Pub: Gabrielle A. Hezekiah, PHENOMENOLOGY'S MATERIAL PRESENCE.

Hezekiah, Gabrielle A.  Phenomenology's Material Presence: Video, Vision and Experience.  Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2010.

Phenomenology’s Material Presence draws on recent work in phenomenology, embodiment, and cinema and extends the field by examining metaphysical presence in postcolonial cinema. Where other scholarship has assimilated insight from individual phenomenological thinkers, Phenomenology’s Material Presence utilizes the methods of these thinkers—Husserl, Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty—to produce a richly textured and poetic essay that brings them into conversation. Through a meditation on three experimental videos by Trinidadian filmmaker Robert Yao Ramesar, this book makes the case that video performs an act of phenomenological inquiry. Phenomenology’s Material Presence extends our theorizing in both film studies and philosophy. Further information on the book is available here: http://www.press.uchicago.edu/presssite/metadata.epl?mode=synopsis&bookkey=8928333.

See also her presentation in the Norman Jewison Series at York University, Toronto: Gabrielle A. Hezekiah speaks on Phenomenology’s Material Presence:

Gabrielle A. Hezekiah addresses key questions raised in her new book, Phenomenology’s Material Presence: Video, Vision and Experience. How do aesthetic practices engage with experience? How do we arrive at a description of that experience? What does phenomenological method offer in the way of description and what is to be gained by the use of phenomenology as a distinct approach to moving image theory? Can video be shown to perform – rather than illustrate – philosophical methods and concepts? In her talk, Hezekiah will draw on the experimental video documentaries of Trinidadian filmmaker Robert Yao Ramesar and the insights of philosophers Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Her presentation includes screenings of Ramesar’s videos Heritage: A Wedding in Moriah, Mami Wata and Journey to Ganga Mai. Admission is free and all are welcome.  For further information, visit: http://www.yorku.ca/yuevents/index.asp?Event=21685&Category=54&ShowCal=&TimeSame=Feb&Month=2&Year=2011&EventTitle=York%20Events:%20Norman+Jewison+Series%3A+Gabrielle+A.+Hezekiah+speaks+on+Phenomenology%92s+Material+Presence.

Cfp: "The Crisis of Public Education and the Transformation of Society," Shifting the Geography of Reason VIII, Caribbean Philosophical Association, Rutgers University, September 28-30, 2011.

Featuring:

Plenary session commemorating 50 years of Frantz Fanon's passing with Mireille Fanon-Mendès France, Lewis Gordon, Nigel Gibson, Drucilla Cornell, and others TBA

Boaventura de Sousa Santos on the crisis of the university

Panel on the crisis of the humanities with Walter D. Mignolo, Nelson Maldonado-Torres, and other participants TBA

Plenary session awarding the 2011 Frantz Fanon and Nicolás Guillén Prizes: the 2011 Frantz Fanon Award winners are: Susan Buck-Morss for Hegel, Haiti, and University History, and Marilyn Nissim-Sabat for Neither Victim nor Survivor: Thinking Toward a New Humanity (attendance confirmed).

2011 Nicolás Guillén Award winner: Junot Díaz (attendance confirmed).

As always, we invite submissions (papers, panels, roundtables) that explore race and racism, gender, colonization and decolonization, sexuality, imperialism, and migration, social and intellectual movements, and related areas, not only in the Caribbean, but globally. We accept proposals in English, French, and Spanish.

Visit: http://www.caribbeanphilosophicalassociation.org/.

"Caribbean Globalizations: Histories, Cultures and Genres, 1493 to the Present Day," Oriel College, University of Oxford, September 27-29, 2010.

This conference aims to map and analyse the multiple engagements of various Caribbean countries with the complex and vexed process that is ‘globalization' since 1493 (when Columbus landed in Guadeloupe). The region has undoubtedly been the source of a number of the literary-critical paradigms by which we understand this process. Examples of these include: ‘Créolité', ‘creolisation', ‘la relation', ‘the Commonwealth', ‘world literature', ‘the Black Atlantic' and ‘littérature-monde'. However, as the recent disturbances in Guadeloupe and Martinique have suggested, Caribbean countries are also actively rethinking their own identity and place in a world where the Western economic model of globalization is more in question than ever. Similarly, in the cultural sphere, the effects of this process on the region have been the subject of a growing and divergent debate.

‘Caribbean globalizations' seeks to make an intervention in this debate by focussing critical attention on the differing engagements with globalization produced in the Caribbean cultural field. The cultural field has long been a particularly fertile arena for Caribbean globalizations. The diversity that characterizes the cultural and social realities of the region – arguably forged in the context of earlier forms of globalizations – has been an enduring source of inspiration for Caribbean artists, writers, and intellectuals. At the same time, their work has expressed a preoccupation with generating theoretical and aesthetic frameworks – globalization being, perhaps the first among equals – to account for the specificities of their societies as well as the shifting range of ‘relations' that these societies maintain both within and beyond the ‘Caribbean region'. The conference aims therefore to foster a wide-ranging discussion of the possibilities presented by Caribbean cultural production for reflecting upon and re-imagining the idea of globalization. It will seek to explore the multiple engagements with – and representations of – this phenomenon by Caribbean writers, artists, and intellectuals and, as such, interdisciplinary and comparative approaches (bringing together the different languages spoken in the region) are encouraged.

