DÁ FALA

To whom it may concern,

Please find below the call for papers for a thematic panel me and a few colleagues at ICS (Institute of Social Sciences - Lisbon) are organizing for this year’s European Geographies of Sexualities Conference, to be held in Brighton (UK) on the 2nd and 3rd of September, subordinated to the theme “Uncomfortable Spaces”.
Its title is Probing into atmospheres of urban (dis)comfort, and the deadline for individual paper submissions is on the 29th of March. You can find further details about the panel at the ebd of this e-mail. 
We are particularly interested in the sometimes convergent, sometimes contradictory relations between colonialism and cisheterosexism as concomitant systems of oppression, as they give shape to urban space; in the atmospheric and affective operation of various forms of exclusionary violence in urban life, and in insurrectionary and oppositional modes of inhabiting, surviving, and critiquing that violence.
You can find additional information on the conference (and on the panel itself), along with the paper submission form, on the conference’s official website: https://2024.egsconference.com/

Please feel free to forward this email to anyone who might be interested in this call - and thank you in advance for your time and attention! :)

All the best,
Salomé Honório(salome.honorio@ics.ul.pt)

The next Contemporary and Historical Archaeology in Theory meeting will be held in Lisbon on November 10-12, 2022. But why Lisbon?

Many archaeologists have been engaging with current debates on the decolonization of the discipline. However, very little has been said about the impact of these discussions in the field of historical and contemporary archaeology.

Is the decolonial movement changing the kinds of questions we ask? Our methods? There’s a lot to talk about and some of us will certainly bring it up in Lisbon.

Lisbon is one of the largest open-air museums of colonialism in Europe. Every corner will remind you of a past that is not past yet in the shape of a statue, a tropical tree, a pastry shop, a street name honoring some conqueror.

Like in many other towns across the continent, coloniality lingers on the streets, is embedded in our things, and shapes everyone’s lives. Many of us are questioning this state of affairs. No surprises here. Can we archaeologists do anything about this?

The event’s image was inspired by a story that tells a lot about contemporary discussions on the legacies of colonialism. In 2017, the city got a new statue honoring Jesuit António Vieira, known for his missionary work in Brazil and his eloquent sermons. Vieira was also known for standing up against the enslavement of Brazil’s indigenous communities while supporting the enslavement of Africans.

Statue of António Vieira. Photo by Rui Gaudêncio (Municipality of Lisbon)

Do you wonder why would anyone think of doing a statue like this in the 21st century? Many people asked the same. The statue became a focus point for decolonial demonstrations as soon as it was built. Right-wing extremists responded by occupying the plaza and threatening protesters.

More recently, an anonymous artist graffitied the statue with the word “Descoloniza” (Decolonize), painted hearts on the indigenous kids, and sprayed the priest’s body as if he was stained with blood.

The statue of António Vieira in 2020. Photo by Paulo Lourenço (Jornal de Notícias)

The graffiti were quickly cleaned. Yet, the artist’s powerful message stayed with us and inspired Nikola Krizanac to create this image for the CHAT conference.

Hope you’ll feel inspired too, and join us in Lisbon in November!

More informations here.

Keynotes

List of Confirmed Keynotes and Artist talk
More to be announced soon

Doug Bailey

Doug Bailey (PhD, Cambridge, 1991) is a visual archaeologist at San Francisco State University in California. Doug’s early research and teaching focused on European prehistory and prehistoric art; he ran survey and excavation projects in Bulgaria and Romania and published widely on the Neolithic period (6500-3500 cal BC), architecture and settlement, and anthropomorphic figurines. His Balkan Prehistory: Incorporation, Exclusion and Identity (Routledge, 2000) and Prehistoric Figurines: Representation and Corporeality (Routledge, 2005) are now classic texts in their fields. His 2010 book and exhibition, Unearthed (Sainsbury Center, Norwich), radically attacked traditional approaches to the publication and museum presentation of prehistoric art.  

Currently, Doug is developing the new field of art/archaeology in which archaeologists, artists, and others create work that goes far beyond traditional academic boundaries (for examples see www.artarchaeologies.com). Doug’s art/archaeology output includes alternatives to traditional archaeological narrative (e.g., visually provocative chapter-montages) and his recent book Breaking the Surface: an Art/Archaeology of Prehistoric Architecture (Oxford, 2018).  

With Sara Navarro, he co-curated the exhibition Creative (un)makings: disruptions in art/archaeology at the International Museum of Contemporary Sculpture in Santo Tirso (March-September 2020); his new show Releasing the Archive opens on January 19th at Carpintarias de São Lázaro in Lisbon. At San Francisco State University, Doug teaches the history and theory of archaeology, the archaeology of prehistoric and ancient art, and visual anthropology. For more information see http://anthropology.sfsu.edu/people/faculty/douglass-bailey. 

Sasha Litvintseva & Beny Wagner

Conjuring the Perceptible Unknown is a long-term research and production project created together with Beny Wagner that is unfolding over a series of films and essays.

