (independent scholar);
· Dr Louise Cainkar (Marquette University, USA);
· Pr Bella Brodzki (Sarah Lawrence, USA);
· Pr Robin Cohen (Director of the IMI, University of Oxford, UK);
· Dr Corinne Duboin (CRLHOI, Université de La Réunion);
· Pr Karen Fog Olwig (University of Copenhagen, Denmark);
· Pr Kathleen Gyssels (University of Antwerpen, Belgium);
· Pr Johan Jacobs (University of KwaZulu Natal);
· Dr Indira Karamcheti (Wesleyan University, USA);
· Pr Bénédicte Ledent (University of Liege, Belgium);
· Dr Typhaine Leservot (Wesleyan University, USA);
· Pr Françoise Lionnet (UCLA, USA);
· Pr Yosefa Loshitzky (University of East London, UK);
· Dr Anthony Mangeon (IRIEC, Montpellier 3, France);
· Pr Adlai Murdoch (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA);
· Dr Shantini Pillai (National University of Malaysia);
· Pr Alan Rice (University of Central Lancaster, UK);
· Pr Mireille Rosello (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands);
· Pr Ashraf H. Rushdy (Wesleyan University, USA);
· Pr Ronnie Scharfman (Prof. Emerita, Purchase College, USA);
· Pr Shu-mei Shih (UCLA, USA);
· Pr Khachig Tölölyan (Wesleyan University, USA);
· Pr Janet Wilson (University of Northampton, UK);
· Pr Louise Yelin (Purchase College, USA).
2. International conference: ‘Diasporas and “Race”’, October 25-27,
2012, Wake Forest University (North Carolina, USA)
Diasporas have always had to negotiate new articulations of ethnic/
racial identities while individuals had to make do with contexts
already defined by certain types of racial relations and certain
evolutions of racial transnational references. The emergence of new
racisms and of new racialized identities reconfigures class
hierarchies, which often results in violence against migrants. Does
the prism of diaspora allow for a clearer conceptualization of the
concept of “race” as a socio-historical construction and a surface of
projection that depends on context? How can the concept of “race” be
imposed, but also how have populations appropriated it? What role does
the mediation of art and literature play in these evolutions? A call
for papers will be handed out in the Fall 2011.
3. International conference: ‘African-Americans, “Race” and Diaspora’,
June 13-15, 2013, University Paul-Valéry, Montpellier 3
The diverse uses of “diaspora” have helped to redefine and renew the
field of “African American Studies” and to rethink African American
identity in relation to a subject more broadly defined as both
racialized and diasporic. The reflection on “race,” central to the
field, will be articulated with that of diaspora to envision the
links, the breaking points and the articulations between the two
notions. Participants will be asked to interrogate this redefinition
of “African American Studies” and to formulate the questions and the
new objects of study that this transformation has generated.
Conversely, what has been the impact of “African American Studies” on
the fields of “Diaspora and Race Studies” or “Postcolonial and Race
Studies”? The term “post-race” stands at the core of heated debates
among scholars of the field. Have the different disciplinary fields
(social sciences and the humanities) vested interests in preserving
one concept over another through such and such a paradigm or certain
combinations? Finally, are the arts (literature, the visual arts,
popular culture, the Internet) privileged markers of these evolutions:
notions of avant-garde, of globalization, utopias? A call for papers
will be handed out in 2012.
4. Concluding symposium: October 25-26, 2013, Department for
Continuing Education, University of Oxford, UK
With its three international centres of research addressing matters of
diaspora and migration, the University of Oxford will be the ideal
venue for the final meeting to take place. It will attract a wide
international audience and provide an important point at which to
disseminate the initial findings and conclusions for the programs as a
whole.
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