The following themes will serve as starting points to guide the process of reflection and the expectation is that they would be interpreted as broadly as possible:

• Histories: How do Caribbean artists, writers, and intellectuals represent and situate globalization within the history of the region? What alternative histories of globalization are presented in their works? How is the idea of a Caribbean ‘history' itself represented?
• Geographies: How can the ‘Caribbean region' be defined? What types of geographies do Caribbean artists create and enact in their work? How do these engage with and/or re-shape current geographical configurations of the ‘West' and ‘the Caribbean', the ‘Mother country' or the ‘metropolitan space' and ‘the colonies', ‘home' and ‘adopted country', in a globalized world
• Languages: What role does language play in the processes of Caribbean globalization? To what extent does it challenge or uphold traditional dichotomies between ‘mother tongue' and ‘foreign tongue'?
• Cultures: How are the relations between globalization and the culture of the Caribbean to be understood? To what extent are notions of ‘highbrow' and ‘lowbrow', ‘indigenous' and ‘foreign', ‘local' and ‘global' challenged or re-configured?
• Genres: To what extent are traditional generic categories respected, challenged or re-invented by Caribbean artists and intellectuals? Can such engagements be situated historically and culturally within the processes of globalization?
• Identities: How is a globalized Caribbean identity represented and re-imagined? And how is ‘globalization' itself to be defined in a Caribbean context?
• Theories: What is the role of ‘theory' in defining ‘the Caribbean' and/or its relationship to the globalized world? To what extent are distinctions between ‘indigenous theories' and ‘foreign borrowings' relevant?

Further information may be found here: http://www.fabula.org/actualites/article34195.php.

Diagne, Souleymane. "Négritude." STANFORD ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PHILSOPHY May 24, 2010.

Towards the end of his life, Aimé Césaire has declared that the question he and his friend Léopold Sédar Senghor came to raise after they first met was: “Who am I? Who are we? What are we in this white world?” And he commented: “That's quite a problem” (Césaire 2005, 23). “Who am I?” is a question Descartes posed, and a reader of the French philosopher naturally understands such a question to be universal, and the subject who says “I” here to stand for any human being. But when “who am I?” has to be translated as “who are we?” everything changes especially when the “we” have to define themselves against a world which leaves no room for who and what they are because they are black folks in a world where “universal” seems to naturally mean “white”. “Négritude”, or the self-affirmation of black peoples, or the affirmation of the values of civilization of something defined as “the black world” as an answer to the question “what are we in this white world?” is indeed “quite a problem”: it poses many questions that will be examined here through the following headings: •1. The genesis of the concept •2. Négritude as revolt / Négritude as philosophy •3. Manifestos for Négritude •4. The inescapable disappearance of Eurydice •5. Négritude as ontology •6. Négritude as aesthetics •7. Négritude as epistemology •8. Négritude as politics •9. Négritude beyond Négritude Read the rest here: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/negritude/.

"Haiti and the Politics of the Universal," Centre for Modern Thought, University of Aberdeen, March 12-13, 2010.

(This conference is already past, of course, but I think it is still useful to include information about it here.) Since 1804, Haiti has named the founding, repressed, ‘legitimate’ violence of Western Modernity in its totality: both our spectral fantasies of slavery, revolutionary violence, and the ‘failed state,’ as well as the site of an eternally disavowed egalitarianism without compromise. After two centuries of neglect and disavowal, the Haitian Revolution has suddenly become a fundamental reference point for global emancipatory politics, a touchstone for critical philosophers such as Alain Badiou, Slavoj Žižek, Susan Buck-Morss, Peter Hallward, and Hardt and Negri. This conference will address this contemporary theoretical turn in Haitian Studies, discussing Haiti’s place in Atlantic Modernity and its central role in political history and theory since 1791. Topics will range from the world-historical significance of the Haitian Revolution to the place of Haiti in the global political order since 2004. The conference will bring together a mix of academic and activist speakers to discuss the broad historical, philosophical, and political implications of Haiti since 1791. Confirmed speakers include: Peter Hallward, Susan Buck-Morss, Bruno Bosteels, Alberto Moreiras, Kim Ives, Deborah Jenson, Patrick Elie, Chris Bongie, and Nick Nesbitt For more information, please contact Nick Nesbitt (n.nesbitt@abdn.ac.uk). Visit the conference website here: http://abdn.ac.uk/modern/node/201.

"Antillanité, Créolité, World Literature," University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, October 14-15, 2010.

