“Africa and the Americas: Cultural Representations and Social Movements” Southeast Africanist Network (SEAN) 2008 Conference at Kennesaw State University Kennesaw, GA | January 24-26, 2008

Call for Proposals

The history of the relationships between Africa, Europe and the Americas has been quite complex. It has involved numerous people and culture groups, hundreds of years of the most intense and sometimes volatile interactions, and the shedding of blood and tears of millions of people, all across one body of water—the Atlantic Ocean. Although this complex web of interrelationships had its ebbs and flows, a landmark was reached two hundred years ago when Great Britain (1807) and the United States (1808) abolished the Atlantic Slave Trade. Nevertheless, slavery would continue for many more decades in British colonies, the United States, and many other parts of the Americas. As many studies have shown, slavery was replaced by colonialism and racism; soon, the triad of slavery, colonialism and racism inaugurated a new wave of cultural representations and socio-political responses in Africa and the Americas. These responses and social movements have included Pan-Africanism, anti-colonialism, Civil Rights Movement, and various other struggles and advocacies for human rights, justice and equality.

The Southeast Africanist Network (SEAN), headquartered at University of Florida, invites proposals for papers or panels on the following themes and sub-themes:

• Forced migration and current immigration
• Cultural transplantations, regenerations, and growth
• Cultural representation in the media and in the arts (e.g., music, dance, drama, visual arts, hip hop)
• Religious rituals, new religious movements, religious influences
• Music, dance, drama, art, hip hop
• The Columbian Exchange
• Imagining literary and cultural landscapes
• Cultural artifacts
• History, memory and remembering
• Tourism, tourists and travel guides
• Panel of African and Caribbean students (their experiences in America), and panel of returned study abroad students (from study abroad programs in Africa)
• Social, economic, political and civil rights
• Education, healthcare, etc. in Africa and the Americas: issues, access, comparison
• Contemporary perspectives on race, stereotypes, violence, gender, identity, etc.
• Screening, viewing, and discussion of feature-length films, documentaries and other electronic media

Submission of Abstracts
Interested participants are requested to send an abstract of less than 250 words describing the focus of their papers or panel, the central argument and the methodology employed. If proposing a panel, please submit the title and abstract for each paper along with the names and institutional affiliation of panelists. Whether a paper or a panel, all proposals must have the following personal information: name, institutional affiliation, position or title, contact phone numbers and/or e-mail address.

Abstracts may be submitted electronically. Please save your document in Word or RTF format and send as an e-mail attachment. Because of “junk mail” feature on our e-mail service, please type "SEAN Conference 2008" on the subject line to ensure delivery. Abstracts may be sent to the conference contact by post or e-mail at the addresses below:

vbonill1@kennesaw.edu

Ms. Vivian Bonilla
SEAN Conference Coordinator
Institute for Global Initiatives
Kennesaw State University
1000 Chastain Road, #2301
Kennesaw, GA 30144

E-mail:vbonill1@kennesaw.edu

Deadline for Submission of Abstracts: December 1, 2007

Publication: Papers presented at the conference will be considered for publication in the Journal of Global Initiatives. For more information about the journal, click here.