New Media and the Global Diaspora 2009

Roger Williams University, Bristol, RI
October 1-3, 2009

Theme: Exploring Media in Caribbean Diasporas

Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island is hosting a symposium that addresses the relationship of media to the global diaspora. The symposium focuses primarily on the migrations of the past 100 years and how the “living traditions” transmitted by these communities are continually subject to loss, gain and interpretation. Media developed during this same period play a role, both directly and indirectly, in this process as these traditions become transplanted into their “new home.” The symposium seeks to: 1) encourage academic discourse focused on transnational migratory populations and the role new media plays in transmitting and sustaining their living traditions; 2) create a forum for researchers in the liberal arts and other disciplines studying the nature, significance and consequence of global migration; and 3) provide a concert performance of traditional music and dance illustrating the vitality of these living traditions. We envision this symposium as a celebration of global communication, the liberal arts, and Roger Williams University's mission to “bridge the world.”

While committed to the exploration of all immigrant communities across the globe, this year’s symposium will have a particular focus on the Caribbean diaspora that has developed around the world in the last century. To this end, the symposium will highlight panels, round tables, guest speakers and performances that emphasize the diversity and complexity of peoples from this region and their diasporic communities.

The symposium organizers invite works that explore media in relation to diasporic communities, particularly those that speak to this year’s spotlight on Caribbean diasporas. We welcome academic papers from a variety of perspectives in all disciplines, from theory, qualitative research, and empirical studies to literary and cultural studies. Topics might include, but are not limited to: • Real Places, Virtual Spaces: Creating Cultural Communities Through Media
•Exploring Gender at the Crossroads of Media and Culture
•Seeing Diaspora: Media, Community and Visual Rhetoric
•Media as Culture: Myth and Reality in Film
•Locating Interdisciplinarity: Technology and the Humanities

To submit a paper, please visit our website at http://newmediasymposium.org/index.html. Authors should submit complete papers (not to exceed 20 pages). As these papers will be blind peer-reviewed, please follow the submission instructions carefully:
•Papers should have a top sheet with the Title, Name of the author(s), Email address and Affiliation.
•The abstract section should give a clear sense of the scope of the paper and the method of inquiry used.
•Please remove all identifying information from the body of the paper.

Submission deadline: Friday, MAY 15th, 2009.
For more information, please contact Dr. Kamille Gentles-Peart at kgentles-peart@rwu.edu.