Hosted by the Department of Language, Linguistics and Literature. This colloquium will explore a literature in French that, since the 2007 manifesto, more and more critics, suspicious of the term 'Francophonie,' now prefer to designate as 'Littérature Monde' (World Literature). This more inclusive term is already found in Glissant, who saw his concept of 'Antillanité' evolve toward 'Créolité.' Encompassing all the branches of a literature as diverse as the regions and experiences it describes, the expression 'Littérature Monde' has now become predominant. We will include in this colloquium, travel literature, literature of exile and those unclassifiable francophone texts situated between different cultural universes and sometimes two or three languages. Topics: Language alienation Littérature Monde/ World Literature Antillanité – Créolité Francophone literature and globalisation Multiple identities, creole identities Debate around Creolité: ideological backgrounds Works of P. Chamoiseau, J. Bernabé, R. Confiant Gender Representation in Caribbean literature Cultural and political aspects of Littérature Monde/World Literature Race, identity and cultural hybridity Caribbean language culture and politics Orature aesthetics World films in French Diasporic literature Migrant literature Please send a 200 word abstract and a 2 page CV by April 15, 2010 to: Dr Kahiudi Claver Mabana : kahiudi.mabana@cavehill.uwi.edu And Dr. Isabelle Constant : isabelle.constant@cavehill.uwi.edu The complete paper should be sent by August 30, 2010. Visit the conference website here: http://cavehill.uwi.edu/fhe/SpecialEvents/LLL/ACLWorldColloque.html.

"States of Freedom: Freedom of States," Duke University and University of the West Indies, Mona, June 17-18, 2010.

How are notions of freedom and governance practiced and contested within and across national spaces in the Caribbean postcolonial? This symposium explores questions of freedom and governance generated from the heart of creolization; a process that forged a uniquely global exploitation of discrete island territories for economic activity, regional influence, and military advantage by many of the major European metropoles. The continuities and discontinuities in this history form the inspiration for our consideration of discourses, cultural forms, geo-political alliances, models of states and citizenship, and forms of (un)freedoms that have emerged in the Caribbean. In this interdisciplinary symposium we will consider how states of freedom (and felt un-freedoms), have been, and are currently being imagined, performed and represented in politics, the visual and cultural arts, as well as in literature, and also examine the consequences of this for the creolization/kreyòlisation of places, power, people, ideas and knowledge. This symposium fosters an intellectual partnership and new networks of collaboration between Duke University and the University of the West Indies-Mona. It is co-sponsored by the Duke University Center for International Studies (DUCIS) and the Office of the Principal and Vice Chancellor at the University of the West Indies, Mona, and supported by the Deans of the Faculties of the Social Sciences and Humanities, the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES), the Department of History, the Institute of Caribbean Studies as well as the Center for Caribbean Thought. The organizing committee includes: Duke University, Michaeline Crichlow (AAAS and Sociology), Deborah Jenson (Romance Studies); UWI-Mona, Patricia Northover (SALISES, Mona), Matthew Smith (Department of History& Archaeology), Sonjah Stanley-Niaah (Institute of Caribbean Studies). Keynote speakers include: Prof. J. Lorand Matory (Chair, African and African American Studies, Duke University), and Prof. Rupert C. Lewis, (Professor of Political Thought, Department of Government, University of the West Indies). For further information, please contact: patricia.northover@uwimona.edu.jm, pat.northover@yahoo.com; tel: 876 927 1020 or 876 927 1234. Proposed titles and abstracts should be submitted by email under the subject heading “States of Freedom proposal,” by March 5, 2010.

"Violence in the Everyday Cultural Life of the Caribbean," Annual Conference, Caribbean Studies Association, Barbados, May 24-28, 2010.

