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The Third International Caribbean Conference in Brazil will take
place in Goiânia, Brazil, between October 20th and 24th.
The conference theme - Hybrid Cultures in the Atlantic: Relations
between Africa, Asia, Brazil, and the Caribbean - covers four minor
themes: 1. Cultures of labour and migration; 2. Globalisation and
international relations; 3. Literature, music, dance, image, and
memory; 4. Comparative history.
CECAB - Centro de Estudos do Caribe no Brasil - is the first research
centre in Brazil entirely devoted to the study of the Caribbean.
Since its establishment in 1994, it has become a national and
international reference for Caribbean studies in Brazil. Through its
pioneering work in Brazil (where it remains the only centre of its
kind), it has already organised two international conferences. It has
helped Brazilian, Caribbean, and other researchers carry out work
related to the Caribbean. It has also helped train, through its
association with the Departments of History of Universidade Federal
de Goiás and Universidade de Brasília, masters, doctoral, and
postdoctoral students working on the Caribbean. The Centre is
located in Goiânia, Central Brazil, just south of Brasília, the
national capital, and ninety minutes away by plane from São Paulo.
One of Brazil's lesser known states, Goiás has become in recent years
one of its richest states (through export-oriented agribusiness) and,
due to its pristine, bountiful and often splendid nature, also the
prime destination in the country for adventure and ecological
tourism. Its capital, Goiânia, is the second greenest state capital
in Brazil and, just like its better-known neighbouring city,
Brasília, is a planned, modernist metropolis.
The conference theme and minor themes attempt to integrate into
scholarly discussions of the Caribbean region the Brazilian Caribbean
(Brasil Caribe) as two regions where black cultures have been very
important in relation to other cultures. The inclusion of the regions
Norte (North) and Nordeste (Northeast) of Brazil as part of the
Caribbean is already a fact that is internationally acknowledged in
both the political and scholarly domains. In what concerns Goiás
state, the growing visibility accorded to Central Brazilian black
cultures has smoothed the way towards comparative studies related to
those two other regions. Those studies have gone beyond notions of
territory and nation through the use of concepts such as cultures of
migration, the relations between different kinds of cultural
hybridism and a notion of frontier/border. All these concepts and
notions also go beyond traditional dichotomies and divisions. They allow us
to go beyond the idea of monolithic, inner-looking cultures. Here it is
important to reflect on how contacts and forced or spontaneous migratory
processes have helped shape the diverse identities of ethnic groups and
individuals. The conference themeattempts to look at the hybrid origins of
Caribbean cultures through the study of the importance of continents other
than Europe in shaping Caribbean identities, particularly Africa and Asia.
The Caribbean element contributing to cultural hybridism in the former
metropolises will also be examined in the context of globalisation.
The stress on Africa and Asia, instead of Europe or the US and
Canada, results from an awareness that subaltern cultures are often
studied in terms of concepts and categories created by hegemonic
cultures. The challenge here is to reflect on ourselves from our own
experiences and concepts. Later these will be discussed as part of a
broader dialogue with Europeans, US citizens, and Canadians. Of
course, we expect that researchers from Europe, the US and Canada
with an interest in the Caribbean will also take part in the
conference. The primary purpose of the conference however is, as in
the previous conferences organised by CECAB, to strive towards
bringing Brazil closer to (Afro-) Caribbean, African, and Asian
cultures. A secondary aim is to contribute to the interdisciplinary
debate in various research fields, particularly those related to
history and anthropology.
Prospective participants are encouraged to propose either individual
papers or panels. The deadline for sending abstracts is March 31st,
2004. The abstracts (and panels) selected will be posted on our web
site by April 30th. Full papers should be sent before July 31st. Abstracts and papers can be sent either by
e-mail or else to the address below.
The Conference is a joint undertaking by Centro de Estudos do Caribe
no Brasil (Centre for Caribbean Studies in Brazil) of Universidade
Federal de Goiás, Secretaria de Ciências e Tecnologia do Estado de
Goiás (Department for Science and Technology of Goiás State), the
History Graduate School and History Department of Universidade
Federal de Goiás, Universidade Católica de Goiás, History Graduate
School of Universidade de Brasília, Espace Nouveaux Mondes (FLASH,
Université de La Rochelle, France), Instituto de Historia de
Michoacán, Mexico, and Universidad de Gran Canaria in Spain.
Conference convenors are Olga Cabrera, Fernando Rosa-Ribeiro, Maria
Teresa Cortés Zavala, Jaime de Almeida, Laura Muñoz, Miguel Suárez
Bosa, Terezinha Marra, Elisabeth Bicalho and Júlia Bueno de Morais.
ALL ENQUIRIES TO the contact below.
* This notice has been forwarded to you by the AHRB Centre for Asian & African Literatures *
__________________________________________________________
AHRB Centre for Asian and African Literatures at UCL and SOAS
School of Oriental and African Studies
Russell Square
London WC1H 0XG
Tel + 44 (0)20 7898 4267
Fax + 44 (0)20 7898 4239
http://www.soas.ac.uk/literatures
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