BOSTON UNIVERSITY AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES
CALL FOR PAPERS
"RACE, NATION, AND ETHNICITY IN THE AFRO ASIAN CENTURY"
AN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE APRIL 9-11, 2004

The 20th century witnessed the successful challenge of Western hegemony and white supremacy by Asian and African descent populations. From the rise of Japan as a world power to the American Civil Rights Movement and the overthrow of the apartheid regime in South Africa, African and Asian people succeeded in redefining the nature of their national communities and recasting international relations. Yet, confronting the racial and imperial order brought problems of its own. Japanese nationalism drove an indigenous imperialism with destructive consequences for Asia and for Japan itself. The independence of India led to partition, communal violence, and continued ethnic and religious separatism. In Africa, what Basil Davidson has called the “curse of the nation state” has plagued the continent with wars and ethnic conflict. In the United States, the success of the Civil Rights Movement enlarged the black middle class, but widened the gap between working class and middle class blacks as new groups of immigrants from Africa and the West Indies entered the country. New realities for Black and Asian populations in the global era posed complex problems difficult to address with the concepts of the past. Ironically, the national, ethnic, and racial strategies that facilitated national liberation and the fight against racism often frustrated efforts to achieve social justice, ethnic harmony, and international cooperation.

Our 2004 conference will address this irony by exploring the formation and significance of ethnic, racial, and national identities among African descent and Asian descent populations in Africa, Asia, and globally in the 20th century. The conference is focused on the role of racial, ethnic, and national thinking in inter-group, national, and international relations, such as in relations between Han Chinese and Chinese minorities, the intersection of ethnic nationalism and foreign policy in Japan, and Muslim/Hindu conflict in India. However, we also encourage papers on coalition building across racial, ethnic, communal, and national divides. Proposals for papers on movement such as Pan Asianism, Pan Africanism, the American Civil Rights Movement, the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, and separatist movements in the Punjab, Kashmir, and Indonesia are welcome provided they directly address the issues of race, ethnicity, and nation. Proposed panels and individual papers may be comparative in scope or focused on particular countries or groups.

To submit please send a 250 word abstract together with a current curriculum vita to the address below by October 1, 2003. You may submit by email to Dr. Christine Loken-Kim via email below.