USA Africa Dialogue Series - FW: Toyin Falola Annual International Conference on Africa and the African Diaspora (TOFAC 2013)

>Lady Jane
>ljane26@gmail.com
>
>TOFAC 2013
>
>LEAD CITY UNIVERSITY, IBADAN [LCU] AND IBADAN CULTURAL STUDIES GROUP
>[ICSG]
>
>Announce the Third Toyin Falola Annual International Conference on Africa
>and the African Diaspora (TOFAC 2013), July Monday 1 to Wednesday 3, 2013
>
>Theme: *ETHNICITY, RACE, AND PLACE IN AFRICA AND THE AFRICAN DIASPORA*
>* *
>Venue: Conference Centre, Lead City University, Ibadan, Nigeria
>
>Arrival date: Sunday, June 30, 2013 Departure date: Thursday,
>July
>4, 2013
>
>*CALL FOR PAPERS*
>* *
>*Submission of Abstract, Due April 15th, 2013*
>* *
>*ETHNICITY, RACE, AND PLACE IN AFRICA AND THE AFRICAN DIASPORA*
>* *
>
>While ethnicity has long been a staple analytical category of scholarly
>engagements on Africa and Africa-descended worlds, sparking rich,
>variegated conversations on its many referents and meanings, scholars of
>Africa and its vast diaspora have rarely conceptualized race as a
>stand-alone unit of Africanist analysis outside the familiar templates of
>colonial and neocolonial binaries, and outside of oppressive Euro-American
>racial formations such as apartheid, plantation slavery, and Jim Crow. Nor
>have they seriously considered how the emerging grid of place as a
>physical, imagined, and aspirational representation of self and the other
>might complicate notions of ethnic identity and racial awareness.
>
>The conveners of the Toyin Falola Annual Conference (TOFAC) solicit
>abstracts that address one or more of our sub-themes from empirical and
>theoretical perspectives. Papers may use the subthemes as framing devices
>and as touchstones for exploring diverse African and African Diasporic
>realities either separately or as a cluster. Alternatively, they may
>explore concepts that derive from or catalyze racial imaginations, ethnic
>consciousness, and a fixed or dynamic sense of place. Our view of the
>broad
>theme is that it is at once elastic and restrictive, and that authors¹
>scholarly imaginations should define the parameters of how ethnicity,
>race,
>and place should be understood and how the epistemological relationship
>between all three can be posited.
>
>Clearly, ethnicity is an expansive category. It encompasses a plethora of
>representational practices, textual productions, material cultures,
>symbols, aspirations, cultural retentions and mixtures, religious belief,
>and forms of political negotiation. These elements are individually or
>collectively mobilized to articulate a coherent narrative of identity and
>solidarity, however transient such a narrative may be. Taken together or
>unpacked for separate engagement, these constitutive elements of ethnicity
>offer the space for rich multidisciplinary analyses. They can foreground,
>and can be applied to, empirical and conceptual inquiries in many fields
>in
>the social sciences and the humanities. Although we welcome papers that
>address ethnicity and its corollaries from parochial disciplinary
>methodologies, we encourage authors to imagine a multidisciplinary
>audience
>for their papers and to cultivate analytical approaches that would spark
>cross-disciplinary conversations.
>
>Scholars of Africa and of the African Diaspora spawned by slavery,
>colonialism, trade, exile, economic hardship, opportunity, adventure, and
>post-colonial migration, have yet to systematically grapple with the place
>of race, race consciousness, and constructions of racial communities and
>attributes in the evolution of African cultures and experiences around the
>world. Yet racial ideas, not just reactive ideas about racial solidarity,
>but proactively constructed notions of intra-racial difference have
>proliferated in the texts and conversations of global black elites,
>intellectuals, and black communities around the world. This development
>has
>in turn given political and social valence to ideas and debates about
>black
>authenticity, race treachery, racial integration and separatism,
>compromise
>and resistance, and even the philosophical implications of skin
>lightening,
>hair straightening, and other bodily practices among black folk. Differing
>understandings of racial destiny, black victimhood, black racial purity,
>and the intertwinement of authenticity and place of origin have become
>subjects of discussion in global black intellectual circles. Moreover,
>beyond the familiar analysis of the complex and at times difficult
>legacies
>of European-African, Asian-African, and Arab-African encounters and
>miscegenation in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and the New World,
>recent studies have begun to unearth elaborate racial claims and
>narratives
>of racial differentiation within ³African² communities and in ³African²
>zones of contact previously narrated homogeneously into an African racial
>formation.