Our collaborative practice as filmmakers and researchers has often centered on certain nodes in histories of science to act as prisms for questions we have surrounding the threshold between the body its surroundings, knowledge regimes and power, modes of organizing and perceiving the natural world. While both science and documentary films are often thought to uncover preexisting truths, our work takes as its point of departure an understanding that both non-fiction filmmaking and scientific research coproduce the realities they observe. Following an onto-epistemological view of scientific knowledge production, experiments can only measure the realities in which they intervene. Scientific concepts exemplify this, being thought by the historian of science Georges Canguilhem to be ideas, experiments, and projections that conjured phenomena into being. For us, all moving image, fiction and nonfiction, operates on a comparable paradigm, reconfiguring the physical world into new perceptual frameworks. Beyond discussions of the interventionist nature of documentary we view all moving image production is always manifesting something yet to be seen or known. Working from within the history of science our broader aim as filmmakers is not to depict certain episodes in the history of science but rather to cross pollinate these two fundamental systems of world organization towards developing new perceptual models. Both science and moving image have, throughout history, primarily served as tools through which to measure life forms and thus make them more predictable. As we navigate an era defined by ecological crises, our aim is to subvert the quantitative functions of these two systems towards the production of films that materialize the radical openness and ecstatic uncertainty intrinsic to life. 

Forthcoming:​ Constant, is currently in production and is supported by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg. 

Related films: A Demonstration 

Bilateria​​​

Related writing: Monster as Medium: Experiments in Perception in Early Modern Science and Film 

Never Odd or Even - on Palindromes and Metaphors

Call for Papers

Deadline for submissions: June 30th 2021
Acceptance notification: 31st July 2021

Our relationship with the body and the material world has been transforming following processes of digitalization that were in motion before COVID-19 but, as consequence, were potentially accelerated. It is urgent to foster research on what is the place for physicality and (i)materiality in our time. In this context, the 1st Graduate Conference on Science and

Technology of the Arts will focus on the intertwinement of notions of motion and emotion through interdisciplinary approaches from and towards the arts and/or heritage. Please see below detailed descriptions of these fields.

Contributions from the fields of Artistic Practices (Cinema, New Media Art, Digital Art, Music and Sound in particular), Artistic Studies and Cultural Studies, Heritage Studies and Conservation and Restoration are welcome, in multiple formats: papers, performances, artworks and installations, posters, audio-visual and digital essays. 

This conference aims to explore and discuss works covering the following themes/topics:

1-[e]motion

It is through our bodies that we understand ourselves, others, the lived world (Merleau-Ponty, 2002). Significant relationships established between body and environment underpin perceptual and affective experiences from which individual concepts, prepositions, and discourses, grow. Physical impressions are blended with cognitive processes as we think, understand, feel through our living (moving!) bodies, as claimed by embodied cognition theories (Varela et al., 2016; Leman, 2016).

In this domain we aim to focus on the role bodily movement assumes as expressive/emotion inducer and mediator of physical and virtual experiences, evoking the concept of motion as a link between past, present, and future, which unfolds in space and time upon the succession of previous positions, and is common to all living forms. Research and artworks centred in motion, emotion, technology, as well as their intertwinements are encouraged, in line with the following topics:

2-commotion

The acceleration of the processes of digitalization, in its present condition, leads to a social acceleration that is responsible for the compression of the present (Rosa, 2013), towards a state of constant and non-stop production (Crary, 2018). The contemporary overexposure to information and images causes innumerous cognitive and emotional transformations (Stalder, 2018), following the project of an economic system based around the production of isolation (Debord, 1967). 

With the increase of screen time, propelled by addictive content and algorithms that foster the visibility of emotional and controversial content, our consciousnesses (and our data) become the main asset of the attention economy. Therefore, our ability to develop and engage with communitarian and collective structures and relationships is reduced. At the same time, following Stiegler (2018) proposal of the technological pharmakon, technology might provide the tools and perspectives to critically transform its negative impact into a critical practice of education and resistance. Theoretical proposals and artworks that critically analyse the digital commotion and/or propose forms to expand the forms of contemporary experience, e.g. according to the following topics:

3-onward motion

The disturbances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on multiple sectors of activity worldwide, including arts and culture. Either by exposing underlying fragilities or by questioning established practices, the pandemic forced museums and other cultural institutions to reconsider audience and public engagement, both online and offline (Grupo de Projeto Museus no Futuro, 2020). Faced with a bleak scenario regarding the recovery of international tourism – a force that has been placed at the heart of growth strategies in its association to cultural heritage (Waterton, Watson, Silverman, 2017) – the focus was shifted to national and local publics. Even so, the acceleration of processes of digitalization, potentialized by the pandemics, resulted in the accentuation of socioeconomic inequalities, behind issues of technology and internet accessibility, affecting cultural and civic participation. Nevertheless, the online pandemic enabled the discussion of emergent topics, at a global level, such as climate change, gender and racial inequality, and (post)colonialism, revealing inherent tensions between cultural localisation and delocalisation processes. Moving forward pandemic times, how can cultural institutions support equality and representation from/within increasingly glocal communities (Robertson, 1995; Gikandi, 2001)? What can be the role of artists and a growingly number of different heritage practitioners (Clark, 2019) to promote participation, inside and outside physical spaces? How can (cultural) heritage contribute to social and economic resilience through the promotion of sustainable practices (Culture 2030 Goal Campaign, 2019)?

