The ASA’s 2012 annual meeting will be held November 15-18 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. We are seeking PANELISTS and a CHAIRPERSON/COMMENTER to join in an exploration of the manner in which arts, letters, and activism have communicated various ideas of black identity across global/local trajectories. In keeping with the American Studies Association’s 2012 theme, “Dimensions of Empire and Resistance,” we wish to probe the use of cultural production and racial identity toward political ends—whether to project regional racial issues onto the global stage on the one hand or to harness transnational racial identities to local struggles on the other. Through this conversation, we hope to further an investigation of the role of art and race in both perpetuating and resisting manifestations of empire, capitalism, and white supremacy at the global and local levels. This call is open to projects which explore black self-fashioning of racial identity as well as investigations of the manner in which others have sought to thrust identity upon black Americans. We invite submissions examining art, cultural production/practice, and all modes of expression—whether aural, visual, or written. Additionally, while we are particularly interested in the global/local transmission of racial identity during the Jim Crow-era, we are open to projects dealing with any historical time period.

Panelists: please send a 1 page CV and brief project proposal by December 27, 2011.
Chairperson/Commenter: please send a 1 page CV by December 27, 2011. All proposals and inquiries should be sent to Robert Hawkins at rlhawkins@bradley.edu
Notifications will be made before the 1st of the year.