The phenomenon of violence has become widely recognized as an increasingly intractable problem facing the Caribbean. The 2010 Conference of the Caribbean Studies Association invites scholars to explore the complexities of violence and all its implication for the region. We encourage attention to a wide range of issues including but not limited to the following: the foundational role of violence enabled by the European encounter,and its legacies; the authoritarianism of colonial and neo-colonial rule, as well as theviolence of postcolonial politics and political leadership; structural violence and its differentiated effects in the everyday lives of people; political violence; violence and cultural expressions; violence against women and children; violence, masculinity and heteronormativity; violence as spectacle; media and other representations of violence; and finally, alternatives to violence in the region and throughout its diasporas – whether through the spheres of policies, visual artifacts, street protests, community engagements, spiritual responses, or theatrical and literary interventions. We anticipate that examining the role of violence in the cultural life of the region will also lead to an exploration of the often-neglected dimension of violence, namely, the deprivation of rights for particular sectors of the population, affording an opportunity to address crucial issues relating to sexuality and the denial of full benefits of citizenship in the Caribbean. Lastly, an exploration of the role of violence in the cultural life of the Caribbean would of necessity involve the phenomenon of class exploitation and repression, important to the social reproduction of society. In short, this year’s conference theme provides a space for a full discussion of the physical, emotional, psychological, social and political exploration of the notion of violence. The policy implications of this topic are unavoidable and urgently needed; it is to this end that the subtitle poses the question, where do we go from here? As the largest and most well-established professional organization of Caribbean scholars, we should offer some input into how public policy concerning violence is formulated. The CSA could, for example, begin to investigate the cost associated with violence in the region, namely, the pressures on the public health system to address the needs of those victims of violence, prison costs resulting from conflict, the violence of poverty and unemployment, and the monopolization of violence by the state, inter alia. We welcome panel and individual submissions from people across the humanities, arts, social sciences, public policy and civil society organizations. Suggested Topics: The state’s monopoly of violence Capitalism and structural violence Representing violence Domestic and sexual violence Violence against children Violence and citizenship Violence and everyday life Transnationalism, diasporas and violence Crime, violence and the law Violence and the artistic imagination Race, ethnic cleavages and political violence Violence unleashed on the environment of the Caribbean The role of violence in the cultural life of the region We are seeking scholarly papers from individuals spanning the broadest disciplinary and methodological range whose work focuses upon the Caribbean and its Diaspora. While we consider individual papers, we encourage submissions of entire panel proposals. We also encourage and welcome graduate student submissions. While your paper/panel does not have to be on the conference theme, we do welcome submissions that address the theme, whether directly or indirectly. Further information is available here: http://www.caribbeanstudiesassociation.org/en/index.html.

Cfp: "Shifting the Geography of Reason: Music, Rhythm and Movement," 7th Annual Conference, Caribbean Philosophical Association, Cartagena, Colombia, August 11-14, 2010.

We invite proposals from scholars in any discipline who aim to 'shift the geography of reason' by exploring critical, theoretical, and creative questions about or relating to the Caribbean, its Diaspora, and the 'global south' more generally, including the South in the North. We particularly welcome North-South and South-South intersections and/or dialogues. In recognition of the central importance of music, dance, festivals, and performance in the Caribbean, this meeting will focus on shifting the geography and bio-graphy of reason through music, rhythm, and movement. Both, paper and panel proposals that address the broader and ongoing organizing theme of the CPA (“shifting the geography of reason”), and those that focus on any of the specific themes highlighted in this year’s conference, are welcome. We invite explorations of race and racism, gender, colonization and decolonization, sexuality, imperialism, and migration, social and intellectual movements, and related areas, not only in the Caribbean, but globally. We accept proposals in English, French, and Spanish.

Send submissions for panels and abstracts of individual presentations by March 31st, 2010,by email to caribphil2010@gmail.com.  Visit the conference website here: http://www.caribbeanphilosophicalassociation.org/CPA_2010.html.

Cfp: "Caribbean Enlightenment," Caribbean Discussion Group, University of Glasgow, April 8-10, 2010.

An Interdisciplinary Caribbean Studies Conference. Keynote Speakers: J. Michael Dash, Professor of French, Social and Cultural Analysis, New York University Paget Henry, Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies, Brown University Nick Nesbitt, Centre for Modern Thought, University of Aberdeen Call for Papers: In a speech widely regarded as instigating the series of events that would lead to the overthrow of the Lescot government in 1946, André Breton's proclamation of Haiti's 'inalienable enthusiasm for liberty and its affirmation of dignity above all obstacles' articulated the enduring revolutionary conviction in the Enlightenment-inspired principles of liberty, equality and fraternity. This artistic, cultural and political expression of a universal right to freedom and self-determination reflects the diverse and complex ways in which Enlightenment ideals have found expression in the Caribbean. From the Haitian Revolution of 1791-1804 to The Black Jacobins, surrealism, négritude, and the contemporary writings of such theorists as Antonio Benítez-Rojo, Édouard Glissant, and Wilson Harris, the interrogation of universality has both contributed to the ongoing dissemination and creolization of Enlightenment discourse and has subjected it to a thorough critique. This conference aims to explore the various ways in which the site of the Caribbean, with its writers, artists, revolutionaries, and diverse peoples, has adapted and questioned the legacies of the Enlightenment. Acknowledging the Caribbean's crucial role in the Atlantic world, the Enlightenment's history of empire building and slave rebellions, colonial domination and postcolonial nation-building, the valorization of reason and its role in the division of knowledge will be interrogated against the dissemination of a discourse promoting universal human rights, democracy and equality. This conference seeks to bring together interdisciplinary perspectives on Enlightenment themes, both historical and contemporary, in order to trace the spread of a universalist discourse across the Caribbean. We hope to bring together Anglophone, Francophone and Hispanophone perspectives that explore figurations of the universal within the Caribbean context. Noting the region's national and linguistic divides, this conference will expose the ways in which Enlightenment ideals have been adapted to express the particular experience of the Caribbean peoples. Finally, we pose the question: 'Does the commitment to universalism amount to a totalizing discourse, or can universalism be revisioned'? We invite papers and panel suggestions that deal with any aspect of Caribbean Enlightenment, but which may include: Reason and Rule of Law Revolutions and uprisings Shortcomings of the Enlightenment: slavery and racism Development of 'improvement' in technologies, medicine and language Universal Human Rights, Democracy, Marxism, Self-determination Economics of Caribbean Enlightenment The impact of surrealism Négritude and the universal Appraisals of The Black Jacobins Contemporary Caribbean literature/philosophy and universality 'revisioned' Gendered, gay, racial, and class perspectives on universality Religion and the Caribbean Caribbean thought and 'post-continental' philosophy. Contact: Please send panel proposals and/or paper abstracts (300 words) with a brief biographical statement (150 words) to Dr. Lorna Burns and Michael Morris at caribbeanenlightenment@gmail.com by 1st December 2009. Visit the conference webpage: http://www.gla.ac.uk/faculties/arts/graduateschool/events/caribbeandiscussiongroup/caribbeanenlightenment/.