We encourage discussion through the submission of essays, papers, case-studies, practice-based research and/or artworks related to the following topics:

References

Conferência de Porto Santo (2021). Carta de Porto Santo. Ministério da Cultura. https://www.culturacentro.gov.pt/media/11842/pt-carta-do-porto-santo.pdf 
Clark, K. (2019). Further Exploration: Ten Principles of Values-Based Heritage Practice. In P. M. Messenger & J.S. Bender (Eds.), History and Approaches to Heritage Studies (pp. 150-153). University Press of Florida.
Culture 2030 Goal Campaign. (2019). “Culture in the Implementation of the 2030 Agenda”. Published in Barcelona, Paris, Harare, Sydney, Montreal, The Hague and Brussels, within the context of the first United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Summit on 24-25 September 2019. https://www.ifla.org/files/assets/hq/topics/libraries-development/documents/culture2030goal.pdf 
Debord, G. (2002). The society of the spectacle (Perlman, Trans.). Black & Red. (Original work published 1967).
Gikandi, S. (2001). Globalization and the Claims of Postcoloniality. The South Atlantic Quarterly, 100(3), 627-658. https://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/30720
Grupo de Projeto Museus no Futuro. (2020). In C. Camacho, C. (org.), Relatório Final. Ministério da Cultura. http://patrimoniocultural.gov.pt/static/data/docs/2021/02/15/RelatorioMuseusnoFuturo.pdf
Hartmut, R. (2013). Social Acceleration: A New Theory of Modernity. Columbia University Press.
Leman, M. (2016). The expressive moment: how interaction (with music) shapes human empowerment. MIT Press.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (2002). Phenomenology of Perception. In Central Works of Philosophy Volume 4: The Twentieth Century: Moore to Popper. Routledge.
Robertson, R. (1995). Glocalization: Time-Space and Homogeneity-Heterogeneity. In M. Featherstone, S. Lash, and R. Robertson (Eds.), Global Modernities (pp. 25-44). Sage Publications.
Silverman, H.; Waterton, E.; Watson, S. (Eds.). (2017). Heritage in Action – Making the Past in the Present. Cham: Springer.
Stalder, F. (2018). The digital condition. Polity Press.
Stiegler, B. (2018). The neganthropocene. Open Humanities Press.
Varela, F. J., Thompson, E., & Rosch, E. (2016). The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience (Revised Edition). MIT Press.

Disclaimer: Due to COVID-19 pandemic, this event may take a hybrid format. Any changes to the program will be communicated by the event’s Organizing Committee in due course, according to the evolution of the global pandemic situation.

Vendredi 4 juin à 14h aura lieu la sixième et avant-dernière séance en ligne du séminaire “Que peut le récit ? Pratiques historiennes, artistiques et curatoriales” proposé par Vanessa Brito dans le cadre d’un partenariat entre les Beaux-Arts de Marseille, le Collège International de Philosophie, le Frac Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, le Mucem, le cinéma La Baleine et la librairie L’Hydre aux mille têtes.

À noter que la dernière séance du séminaire aura lieu le vendredi 11 juin, toujours en ligne, en compagnie de l’historien Romain Bertrand.

Pour cette table ronde intitulée Les récits impliqués de l’art, les Beaux-Arts de Marseille invitent Sophie Orlando (historienne de l’art) et Olga Rozenblum (commissaire d’exposition, productrice et programmatrice).

Comment participer à un récit de l’art qui ne parle pas à la place des artistes, des militant·e·s, des communautés mais leur laisse leur place à table ? Comment les remettre au centre de la situation et de l’énonciation de l’art ? Olga Rozenblum et Sophie Orlando discuteront de leurs manières de faire, de leurs différentes relations à la fois aux personnes et aux archives. Elles échangeront sur leurs manières de faire émerger les tissages entre différentes générations afin de proposer des généalogies d’affinités politiques. Olga Rozenblum discutera notamment de ses projets autour de Guillaume Dustan, Maïa Izzo-Foulquier et Griselidis Réal, tandis que Sophie Orlando parlera des écritures des récits féministes de l’art, de son travail avec les pensées et les œuvres du Black art britannique, mais surtout de l’écriture des récits produits par et autour des écoles d’art.

Pour vous connecter à cette séance, suivez le lien Teams suivant :

Cliquez ici pour rejoindre la réunion

Les informations complètes sur la séance du 4 juin se trouvent sur le site de l’école et sur Facebook.  

Olga Rozenblum est co-fondatrice de l’espace indépendant Treize à Paris et des structures red shoes et les Volcans, à travers lesquelles elle accompagne des artistes dans leurs projets de films ou d’exposition, cherchant avec elles/eux des systèmes alternatifs de production et de diffusion. Elle a organisé ces dernières années le festival UNdocumenta (festival de films disparus), la rétrospective des films de Guillaume Dustan, l’activation du fonds du Centre de documentation international sur la prostitution créé par Grisélidis Réal.

Basée à Paris, Sophie Orlando enseigne les théories de l’art à la Villa Arson, à Nice. Elle écrit, édite, diffuse à propos de pratiques artistiques situées dans la sphère du conceptualisme, des arts noirs européens et elle partage des formes culturelles et pratiques antiracistes et antisexistes. Elle développe actuellement des textes, entretiens et programmes sur les pédagogies critiques appliquées au champ de l’art.

