Boston University-
The African American Studies Program and The African Studies Center

2nd Call for Papers:

Community Building and Identity Formation
in the African Diaspora

Conference Date: 30-31 March 2007

The African American Studies Program at Boston University invites paper proposals for a multi-disciplinary conference on the comparative study of community building and identity formation in the African Diaspora in the Atlantic and Indian Ocean regions.

The formation of political and cultural identity is a vital question in contemporary social science and humanities disciplines. How do people living in diaspora form and maintain community and identity? To what political or social purposes is this identity formed? In the case of people of African descent living in diaspora, how are conflicting, competing, or cognate "identities" - e.g. maroon, mixed race, Islamic - integrated and negotiated in the context of diaspora?

The organizers are interested in papers from a variety of approaches on the themes of community building and identity formation in diaspora. For example, papers may address the role of women in community building and identity formation, transnational identity, or case studies of the intersection of identity in particular regions. We are particularly interested in papers that put the questions of community building and identity formation in the diaspora in comparative and historical perspective.

Please send a 250 word abstract together with a current curriculum vita to Christine Loken-Kim, Program Administrator, African American Studies, Boston University, 138 Mountfort Street, Brookline, MA. 02446. You may submit by email at lokenkim@bu.edu

The deadline for submitting abstracts has been extended to January 1, 2007.

Rev. 11/29/06