Call for Papers: African Literature Association, 15-19 April 2009, 04/09

African Literature Association
35th Annual Conference
April 15-19, 2009
University of Vermont

Final Call for panels, round tables, and papers

General Theme: Africa and Blackness in World Literature and
Visual Arts

The last two ALA conferences focused on various ways African
and African Diaspora literature has functioned as a cultural
catalyst that nurtures black people's subjectivity in the
age of globalization. As a conclusion to the series, the
35th Annual ALA Conference will focus on the ways creative
writers and artists from other cultural traditions have imagined
Africa and blackness in the past as well as the extent to
which that imagining has evolved and can be said to foster
intersubjective dialogue in the age of globalization. As
always, the conference will also welcome panels on other
unexplored or inadequately explored aspects of African and
African Diaspora literature.

Subthemes:

• Africa and Blackness in Classical Literature and Visual Arts
• Africa and Blackness in Modern Literature and Visual Arts
• Africa and Blackness in Contemporary Literature and Visual Arts
• Africa in African Immigrant Writers' Literature and Visual Arts
• Africa in African American and African Caribbean Literature and Visual Arts
• Black Artists and Reconstitution of Black People's Subjectivity
• Cosmopolitanism in African and African Diaspora Literature
• African and African Diaspora Literary Criticism and Global Cultural Dynamisms
• Postcolonialism and Postcoloniality in Relation to Africa and Blackness
• Approaches to Teaching African and African Diaspora Literature (Teacher Workshop)
• Other aspects of African and African Diaspora Literature
  
  
  

Plenary speakers: Wole Soyinka, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Michael Echeruo, V.Y. Mudimbe, Nkashama Pius Ngandu,Magdalene Odundo, and Zakes Mda.

Please send a short abstract to the conveners at
ALA.conference@uvm.edu, or by mail to Lokangaka Losambe,
Department of English, University of Vermont, 400 Old Mill,
Burlington, VT 05405, USA. The final submission deadline is* January 10, 2008*. For information on pre-registration and ALA membership dues,
please visit the 2009 ALA conference website at:

http://www.uvm.edu/conferences/ALA2009

Page Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar, Ph.D.