Vanessa Brito est professeure aux Beaux-Arts de Marseille et directrice de programme au Collège International de Philosophie.

À noter que la dernière séance du séminaire aura lieu le vendredi 11 juin, toujours en ligne, en compagnie de l’historien Romain Bertrand.

CHAM is proud to announce the organisation of its IV International Conference on  Innovation, Invention and Memory in Africa. Following very successful previous editions we are now focusing on Africa, its heritage, challenges and achievements. 

As a leading centre in the Humanities, CHAM aims in this edition to foster the presentation and discussion of multiple disciplinary approaches and contributions to the understanding of cultural, literary, historical, social, educational, artistic, ecological, and political landscapes in Africa. The conference will bring together students, academics, policymakers, community leaders, artists. It will promote a broad disciplinary approach to African Studies and a dynamic forum for discussion and knowledge production. A particular attention will be dedicated to the importance of future leaderships and to the role of young policymakers, researchers and artists. 

Call for panels: 5 July 2018 - 16 October 2018

Call for papers & posters: 1 November 2018 - 5 Feb 2019
Early bird registration: 14 March 2019 - 18 April 2019

Keynote

Paul Gilroy (Professor of American and English Literature, King’s College London)

Read more about the conference concept. 

Please note that the working language of the conference is English. Presentations may be delivered in Portuguese, although proposals (titles/abstracts) should be presented in English, and consideration given to the global audience.

INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR CONFERENCE DEBATE 20 de maio 2017 - 09h30-13h00
Morning of conferences and debate with two international specialists about the paradigmatic experiences in Brexit England and in Canada. The European Legislations on Migrants, specifically, irregular migrants (Sarah Spencer), and the promotion of mental health policies for migrant women and children (Nazilla Khanlou).
 Debate on migration and integration in the United Kingdom, Canada and Portugal.
 20 de maio 2017 | 09h30-13h00 | Sala de Exposições
Nazilla Khanlou
Professor and Chair of the Office of Women’s Health Research at York University.
Founder of INYI - International Network of Youth Integration.
 Ontario. Canada
Sarah Spencer
Director of the Global Exchange on Migration and Diversity Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS).
 University of Oxford. United Kingdom
 Entrada Livre Mediante Inscrição Para mais informações, contacte: Tel: 21 721 40 00

 saude@ics.lisboa.ucp.pt <mailto:saude@ics.lisboa.ucp.pt> www.ics.lisboa.ucp.pt <http://www.ics.lisboa.ucp.pt/>
Formulário de Inscrição 

Call for Documentaries

The 5th European Conference on African Studies (ECAS 2013) will take place between June 27 and 29, 2013, at ISCTE-IUL, in Lisbon, Portugal. In addition to the thematic panels and the keynote speeches, the conference will host a documentary film festival. The films submitted to the event must portray issues related to its general theme: African dynamics in a multipolar world. We strongly advise that the films submitted are spoken or subtitled in English, given the fact that the conference will gather academics from different nationalities and linguistic backgrounds. Moreover, the films proposed ought not to exceed the length of one hour (60 minutes).

The deadline is on March 29, 2013.
The documentaries can be submitted online via weTransfer (www.wetransfer.com) to the following e-mail address: joao.carlos.dias@iscte.pt, oreleonora.silva.rocha@iscte.pt.

info

International Conference
(Anti-)racism and critical interventions in Europe
Social sciences, policy developments and social movements
19-20 February 2013

Venue: CIUL Auditorium (Picoas Plaza, Lisbon)
Free registration: www.ces.uc.pt
(English-Portuguese translation services will be made available)

In contemporary Europe, we are witnessing the vanishing of anti-racism from political cultures and academic discourses, in favour of an approach that intervenes on immigrants and minorities themselves via public rhetoric on integration.

This conference will thus bring together an international community engaging in debates on racism and anti-racism to discuss the analytical approaches and main findings of the European research project TOLERACE - The semantics of tolerance and (anti-)racism in Europe: public bodies and civil society in comparative perspective, coordinated by the Centre for Social Studies.

The debate will focus on key issues that bring about an in-depth analysis of racism and anti-racism, such as the historical legacies of national formation processes and colonialism, contemporary political developments in European contexts, and the role of academia and social organisations in policy advice.

The event is intended as an opportunity to engage with policymakers, academics, political activists, journalists and stakeholders at local, national and European levels, discussing the difficulties of addressing racism in contemporary European contexts, as well as to propose a way forward by identifying approaches and key areas in which a sound debate on anti-racism can be constructed.

19 February
Opening Session
9:30-10:00 Welcome and Registration

10:00-11:00
Critical interventions in contemporary politics in Europe: the future of an anti-racist agenda
Chair: Maria Paula Meneses (Centro de Estudos Sociais).

Boaventura de Sousa Santos (CES)
Louisa Anastopoulou (EC project officer) – to be confirmed
Silvia Maeso (CES)
Marta Araújo (CES)

11:00-12:00
Keynote address: Jorge Sampaio (UN High Representative for Alliance of Civilizations).

Lunch break

14:00-16:30
The vanishing of anti-racism within policy developments in education and employment
Chair: Frank Peter (European University Viadrina/U. of Bern).

