MARCH 5-7, 2009

Scope
Conceptually. Papers should (1) address and promote an understanding of African culture as inclusive of the culture of the culture of Africans on the continent and Africans throughout the world, (2) foster scholarship that illustrates and investigates the mechanisms through which African culture has survived despite invasions, enslavement and colonization and (3) encourage the exploration of the cultural continuities between Africa and Africans throughout the Diaspora.

We invite the submission of paper or poster abstracts that focus on:
• Instances of cultural unity and/or similarities among African people throughout the world
• The retention of African culture and traditions (Africanisms) in the Caribbean and the Americas (i.e. spirituality, cultural norms, behaviors, patterns of speech, culinary arts, and aesthetic forms of expression whose roots are traceable to Africa) Instances of cultural unity and/or similarities among African people throughout the world.
• The diverse mechanisms through which the transmission of African cultural knowledge has been disrupted (i.e. through colonization, enslavement, neo-colonialism, schooling etc)
• African culture as a source of understanding and action in the context of contemporary phenomena.
• The intergenerational transmission of African culture (i.e. the role of parenting in the survival of African culture or documenting the knowledge and practices of elders in Africa, the Caribbean and the Americas). Interested faculty members, independent researchers and graduate students should forward a one to two-page proposal with literature references by December 30th, 2008
Deadline for abstract submission:
January 2nd, 2009
Notifications of acceptance will be sent to presenters early
February 2009