>
>Some questions are already framing discussions of the role of race and
>racial constructs in the study of African communities around the world;
>questions about whether the Sahara, Indian Ocean, and certain sectors of
>the Red Sea constitute a racial divide that disturb the geographical
>continuum of Africa; whether Africa is a byword for ³black² and if so what
>³black² means in light of its obvious exclusion of ³white² Africans;
>whether the field of play between race and ethnicity is narrow or wide;
>whether we can posit intra-black racism as a phenomenon; whether a black
>racial essence exists that connects Africa to its diaspora and produces
>trans-oceanic communities of solidarity; whether continental Africans and
>diaspora Africans relate to race and racism differently and/or have
>different racial imaginations that may engender intra-racial tensions;
>whether xenophobia and native/immigrant tensions are sustained by popular
>racial and ethnic stereotypes or are grounded in real differences within
>black communities; whether immigrant and native-born blacks can work
>together to pursue agendas specific to their common interests in
>white-dominated power structures like the United States; whether the fault
>lines of some conflicts in Africa correspond to a clichéd understanding of
>racial difference between Africans and Arabs; and whether intra-African
>racial claims are stand-ins for other aspirations or deserve to be
>understood on their own racial merits.
>
>We encourage authors to propose papers that explore race, racial politics,
>and racial transformation in the context of Africa¹s encounter with the
>world outside, in the context of oppression, in the context of the
>racialization of ethnic difference, in the context of post-slavery and
>emancipation, and in the context of identity construction in response to
>colonial and postcolonial policies of differentiation and privilege.
>
>Our conception of place ties in with the provocative outlines articulated
>above on race and ethnicity. We understand place to be a physical, mental,
>and ideological location or situation in which significant sociopolitical,
>economic, and emotional investments have been made. These investments
>often
>define the contours of identity, serving as anchors and referents for a
>variety of identity practices, including racial and ethnic
>self-representation. We acknowledge, however, that ³place,² its
>connotations, and the semiotic burdens it is often called upon to bear are
>always changing. We therefore welcome papers that radically redefine
>³place,² ³home,² ³location,² ³origin,² and related idioms of affiliation
>and affinity.
>
>Finally, we encourage ambitious proposals that bring our three subthemes
>into productive and insightful dialogue. The choice of doing this through
>empirical inquiry or conceptual reflections or both lies with the author.
>
>Abstracts may investigate and explore one or more of the following topics:
>
>Ethnic Associations
>
>Ethnic Nationalism
>
>Language Politics
>
>Ethnicity and Colonization
>
>Ethnicity and slavery
>
>Ethnicity and slave culture
>
>Ethnicity and slave religion
>
>Politicized Ethnicity
>
>Ethnic Politics
>
>Ethnic Literatures
>
>Ethno-religious imaginations
>
>Ethno-religious violence
>
>Ethno-religious communities
>
>Linguistic politics
>
>Language and ethnic solidarity
>
>Ethnicity and civil war
>
>Ethnicity and electoral contest
>
>Ethnic cleansing
>
>Genocide
>
>Civil war
>
>Racial authenticity
>
>Intra-racial tensions
>
>Racialization of difference
>
>Arabs and Africans
>
>Afro-Arab solidarity and conflict
>
>Berber identity/nationalism
>
>Tuareg identity/nationalism
>
>African-Diasporan tensions
>
>Intra-racial stereotypes
>
>Racial Writings
>
>Racial representations
>
>Race and African identity
>
>Racism
>
>Racial mixture
>
>Miscegenation
>
>Luso-African communities
>
>Mixed race communities and social consciousness
>
>Racial revolutions
>
>Afrocentrism
>
>Black power
>
>Black nationalism
>
>Black separatism
>
>Race and ethnicity
>
>Race and religion
>
>Race and Pan-Africanism
>
>Racial origins
>
>Race and civilization
>
>Nilo-centric theories
>
>Ancient Egypt in Africa
>
>Race in Ancient Africa
>
>Afro-Arab borderlands
>
>Xenophobia in Africa
>
>White Africa
>
>Apartheid and Post-Apartheid
>
>Home Exile (or Self Alienation)
>
>Exile-Exile (or Alienated Exile)
>
>Exilic Experience
>
>Origins
>
>Ancestry
>
>Local and global identities
>
>Rural and urban spaces
>
>Consciousness
>
>Spatial identities
>
>Territorial struggles
>
>Land politics
>
>Displacement and dispossession
>
>Refugees
>
>Domesticity
>
>Gendered space
>
>Mobility and migration
>
>Orientalism
>
>New Diaspora - Africa in China, etc
>
>Religious pilgrimage
>
>Changing concepts of home
>
>Generational dynamics
>
>
>Participants will be drawn from different parts of the world. Graduate
>students are encouraged to attend and present papers. The conference will
>provide time for scholars from various disciplines and geographical
>locations to interact, exchange ideas, and receive feedback. Submitted
>papers will be assigned to particular panels according to similarities in
>theme, topic, discipline, or geographical location. Additionally, selected
>papers will be published in book form.