Presentation of TOLERACE case studies:
Marta Araújo (Centro de Estudos Sociais): “The ‘prudent integration’ of the Roma/Gypsies: Racism, school segregation and white flight”
María Martínez (Universidad del País Vasco): “From the racial question to the social question: avoiding (anti)-racism in the Basque educational system”
Tina Jensen (The Danish National Centre for Social Research): “Discrimination and Employment in Denmark: ‘Old’ and ‘New’ Immigrant Groups”
Salman Sayyid (CERS, University of Leeds): “Muslims in the labour market in the UK: Leeds and Leicester”

Comments:
Eva Smith-Asmussen (U. of Copenhagen/ECRI) and Robert Rustem (European Roma and Travellers Forum).

Discussion
17:00-18:00
Keynote address
David T. Goldberg (University of California, Irvine): “Postracial Conditions”
20 February
9:30-11:30
The politics of representation: (anti-)racism and the media
Chair: Ian Law (CERS, University of Leeds)

Presentation of TOLERACE case studies:
Simona Pagano (European University Viadrina, Frankfurt): “Chasing the gypsy, immolating the gypsy, securing the city: Roma and ‘nomad camps’ in the Italian media”
Ángeles Castaño (Universidad de Sevilla): “Cultural diversity in the media: immigration, education and Islam in Andalusia”
Hakan Tosuner (European University Viadrina, Frankfurt): “Female Victims - Male Perpetrators. Representation of the Muslim ‘other’ in the German media”.

Comments: Nadia Fadil (University of Leuven).

11:45-13:00: Documentary “Era uma vez um arrastão”/ “The Beach Rampage That Never Was”, Diana Andringa (2005)
Presentation by the documentary’s director
Discussion

Lunch Break

14:30- 15:30
Keynote address
Ramón Grosfoguel (University of California, Berkeley): Decolonizing Epistemic Racism/Sexism in Europe Today: “The Decolonial Perspective of Boaventura de Sousa Santos and Frantz Fanon in the Context of Decolonial European Struggles”.

16:00-18:00
Round table: The state, academia and policy advice: better horizons?

Chair: Silvia Maeso (CES)

Opening intervention: Kwame Nimako (University of Amsterdam)
Discussion:
Javier Sáez (Fundación Secretariado Gitano)
Arzu Merali (Islamic Human Rights Commission)
Mamadou Ba (SOS Racismo)
Sandew Hira (International Institute for Scientific Research)

18:30-19:30
Closing keynote address: Pedro Bacelar de Vasconcelos (Universidade do Minho).

web

The main question guiding the panel is the emergence of images in the context of imaginations of futures. Images as seismographers of radical shifts within societies - especially the iconography of revolution as the epitome of social change - will be discussed from interdisciplinary perspectives; .

This panel investigates the emergence of images as imaginations of futures. As seismographers of radical shifts within societies, images often anticipate changes before they appear in the political and social discourse. Revolutions as epitomes of social change produce visual figurations in art, film and popular cultures.

Africa is rarely discussed with a perspective on revolution and utopia in the sense of positive powerful concepts of futures. We argue that the investigation of visual archives of African revolutions may provide knowledge about appearance and trajectories of dynamic icons and the ‘agency’ of images (Gell 1998). Their affiliations and clusters in different media provide a deeper understanding of projections of futures and their relation to the past. If revolutions aim at something new, a “concrete utopia” (Bloch 1985), this has to be reflected in images as well. New images, we argue, can only emerge in the field of aesthetics, where imaginations of utopian space and time (Rancière 2006) are possible. Art emerges not as a tool for propaganda, but as powerful element of social and aesthetic discourse.

We invite interdisciplinary perspectives from literature, cinema and art studies, visual anthropology and cultural studies. We ask for different projections of the future from Africa and how these imaginations are traceable in art, film, and popcultures. How are they related to historical moments: revolutions, independences and the aftermaths? How can they (re-)define historical events? How can new images, imaginations, concepts of future be generated? How do aesthetic practice and politics relate in situations of change?

more Info:

http://www.nomadit.co.uk/ecas/ecas2013/panels.php5?PanelID=2081

Arterial Network will host its second annual conference on the African Creative Economy in Senegal. The conference dates are, November 14 -16, 2012.

The aims of the conference are to provide practical analysis and reflective overview of the current status of African creative economy. This should help consolidate emergent African expertise in this area while providing critical thought necessary in navigating the unfolding realties the sector is faced with. While anyone is invited to submit such expressions of interest, preference will be given to African speakers who are based on the continent and who have the relevant expertise, experience or potential in these fields. 

Submissions are to be sent to Espera Donouvossi at Espera@arterialnetwork.org by August 25, 2012. 

The best eight young African researchers based in Africa who will author and present papers at the conference will be awarded 250 Euros each. Read More

O Banco Mundial lançou recentemente um novo relatório que revela que, após décadas de crescimento lento, África revela uma mudança significativa em termos de crescimento económico. Os países africanos têm realizado, na última década, reformas económicas com efeitos positivos: crescimento económico anual de cerca de cinco por cento, mais receitas comerciais, menos desequilíbrios macroeconómicos, mais consumo doméstico. Ao longo dos últimos 10 anos, seis dos dez países que registaram um crescimento económico mais rápido são africanos. Além disso, o Banco Mundial estima que a percentagem de pobres em África caiu de 58 por cento, em 1999, para 47,5 por cento, em 2008.