Cfp: "Global Caribbean(s): Interrogating the Politics of Location in Caribbean Literature and Culture," University of Miami, March 4-6, 2010.

Hosted by the Caribbean Literary and Cultural Studies Program, Department of English.

There is a growing body of interdisciplinary scholarship in Caribbean Studies that is focused on investigating the processes of globalization and ensuing social, cultural and political impact in the Caribbean. “Diaspora” is, more often than not, the critical lens through which many of these considerations are viewed and explored. Caribbean artists, writers and cultural critics have approached the question of location through global routes with an eye to examining the social, aesthetic, political, economic, and historical impact of diaspora on the region, while also considering regional currents that flow into, and even collide, in diasporic communities. Yet even as we are faced with economic and cultural opportunities of globalization we are also confronted with drawbacks that include loss of sovereignty and exploitative labor practices. Within the region, linguistic, political and cultural barriers persist and discussions of routes and intra-Caribbean flows remain under-theorized as nationalist agendas continue to dominate. Paradoxically, there are increasing concerns from critics in the region and in diaspora about the seemingly one-sided nature of critical exchanges about Caribbean literature and culture. There is no doubt that global flows have long since been one of the defining historical and cultural paradigms of the Caribbean. However, there is an urgent need for continued dialogue about the power dynamics that shape these paradigms and the cultural artifacts produced in the cross currents of these “global flows.” With this in mind, we invite papers that consider some of the following questions: Can we resituate our understanding of “location” as an indeterminate, or even shifting, locus of cultural inscription and what is at stake in such an effort? Can Caribbean culture (both local and global), be politically viable as a tool for social change given its increased popularity globally? In other words, can Caribbean popular culture be both commodified and transgressive? How has the Caribbean region reshaped its discourses of location, citizenship and “belonging” in response to new patterns of migration, supranational entities including NGO’s and corporations? Have the evolving exigencies of economic shortages contributed to new cultural trends and artifacts globally? How has the heightened emphasis on “green energy” and environmental policies impacted rural, tourist and industrial locations in the Caribbean?

Papers can also address, but are not limited to, the following topics: Caribbean Studies and the Politics of Location Can We Be at Home, While Abroad? Caribbean Studies Scholars in the U.S. Academy South / South Dialogues in Caribbean Studies The sacred, the erotic, and the semiotics of the body Queering Time and History in Caribbean Literature S/exile: Queer Sexuality and the Limits of Asylum Queering the Subject: Sex, Gender, and Queer Politics Global (re)configuration of sexual identities Global places, local spaces: CARICOM and the Politics of Regional Migration Global Environmentalism and Caribbean Conservationist Movements Border Clash: Sovereignty, Natural Resources and National Borders Return to Sender: Diaspora, Deportation and Discourses of Criminality National/Natural Disasters and The Politics of Immigration As Far as the Eye/I Can See: Caribbean Visual Culture in the Global Market Locating the Caribbean through Popular Culture You Know You are West Indian If … : Locating Regionalism Through Humor Digital Diasporas: Internet Expressions and Performances of Caribbean Identity Presentation proposals should be 250-500 words in length, in either Spanish or English, and should include name, academic affiliation and contact information. Panel proposals and alternatives such as dramatic performances and film screenings are also invited. Further information about plenary speakers will be disseminated as it becomes available. All proposals must be submitted electronically to cariblocationsconf@as.miami.edu. Deadline for proposals: November 30th, 2009 For further information and to register online please visit http://www.as.miami.edu/cls/.

Pub: Gordon, Anna, and Neil Roberts, eds. CREOLIZING ROUSSEAU. C. L. R. JAMES JOURNAL 15.1 (2009).