>
>The deadline for submitting abstracts/proposals of not more than *250
>words*,
>is *April 15, 2013*. It should include the *title, the author's name,
>mailing address, telephone number, email address, and institutional
>affiliation*. Abstracts should be saved with the author¹s names as it
>appears on the abstract. Please submit all abstracts to the following:
>
>http://www.ibadanculturalstudiesgroup.org/toyinfalolaconference/user/regis
>ter
>
>* *
>
>Professor Ademola Dasylva e-mail: dasylvang@yahoo.com
>
>a.dasylva@ibadanculutralstudiesgroup.org
>
>
> All inquiries should be directed to Dr. Mrs Doyin Aguoru,
> Mobile phone: +234(0)703 504 7854
>
> E-mail: doyinaguoru77@yahoo.com
>
>For regular update on the conference information visit: *
>ibadanculturalstudiesgroup.org/toyinfalolaconference *
>
>A mandatory non-refundable registration fee (ICSG/TOFAC administrative
>charges) of ten thousand Naira (N10, 000) (for participants from Nigeria
>and other African countries) and $100 (for participants from USA, Europe,
>and Asia) must be paid immediately an abstract is accepted. The
>Registration fee covers conference bag, tag, jotter and biro, lunch and
>tea/coffee break throughout the conference duration.
>
>Accommodation: i) LCU Guest House; ii) Hotels
>
>TOFAC 2013 HOST, LEAD CITY UNIVERSITY has graciously made available some
>rooms from its Guest House, gratis, to registered participants: 25 rooms
>for registered participants from US, Europe, Asia. 20 rooms for registered
>participants from Africa, including Nigeria, on
>first-register-first-served
>basis. However, they will be responsible for breakfast, which the Catering
>department will be too willing to provide on request.
>
>For other participants who are unable to make the LCU-free-guest rooms
>list, there are two options: i) LCU has a few rooms available in the
>students' hostels (some single rooms, some shared rooms) that can
>accommodate about a hundred participants at a token fee each, on request;
> ii) hotel rooms are available for other participants who may prefer to
>stay in near-by hotels at very friendly and negotiated charges where they
>can be conveyed by the conference vans on arrival. Married couples shall
>be encouraged to stay together in a room. Joint authors, unless they
>register separately, will be entitled to a lunch plate, a pack of
>conference materials, and a single room (for joint-authors), provided they
>register early enough to qualify for LCU guest rooms.
>
>Airport Pick-up Logistics:
>
>Arrangement for the Airport pick up is currently being perfected for
>participants from US, Europe, Asia and other parts of Africa (not
>participants from Nigeria). Although there will be airport pick up
>arrangement for Saturday, Sunday and Monday, for this category of
>participants, they are advised, where possible or practicable, to make
>their arrival to Murtala Mohammed Airport, Lagos, Nigeria to coincide with
>the conference arrival date of Sunday, 30 June, 2013.
>
>It is expected that all participants will raise the funding for their
>air-ticket/transportation to attend the conference.
>
>Keynote Speakers:
>
>Prof. Moses Ochonu, Vanderbilt University
>Prof. Ken Harrow, Michigan State University
>Publication of Peer-reviewed papers: Africa World Press and the Carolina
>Academic Press will publish the best papers selected from the conference.
>Please visit TOFAC website
>www.ibadanculturalstudiesgroup.org/toyinfalolaconference regularly, for
>update on further information on TOFAC 2013.
>
>TOFAC Representatives in the United States:
>
>Ms. Lady Jane Acquah l.jane26@hotmail.com
>Prof. Julius Adekunle (jadekunl@monmouth.edu)
>
>TOFAC/ICSG LOC Members:
>
>Prof. Ademola O. Dasylva, Redeemer's University, Mowe, Ogun State, Nigeria
>(TOFAC Board Chairman and Convener)
>
>Prof. Ayo Olukotun, Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences and Entreneurial
>Studies, Lead City University, Ibadan.
>
>Dr. Doyin Aguoru, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State,
>Nigeria.
>
>Dr. Mark Ighile, Redeemer's University, Mowe, Ogun State, Nigeria
>
>Dr. Anya Egwu, Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria.
>
>THE TOFAC BOARD
>
>--
>Lady Jane Acquah.

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