Mas será que esse crescimento está realmente a contribuir para a redução da pobreza?

Na primeira Kapuscinski Lecture em Portugal, organizada pelo Centro de Estudos sobre África e do Desenvolvimento (CEsA), Jan Vandemoortele, antigo director do PNUD e um dos autores dos Objectivos de Desenvolvimento do Milénio, irá questionar se o crescimento económico, a boa governação e a ajuda internacional são ou não suficientes para reduzir a pobreza em África.

As Kapuscinski Lectures, inspiradas no jornalista polaco Ryszard Kapuscinski, são uma iniciativa do Programa das Nações Unidas para o Desenvolvimento (PNUD) financiadas pela Comissão Europeia. Na sua terceira edição, estas Lectures são um acontecimento singular, a nível europeu, para o debate sobre questões de Desenvolvimento global com especialistas de organizações internacionais, políticos, activistas da sociedade civil, empreendedores e académicos.

Contacto:
Luís Mah
luismah@iseg.utl.pt
+351919670642

Representation and Memorialisation of Violence in Africa in Art, Literature and Anthropology

The BIGSAS conference ‚Tracks and Traces of Violence – Representation and Memorialisation of Violence in Africa in Art, Literature and Anthropology’ takes place at Iwalewa-House, the Africa Centre of the University of Bayreuth (Germany) from 14th – 16th July 2011.

This conference zooms in on a specific phenomenon: violence. Cultural, social and individual medialization of lived experiences are often shaped and inspired by those violent events. Visual artists and writers from Africa have come to deal with these violent events of the recent past and the present.

By means of artistic practice they, often as both representatives and witnesses, struggle to find ways to engage with the traumas and atrocities of conflict and war of post-colonial African states and attempts towards reconciliation.

This conference discusses and explores tracks and traces of violence in – but not restrictively- artistic and literary practices as well as in anthropological works.

Keynotes:

Chris Odhiambo (Eldoret) and Youssef Wahboun (Rabat)

Reading by:

Ungalani Ba Ka Khosa (Maputo)

Further papers & performances by:

Joao Paulo Coelho (Maputo), Rachid El Adouani (Mohammedi), Sandra
Boerngen (Frankfurt), Sélom Komlan Gbanou (Calgary), Susanne Gehrmann
(Berlin), Antoine Hounhouenou (Abomey-Calavi), Johan Jacobs (Durban),
Christopher John (Durban), David Ngoran (Cocody-Abidjan, Strasbourg), Otobong
Nkanga (Kano, Antwerp), Metje Postma (Leiden), Detlev Quintern (Bremen),
Jo Ractliffe (Johannesburg), Corinne Sandwith (Durban), Busolo
Wegesa (Eldoret), Antje Ziethen (Kassel), Samuel Ndogo (Bayreuth)

Organized by BIGSAS-Workgroup Tracks and Traces of Violence:

Viviane Azarian, Katharina Fink, Amber Gemmeke, Moulay Driss El Maarouf, Maroua El Naggare, Samuel Ndogo, Duncan Omanga, Nadine Siegert

Questions can be addressed to: tracks.traces@googlemail.com

The program of the 2011 Annual Conference of the Canadian Association of African Studies (CAAS), which will take place this May 5-7 at York University (Toronto), is now available through the conference website, as well as the CAAS website.

A series of roundtables, planels, and papers specific to Luso-Africa and to Africa in Brazil appear therein,as follows.

1) Roundtables and Panels
IA1  Roundtable / Table Ronde
Études Africaines au Brésil: Perspectives sur le Présent et le Futur*
Moderateur: Bas’ Ilele Malomalo, Universidade Camilo Castelo Branco

Margarida Maria Taddoni Petter, Universidade de São Paulo
Études de la linguistique africaine au Brésil

Monica Lima e Souza, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
The Sound of Drums: Teaching and Learning African History in Brazil

Patricia Santos Shermann, Universidade Federal de São Paulo
Federal Law 10639/03 and the Orientations for the Higher Education Level in Brazilian Universities – A New Paradigm?

Valter Roberto Silvério, Universidade Federal de São Carlos
L´impact de l´édition portugaise de la collection de l´UNESCO de l´Histoire Générale de l´Afrique dans les Études Africaines au Brésil

* Table Ronde virtuelle livré à travers le WEB / Virtual roundtable delivered through the WEB

IB2  PANEL / SÉANCE
De l’Angola préhistorique jusqu’ à  l’Angola dans l’espace atlantique
Président: Frank Luce, Harriet Tubman Institute, York University

Maria da Piedade de Jesus, Museu Nacional de Arqueologia de Benguela
Recherches archéologiques sur les sites préhistoriques de Dungo à Baia Farta, (province de Benguela, Angola)

Selma A. Pantoja, Universidade de Brasília
Au coeur des affaires: parents et compères dans le commerce en Angola au XVIIIème siècle

Simão Souindoula, Unesco, Route de l’Esclave (Angola)
Rei do Congo / Rei de Maracatu ou la forte dynamique d’immanence politique africaine dans l’espace atlantique