Contents: EDITORS’ NOTE

• "Introduction: the Project of Creolizing Rousseau" by Jane Anna Gordon and Neil Roberts

DEBATING CREOLIZATION: AN INTRODUCTION

• "Of Legitimation and the General Will: Creolizing Rousseau through Frantz Fanon" by Jane Anna Gordon
• "From Mestiçagem to Cosmopolitanism" by Alexis Nouss
• "Beyond Négritude and Créolité: the Ongoing Creolization of Identities" by Mickaella Perina

CREOLIZING ROUSSEAU

• "Rousseau, the Master’s Tools, and Anti-Contractarian Contractarianism" by Charles W. Mills
• "Rousseau and Fanon on Inequality and the Human Sciences" by Nelson Maldonado-Torres
• "From Rousseau’s Theory of Natural Equality to Firmin's Resistance to the Historical Inequality of Races" by Tommy J. Curry
• "Rousseau and the Problem of Democratic Transition in Postcolonial Africa" by George Carew
• "C. L. R. James and the Creolizing of Rousseau and Marx" by Paget Henry
• "Virtuous Bacchanalia: Creolizing Rousseau’s Festival" by Chiji Akọma and Sally Scholz

REVIEW ESSAYS

• "Rousseau, Social Alienation, and the Possibility of Generative Critique: a Review Essay" by Emily C. Nacol
• "On Pateman and Mills’s Contract and Domination" by Lewis R. Gordon
• "Space, Power, Consciousness and Women's Resistance: a Review Essay" by Gertrude Gonzáles de Allen

ACCEPTANCE LETTER OF THE FIRST RECIPIENT OF THE CPA NICOLÁS GUILLÉN PRIZE FOR PHILOSOPHICAL LITERATURE

• Wilson Harris

BOOK DISCUSSION

• "Sylvia Marcos’s Taken from the Lips as a Post-secular Transmodern, and Decolonial Methodology" by Nelson Maldonado-Torres
• "On Sylvia Marcos’s Taken from the Lips" by Karen Torjesen
• "On Sylvia Marcos’s Journey along the Spiral of Nahuatl Gender and Eros" by Madina Tlostanova
• "Cosmology and Gender in Sylvia Marcos’s Taken From the Lips: Gender and Eros in Mesoamerican Religions" by María Lugones
• "Unapologetically to Introduce New Goals and Methods: a Reply" by Sylvia Marcos

The table of contents can also be read online at: http://www.temple.edu/isrst/Publications/CLRv15n1.asp. If you wish to obtain a copy of the issue, please direct your requests to Paget Henry (Paget_Henry@brown.edu), Executive Editor of the C. L. R. James Journal. In addition, the complete introduction that articulates the project of creolizing Rousseau and summarizes the essay of each author can be found at: http://www.williams.edu/africana-studies/NeilRoberts/CreolizingRousseauIntroduction/EditorsNotes.htm JANE ANNA GORDON (jgordon1@temple.edu) teaches in the Department of Political Science at Temple University. She is the author of Why They Couldn’t Wait: A Critique of the Black-Jewish Conflict Over Community Control in Ocean-Hill Brownsville, 1967–1971 (Routledge, 2001), which was listed by The Gotham Gazette as one of the four best books recently published on civil rights, and co-editor of A Companion to African-American Studies (Blackwell’s, 2006) and Not Only the Master’s Tools (Paradigm Publishers, 2006). She is also coauthor of the forthcoming Of Divine Warning: Reading Disaster in the Modern Age (Paradigm Publishers, 2009) and is completing her next book, Creolizing Political Theory: Reading Rousseau through Fanon (Fordham University Press, forthcoming). NEIL ROBERTS (Neil.Roberts@williams.edu) is Assistant Professor of Africana Studies and Faculty Affiliate in Political Science at Williams College. Roberts’s work has appeared in Caribbean Studies, New Political Science, Philosophia Africana, Political Theory, Sartre Studies International, Shibboleths, and Souls. He is currently working on two book projects. The first is entitled Freedom as Marronage: The Dialectic of Slavery and Freedom in Arendt, Pettit, Rousseau, Douglass, and the Haitian Revolution, and the second is a comparative study of the Rastafari and Carl Schmitt.

Westmaas, Nigel. "Recognising and Celebrating Guyanese Philosophy." STABROEK NEWS June 8, 2009.

