Dear colleagues,
In association with the Society for Caribbean Studies (SCS), and the Leverhulme-funded network ‘Caribbean In/securities and Creativity’ (CIC)
The Postgraduate Caribbean Network presents
A Postgraduate Conference on Caribbean Insecurities and Creativity.
It will take place on
23 May 2016
at the University of Birmingham, UK

We welcome abstracts from postgraduates at various stages of their research, whose research concerns any aspect of Caribbean in/securities and creativity, for this one-day interdisciplinary conference to be held at the University of Birmingham. The event will focus on Caribbean in/security in relation to creativity, building on the negotiation of in/security as lived and experienced in everyday creative practice in the Caribbean.
We intend this to be an opportunity for delegates to share and receive feedback on their work in a friendly and informal setting. We will frame and arrange panels once we receive abstracts.
The following topics, by no means exhaustive, will be taken into consideration:

-          Socioeconomic forms of insecurity and the (re)negotiation of livelihoods;

-          Environmental policies, ecocriticism and creativity;

-          Food and health hazards: safety and (in)security;

-          Vulnerable spaces and bodies, and creative (re)embodiments;

-          Precarious identities, alienation and forms of commodification/rebirth;

-          Citizenship, migration and exile;

-          Geopolitical insecurities, national, regional and transnational mobilities;

-          (Im)balancing violence and precariousness through embodied and literary creativities;

-          Relocating aesthetics of in/security.
Creativity can be understood broadly, including literature, film, theatre, dance, music etc., but also the creative ways in which people live their lives (e.g. balance budgets, interpret policy, perform politics). Relevant papers not specifically addressing these themes are also welcome.
In addition to paper panels, the conference intends to offer:
·      A keynote address (TBA)
·      A welcome address from the Society for Caribbean Studies' chair Pat Noxolo
·      Refreshments, a lunch and a drinks reception to round off the day

This event is free to attend. It has been thought out in the spirit of last year’s inaugural postgraduate conference. As Caribbean postgraduates are often dispersed across departments and universities, this event hopes to offer delegates an opportunity to meet with others who share their interests and discuss their work, fostering ties that will endure throughout their studies. Many postgraduates also felt that the postgraduate conference held last year had provided them with a unique experience that prepared them to present papers to the annual conference of the Society for Caribbean Studies (SCS) that took place later in the year: this year’s SCS conference is at Newcastle University, 6-8 July (see .

Please send abstracts of 200-300 words (in English) to [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> or [log in to unmask]<file:///E:[log in to unmask]> for papers of a 10-15-minute duration, by 25 April 2016 with the subject heading "Caribbean Insecurities Conference". Please include your university affiliation, your preferred email address and a short bio of up to 150 words.
10 travel bursaries of up to £100 each are available to support attendance.  Applicants must be PhD candidates, and preference will be given to those travelling from abroad.  If you would like to apply for a bursary, please attach, with your abstract, a short statement (no more than 300 words) on the relevance of the postgraduate conference theme to your research, the reasons why you need a bursary to attend, as well as your estimated expenses.

We look forward to hearing from you,
Laëtitia Saint-Loubert (PhD candidate at the University of Warwick)
Postgraduate Representative of the Society for Caribbean Studies
Patricia Noxolo (Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Birmingham)
Chair of the Society for Caribbean Studies
Principal Investigator in the Network on Caribbean In/securities and Creativity



Dr Patricia Noxolo,

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences,

University of Birmingham,

Edgbaston,

Birmingham

B15 2TT

UK