IIA2  PANEL / SÉANCE
Angola under the Weight of the Slave Trade
Chair: José C. Curto, York University

Estevam Thompson, Universidade de Brasília
Community of Slave-Traders: Commercial and Personal Ties in Angola in the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century

Vanessa S. Oliveira, York University
The Punishment of Slaves in Nineteenth-Century Luanda
Tracy Lopes, McMaster University
The “Mine of Wealth at the Doors of Loanda”: Agricultural Production and Gender in Bengo, Angola

2) Individual Papers
Elaine Pereira Rocha, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill
Undesirable Sexuality, Unthinkable Love: Portraying Inter-Racial Relationship in Brazil and South Africa

Nielson Rosa Bezerra, Universidade Estadual do Maranhão
African Mariners in 19th Century Rio de Janeiro: Identities and Connections

Frank Luce, Harriet Tubman Institute, York University
A Protestant Missionary in Southern Angola: Murray MacInnes and the Liberation Struggle

Robert Farris, Churches’ Council on Theological Education in Canada
The Protestant Churches in Mozambique: a changing paradigm of Mission

Jared Staller, University of Virginia
Decadent Obscurity: Two Texts of Marginality on São Tomé (18th century)

Rafaela Jobbitt, York University
Exiled in “Paradise”: African Labourers, Disease, and Healing Strategies on the Plantations of São Tomé and Príncipe, 1880-1920

Amélia Polónia, Universidade do Porto
Formal and Informal Networks in African Slave Trade Circuits in the First Global Age (Portugal, 16th-17th. Centuries)

The Swahili Colloquium
The Swahili Colloquium has become a well-established forum in Bayreuth. Every year, we invite scholars and researchers from different disciplines, who work on various aspects of the language and the respective culture(s) to this unique colloquium. The multidisciplinary approach and the wide range of contributions from linguistics, literary studies to anthropology and history particularly account for the appeal of the colloquium. We are always looking forward to welcoming you all including new participants at the Swahili Colloquium. 

This year’s thematic focus
The 24th Swahili Colloquium will have a special thematic focus on ‘Swahili and Modernity’. This thematic focus suggests a concentration on modernising processes rooted in the 20th century, and essentially implies a perspective of change. It is an approach that promises interesting interdisciplinary discussions, as it can be fruitfully applied to linguistic change(s),
in considerations of innovations in the literary field mirroring fundamental social changes as well as in studies of social and cultural transformations. Although we would

like to suggest ‘Swahili and Modernity’ as a common point of discussion, this does not mean that we will not consider papers dealing with other topics, as the Swahili Colloquium tries not only to stimulate thematically-oriented interdisciplinary discussions, but also intends to provide a forum open to various contributions related to Swahili.  

We would like to ask you to give your paper either in Swahili or English. Each contribution will be granted 30 minutes (including ten minutes of discussion). Please register via email (to swahili@uni-bayreuth.de) and send us the title as well as a short abstract of your presentation till 30 March 2011. If your presentation is going to be in Swahili, we kindly ask you for a short English summary. Please also register if you merely intend to participate without giving a paper. 

If you have any questions, please, do not hesitate to contact us. You can reach us via the following email address: swahili@uni-bayreuth.de
We are looking forward to welcoming you at the 24th Swahili Colloquium in Bayreuth.  
Kind regards, 
Prof. Gabriele Sommer, Dr. des. Clarissa Vierke, Prof. Said A. M. Khamis

York University, Toronto, Canada

5-7 May, 2011

Plenary speakers:

 Achille MBEMBE, Wiser Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of the Witwatersrand, Exiting from the Long Night? Cultural Forms and Institutions in Africa- Sortir de la grande nuit? Formes culturelles et institutions  en Afrique ;

 Imed MELLITI, Institut Supérieur des Sciences Humaines, University of Tunis el-Manar: Jeunesses maghrébines : religiosité, enjeux identitaires et enjeux de reconnaissance- Maghrebine  Youth: Religiosity, Identity and Recognition ;

Donald SIMPSON, Innovation Expedition, Africa - Here and There in the Sixties: A Canadian Perspective. Afrique Ici et ailleurs dans les années 1960: Une perspective canadienne.

Official Conference Opening / Ouverture officielle de la conférence

Dr. Mamdouh SHOUKRI, President and Vice-Chancellor of York University/ Recteur et Vice-chancelier de l’Université York.

 The Canadian Association of African Studies (CAAS) extends a special invitation to scholars and professionals working on all aspects of African Studies for its next annual conference. The conference, to be held on May 5-7, 2011, at York University - Université York, Toronto, Canada, will be hosted by the Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples, York University, with the support of various internal and external sponsors. Our aim is to attract an international group of specialists at all stages in their careers to facilitate discussion and  dialogue, in both of Canada’s official languages, across disciplines and between scholars and professionals based in both the North and South.

 In recognition of 2011 having been proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly as the International Year for People of African Descent, the central theme of the 2011 annual conference of the Canadian Association of African Studies (CAAS) is Africa Here; Africa There. Africans have long peopled the African continent, as well as other landscapes through external migrations. During the modern era, the movement of African peoples has taken place under three major contexts: various trades in human beings, economic hardship emanating from natural and non-natural factors, and political, ethnic, religious and other types of persecution.