The recent passing of renowned historian, linguist, anthropologist, and philosopher of the first order, Ivan van Sertima, allows for some preliminary musings on the subject of Guyanese philosophy, its tradition and “acceptance.” Amid all the cynicism, emigration and a multitude of other problems bedeviling Guyana after more than a half century of political and social decline, can one safely raise the issue of a Guyanese philosophical tradition? In spite of the skepticism this might attract, it is important, as Rupert Roopnaraine states in his study of Stanley Greaves, “to celebrate the garden over the ashes” and respond to an often overlooked legacy. Guyana possesses a history of philosophical enquiry and output rarely acknowledged, perhaps on account of the guilt and division amplified by our pre and post independence condition (if a situation such as “post-independence” still exists). What exactly is philosophy and can we extend its usage here? To appreciate philosophy’s use we must eliminate the mystique from the term itself. The Concise Oxford Dictionary describes it as 1. Study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality and existence/a set of theories of a particular philosopher/the study of the theoretical basis of a branch of knowledge or existence 2. a theory or attitude that guides one’s behaviour. The term “philosophy” then in its broad sense and tradition is very rich and embraces many areas of learning. Evidently, the accreditation “philosophy” has for too long been restricted to the domain of mainstream western philosophers like Socrates, Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, Herbert Spencer, Arthur Schopenhauer or Karl Marx. While Kant, Marx et al are important philosophers and thinkers who should be read and appreciated, they are not the only source of human thinking and philosophy on a global scale. Many local contributions and bodies of work have been unconsciously disregarded because of probable insecurity on what constitutes philosophy and a lack of confidence in the assertion. But how do we define Guyanese philosophy? . . . Read the rest here: http://www.stabroeknews.com/2009/features/06/08/recognizing-and-celebrating-guyanese-philosophy/. [you may have to keep trying to access the article as the Stabroeknews.com website is very unreliable]

"Migrations and Diasporas," Sixth Annual Conference, Caribbean Philosophy Association, University of Miami, August 12-15, 2009.

Shifting the Geography of Reason 6. The Caribbean Philosophical Association (CPA) invites proposals from scholars in any discipline who aim to "shift the geography of reason" by exploring critical, theoretical, and creative questions about or relating to the Caribbean, its Diaspora, and the "global south" more generally, including the South in the North. We particularly welcome North-South and South-South intersections and/or dialogues. The theme for this meeting deals with migrations and diaspora. While proposals dealing with the broader organizing theme of the CPA ("shifting the geography of reason") will be welcome, the organizers are especially interested in presentations and panels that highlight questions about space, traveling, national and transnational communities, gender and sexuality, and issues of race and identity across migrations and diasporas not only in the Caribbean, but globally. We accept proposals in English, French, and Spanish. The principle goal of the CPA is to support the free exchange of ideas and foster an intellectual community that is truly representative of the diversity of voices and perspectives that is paradigmatic of, but not limited to, the Caribbean. The Caribbean is thus understood not solely as a geopolitical region, but more generally as a trope to investigate certain dimensions of the multiple undersides of modernity. Likewise, philosophy is conceived, not as an isolated academic discipline, but as rigorous theoretical reflection about fundamental problems faced by humanity. Understood in this way, Caribbean philosophy is a transdisciplinary form of interrogation informed by scholarly knowledges as well as by practices and artistic expressions that elucidate fundamental questions that emerge in contexts of "discovery," conquest, racial, gender, and sexual domination, genocide, dependency, and exploitation as well as freedom, emancipation, and decolonization. Reflection about these areas often appears in philosophical texts, but also in a plethora of other genres such as literature, music, and historical writings. The CPA invites theoretical engagements with all such questions, thematic areas, and genres with emphasis on any given discipline or field, but with a common interest in "shifting the geography of reason," by which we mean approaching the Caribbean and the "global south" in general as zones of sustainable practices and knowledges. As stated above, the principal areas of focus in the 2009 conference are migrations and Diasporas. See the CFP here: http://www.temple.edu/isrst/events/documents/CPA09CFP.pdf.

Cfp: "Remembering the Future: the Legacies of Radical Politics in the Caribbean," University of Pittsburgh, April 3-4, 2009.

This colloquium takes 2009, the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution and the 30th anniversary of the Grenadian and Nicaraguan revolutions, as an occasion to investigate and assess the complex legacies of revolutionary politics in the Caribbean region at large, and the global south more generally. David Scott has asked “how do we need to modify or translate the great modern theorists of revolution to speak to the considerably changed political landscape we inhabit today?” To this, we add: What do struggles currently underway in the Caribbean share with these longer revolutionary traditions, and how do they depart from them? To what extent have these very different revolutions with very different outcomes shaped the ground of subsequent movements in the region? What models of collectivity, what forms of political organization and alliance, emerge in different periods in the Caribbean, and what are their implications? What does “Cuba” mean in the popular memory or imagination of Grenada? What does “Grenada” evoke in Cuban popular and official memory? What links have been made or are possible between youth movements in, say, Cuba and Guyana or Jamaica? What forms of internationalism, what regional links and alliances, are now being forged, not only at the state level, but also at the grassroots level? What is the significance of the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela for the Caribbean? Participants are invited to think of their revolutionary histories in relational and regional terms rather than in an isolated national context. Given the historical authoritarianism of several revolutionary projects, how can we more supply theorize practices of dissent within the Left, whether it be insurrectionary or institutionalized? What productive relationships can be developed between grassroots/mass mobilizations and the state? What has been the role of the arts and cultural politics in contributing to a vital Left? (Such questions and answers will of course be specified differently in revolutionary, post-revolutionary, and anti-revolutionary states.) In all cases, we seek accounts that are historically grounded in particular regional struggles and contribute to the regional revitalization of egalitarian social movements. Tributes, critiques, comparisons, and redirections of the Cuban and Grenadian revolutions are all welcome in the spirit of contributing to democratic Left projects. Above all, we seek papers that engage with current practices and futures of radical politics in the Caribbean. For further information, visit the Conference homepage here: http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/clas/rememberingthefuture/concept.html.

