Call for Abstracts

African Literature Association Conference 2017

Africa and the World: Literature, Politics, and Global Geographies

The theme chosen for the June 14-17, 2017 conference at Yale seeks to engage with and interrogate recent shifts in critical and theoretical frameworks from regional, national, and “postcolonial” models towards “world literature” as a framework for understanding the literatures of the Global South. How useful is the category of world literature in our ongoing contestation of Eurocentrism in the interpretation of African literatures and cultures? What possibilities are offered by African literatures and cultures for (re)imagining the world, including the “world” posited by recent theorizations?

The conference also addresses the ongoing implications for the continent of global analytical frameworks, including those used to think about urbanization, gender and sexuality, public health, politics, regional identities, and the environment. How are these frameworks mediated in African literatures and cultures?

Proposals are invited for papers, pre-constituted panels, seminars, and roundtables in the following areas, and on other topics relating to ALA members’ research, and caucus interests:

• African literatures, world literatures
• Audiences and readerships
• Conflict and literature
• Diasporic and transnational connections
• Digital and social media
• Global aftermaths of slavery
• Popular arts
• Publishing in Africa
• Urbanism and literature

Deadline for proposals: 15 November 2016

Notification of acceptance of proposals: 20 January 2017

Important information:

Proposals are limited to a maximum of 3 scheduled events per person.

You will be asked to specify the format (paper, pre-constituted panel, seminar, roundtable) when submitting your abstract. You must be a member of ALA to present a paper or chair a session.

To submit your proposal click here.

Categories: Calls for & opportunities

Tags: African Literature Association, ALA 2017, ALA Conference