 Whether internal or external, the displacement of African peoples has always led to greater complexities within the host societies. Africans and people of African descent, free, freed or enslaved, made up a sizeable proportion of the population of Évora and Lisbon during the late 1400s and early 1500s and performed much of the most menial manual work while speaking various West and West-Central African languages and supplying characters and speech patterns to the works of contemporaneous playwrights  like Gil Vicente. The same was true of London, not to mention other places in the United Kingdom, from at least the time of Shakespeare to the early 19th century. By the mid-1800s, their presence and influence was even more pervasive in Brazil, as well as Cuba. Similarly if Africans and the descendants of Africans attempted to recreate their homelands, imagined or not, amongst host societies, as was the case of the marooned  Zanj in Iraq (869-883 A.D.), the great Bantu state of Palmares in XVIIth century Brazil, or  later the Igbo in Maryland and Virginia, Jamaica, and Barbados, the process today is no less omnipresent as exemplified by the existence of Little Angola in Rio de Janeiro, Little Nigeria in Houston, or the current attempt  to establish a Little Ethiopia in Toronto.

In other words, Africa has long existed within the old continent and beyond as well. This reality, far from signifying solely an African presence, points to a series of new ways of moving across and exploiting space stemming from an evolving division of world labor, distribution of resources, and production of modes of living together. Africa Here; Africa There will explore, in English and in French, the multifaceted complexities generated by these phenomena within and outside of Africa over time from the perspective of various disciplines.

The Canadian Association of African Studies (CAAS) contributes expertise, research, and informed debate concerning a wide range of African “matter” related to sociocultural issues, the arts, political economy, the environment and transnationalism, among others. Since 1970,CAAS has demonstrated how African issues matter to a wider range of Canadian and international publics in academic, policy-making, programming, and many other circles. The expanding recognition of African contexts and initiatives to a growing range of transnational practices (from humanitarianism to peace building; markets to social movements; climate change to food security; religious dynamism to health and education policies; sports to music, theatre and cinema; truth and reconciliation processes, migration and diasporas to the forging of the world) has meant the continent is taking on a greater prominence in the attention, imagination, and actions of more and more publics. We also encourage the submission, whether in English or in French, of research papers in these and other areas.

In the last forty years, like many other Northern nations, Canada has had expanding and diverse relations with Africa.

African immigration to Canada has increased not only through the regular immigration of professionals and others, but also, importantly, through refugees fleeing from conflicts in areas such as Uganda (1972), Somalia (since 1991), and Algeria (since 1992). In turn, a growing number of Canadians have been to Africa through an expansion of humanitarian and international development activities by Canadian governmental and non-governmental organizations, business activities, particularly in natural resources sectors, university exchanges, and tourism. Solidarity work by Canadian individuals and groups also increased during this period, from working with national liberation groups to supporting human rights agendas, from advocating for women rights to addressing health and environmental conditions.

Canadian governments have been preoccupied with African matters through international bodies such the Commonwealth, la Francophonie, the United Nations, and G-8 summits playing a visible part during the anti-apartheid struggle, peacekeeping and peace building activities, and supporting NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa’s Development), to name but a few.

The growing number of Canadians of African birth and descent have not only played important roles in such exchanges and ties but also helped to introduce or expand new consumption patterns and artistic practices in Canada(in food, clothes, music, film, literature, and the like) and new forms of religiosity and congregations. At the same time, there have been some tensions emerging in Canada-African relations such as: the tightening of visas on African visitors coming to Canada in the name of security and to limit refugee claims; a reduction in the number of Canadian peacekeepers in Africa; a recent reduction in number of African priority countries for CIDA; protests over labor practices and engagement against corrupt practices; and, limited African beneficiaries of Canadian direct foreign investment in Africa.

The above issues help to highlight key concerns and demonstrate why there is growing interest in Africa in Canada. However, there is a vast array  of topics of interest in African Studies beyond these issues, as well, that would be welcomed to be presented at this conference. From examining wide-reaching events such as the slave-trades, the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and current conflicts to the minutia of everyday life such as schooling practices, religious invocations, and media consumption, Africa Here; Africa There will provide an opportunity for the sharing of research and debate concerning the study of these issues in both English and French.

CAAS, including its Canadian Journal of African Studies, have historically embodied extensive coverage of the continent and, in that spirit of attending to all African

matters, this conference welcomes papers on a wide range of topics concerning Africa and African peoples abroad from a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches. In keeping with the bilingual nature of CAAS and the encouragement of bilingual study at York University, paper and panel proposals in French are particularly welcomed.

Africa Here; Africa There aims to continue the CAAS tradition that exemplifies why Africa matters to various publics in Canada and beyond. This Call for Papers intends to provide a forum for addressing and presenting academic  research and policy proposals that examine the histories, debates, policy issues, and current practices related to African matters.

The deadline for submitting paper, as well as panel, proposals has been extended to February 21, 2011. For information on submitting paper and panel abstracts, conference registration payment (on-line or by cheque), requests for funding for graduate students in Canada, and

accommodation possibilities please go to http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/~caas/en/2011conference.html