DÁ FALA

Comparative and Intercultural Approaches Dr Eleanor K. Jones (Univ. Southampton, e.k.jones@soton.ac.uk) Dr Emanuelle Santos (Univ. Birmingham, e.santos@bham.ac.uk)

In a global climate that has seen the language of internationalisation come to rely on the practice of isolationism, it is more important than ever for cultural scholarship and critique to look beyond borders of all kinds: national, political, affective, linguistic and disciplinary. The study of Portuguese-speaking cultures, and particularly those of Portuguese-speaking Africa, is no exception. While recent years have seen the study of Portuguese-speaking African cultures established as a legitimate field, work that puts these cultures into dialogue with those of the wider world remains limited, leaving research and teaching in the field largely confined to within the disciplinary borders of Portuguese Studies. With a view to both stimulating the development of such scholarly dialogue and locating the study of Portuguese-speaking Africa more firmly within African Studies, this stream seeks contributions that engage the cultures of Portuguese-speaking and/or Portuguese-writing Africa — including subcultures, communities and diasporas — with those outside of that remit, through comparative, intercultural or transnational approaches. We wish to look beyond disciplinary boundaries, and we thus encourage contributions from colleagues in all areas of the humanities, including the social sciences. Likewise, we are keen to hear not only from scholars who consider themselves part of the field of Portuguese-speaking African studies, but also from those who engage with the cultures of Portuguese-speaking Africa as a secondary or minor element of their research.

Following this thematic stream at ASAUK, we hope to consolidate and disseminate its contribution to knowledge by working toward future events, interventions and publications.

Topics might include, but are by no means limited to: • Comparative approaches to Portuguese-speaking African and other cultural products (literature, film, visual arts, new media), histories, political systems, press, and discourses

• Encounters, relations and intersections between Portuguese-speaking African and other cultures (historical, current or potential)

• The location of Portuguese-speaking Africa in global critical theory and debate

• Portuguese-speaking African cultures in South-South dialogue

• Portuguese-speaking Africa and Pan-Africanism

• Acts of political and/or military intervention, collaboration and mediation (e.g. Cold War proxy interventions during and after the independence struggles; São Tomé e Príncipe and the Biafra Airlift; Guinea-Conakry, the PAIGC and Portuguese aggression; Mozambique and Zimbabwean/ South African majority rule struggles; Angola and the Second Congo War)

• Acts of commercial engagement (e.g. Chinese interests in Angola and Mozambique; the drugs trade through Guinea-Bissau; international tourism in Cape Verde; São Tomense-Nigerian oil agreements)

• The engagement of non-Portuguese-speaking African cultures and nations with the cultural organisations of ‘Lusofonia’ (e.g. Equatorial Guinea and the CPLP)

• The location of Portuguese-speaking African nations relative to wider political and/or commercial blocs (e.g. the EU; the Commonwealth; NATO; the AU; the UN)

• International aid organisations and NGOs in Portuguese-speaking Africa

• Indigeneity, stateless nations and separatism in Portuguese-speaking Africa