Black Migration Symposium Call for Papers

The Black Migration Symposium seeks to explore challenges, possibilities, and tensions emerging from the dynamic process of the dispersal and migration of Black/black people who self-identity and are identified as such. It will focus on Africa and the myriad communities of the African Diaspora in North America, the Caribbean, and Europe. We aim to create a forum to examine a range of issues relative to the theme of Black migration that interrogate theorizing inter group relations, identity matters, the intersection of race, gender, class, and sexuality, pedagogy, and theory, while examining the very concepts and terms informing this exploration. Further, in recognition of the power of art, film, and music in the production and transmission of enduring representations of groups worldwide, we will consider how artists (broadly understood) have created multi-layered social texts through media that not only draw people into contact with a wide set of cultural ideas, but that also transform assumptions about groups, particularly those racialized and stigmatized as Black in various societies.

Submissions from scholars, writers, artists, and community leaders whose work focuses on these questions in the Americas, Africa, and Europe, are highly encouraged. Panel/roundtable themes include:

• Immigrants, Natives, and National Identity
• Re/framing Migration: Trends in Research and Pedagogy
• Migration and Nashville
• Refugees
• Return Migration
• Repatriation, Expulsion, and Deportation
  
• Migration and Identity Matters
• Black Intergroup Relations
  

Planned Activities:

• Conference
• Keynote addresses
• Musical Performance
• Photography Exhibit
• Film screening with filmmaker participation

Post-Conference Opportunities:

• Selected papers from the conference proceedings will be published in an anthology.
  

Proposals should include a title, an abstract (250-word maximum), and a brief bio (150-word maximum). Please submit and address all applications and inquiries to blackmigrationconference2012@gmail.com by October 10, 2011.