Call for Papers: Representations of Violence: Art about the Sierra Leone Civil War, 03/03

Representations of Violence: Art about the Sierra Leonean Civil War February 28 - March 1, 2003

Co-Sponsored by the University of Wisconsin, Madison and 21st Century African Youth Movement Background

As Sierra Leone totters on the road to recovery and reconciliation after twelve brutal years of civil war that was marked by flagrant violations of international human rights laws, its citizens are slowly coming to terms with the memories of violence. From Goya and Picasso to Bosch and Malangatana, European, African artists and now Sierra Leonean artists have captured profound and highly stylized representations of civil war memories in visual art. This conference focuses both on how Sierra Leonean artists have represented these unique civil war experiences in art and how these memories of violence can be explored from diverse perspectives. There will be an exhibition of this substantial collection of works by Sierra Leonean artists about the civil war in the Memorial Union Potter Butts Gallery, University of Wisconsin, Madison from March 1 - March 30, 2003. To put the exhibition in context, we strongly encourage policy makers, advocates, students, scholars, friends and independent individuals and institutions to submit proposals that address any of the following themes:

* Contexts of violence -- crisis of youth; gendered forms of violence; children in war and children at war; victims, counterinsurgency and popular responses to violence

* Discourses of violence: representations of war and violence -- representations of civil war violence in different media (art, music, narrative, plays, video); psychosocial uses of the art about violence

* Reconstructing womanhood in postwar Sierra Leone - The diversity of aftermath experience; gender, youth and children's issues in the transition from war to peace; strategies for representing the interests of women in post conflict Sierra Leone; post-war shifts and adjustments and the transformation of gender relations.

This conference will involve guided tours of the exhibition, paper presentations, and open town-talk discussions on all the key issues raised during the conference.

We will give priority to abstracts received by December 31st. Please direct all enquiries and registration information to Abu-Hassan Koroma by email: african2000@writeme.com and email all abstracts to Patrick K. Muana, Kohuneh@pdq.net, Department of English, Texas A&M University, Blocker Building, College Station, TX 77843-4227.

P. K. Muana, Ph.D Department of English Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843 Tel: 979-458-3367 http://www-english.tamu.edu/pers/fac/muana