Cfp: "Rethinking the Mangrove," 2nd Symposium Critical Practices in Caribbean Cultural Studies, University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez, Oct. 15-17, 2009.

'Rethinking the Mangrove' is an invitation to reconceptualize Caribbeanness beyond the limitations of nation, language and culture, focusing on the crosscurrents that traverse the multiple and overlapping spaces and subjectivities of the Caribbean. The roots of the mangrove, which hang above the water, evoke a Caribbean alternative to an ethno-linguistically monolithic ideal of identity symbolized by the terrestrial root. This conference solicits papers and panels in English, Spanish and French from across humanistic and scientific disciplines that explore notions of "Caribbeanness," "Antillanismo" or "Antillanité" or any of its many aspects. We invite paper and panel proposals in the following areas: Cultural theory of the Anglophone, Francophone and Hispanophone Caribbean Caribbean anthropologies, histories and/or literatures Gender, sexuality and Caribbean cultural studies Caribbean diasporas and migrations Caribbean popular culture Ecologies of the Caribbean archipelago (Post)foundational voices of Caribbean cultural studies (Counter)national discourses of the Caribbean Colonialism, neocolonialism andpostcolonialism in the Caribbean Caribbean integration initiatives (political, economic, cultural) Atlantic studies and the Caribbean Discourses of race in the Caribbean Historical legacies of slavery in the Caribbean Afrodiasporic cultures and identities in the Caribbean Transcaribbean cultural expression Latin American/Latino cultures and the Caribbean Visual arts in the Caribbean Visit the conference hompage here: http://academic.uprm.edu/manglar/.

Cfp: "Shifting the Geography of Reason VI," Annual Conference, Caribbean Philosophical Association (CPA), University of Miami, August 12-15, 2009.

The Caribbean Philosophical Association (CPA) invites proposals from scholars in any discipline, including graduate students, who aim to "shift the geography of reason" by exploring critical, theoretical, and creative questions about or relating to the Caribbean, its Diaspora, and the "global south" more generally, including the South in the North. We particularly welcome North-South and South-South intersections and/or dialogues. The theme for this meeting deals with migrations and diaspora. While proposals dealing with the broader organizing theme of the CPA ("shifting the geography of reason") will be welcome, the organizers are especially interested in presentations and panels that highlight questions about space, traveling, national and transnational communities, gender and sexuality, and issues of race and identity across migrations and diasporas not only in the Caribbean, but globally. We accept proposals in English, French, and Spanish. The principle goal of the CPA is to support the free exchange of ideas and foster an intellectual community that is truly representative of the diversity of voices and perspectives that is paradigmatic of, but not limited to, the Caribbean. The Caribbean is thus understood not solely as a geopolitical region, but more generally as a trope to investigate certain dimensions of the multiple undersides of modernity. Likewise, philosophy is conceived, not as an isolated academic discipline, but as rigorous theoretical reflection about fundamental problems faced by humanity. Understood in this way, Caribbean philosophy is a transdisciplinary form of interrogation informed by scholarly knowledges as well as by practices and artistic expressions that elucidate fundamental questions that emerge in contexts of "discovery," conquest, racial, gender, and sexual domination, genocide, dependency, and exploitation as well as freedom, emancipation, and decolonization. Reflection about these areas often appears in philosophical texts, but also in a plethora of other genres such as literature, music, and historical writings. The CPA invites theoretical engagements with all such questions, thematic areas, and genres with emphasis on any given discipline or field, but with a common interest in "shifting the geography of reason," by which we mean approaching the Caribbean and the "global south" in general as zones of sustainable practices and knowledges. As stated above, the principal areas of focus in the 2009 conference are migrations and Diasporas. Send submissions for panels and abstracts of individual presentations by February 15, 2009, by email to caribphil@yahoo.com. Abstracts should succinctly state the problem(s) addressed and identify the sources used in one paragraph to one page per individual presentation. All titles must include the name of the presenter, the highest university degree obtained, and the current institutional affiliation, if any. We will review proposals in English, French, and Spanish and will create panels for presentations in those three languages. More relevant information about membership, panel proposals, and the goals of the associations attached. Panel presentations must include a description of the panel as well as title and abstracts of individual presentations and the basic biographical information (as listed above) of each presenter. The maximum of presenters per panel is four, in addition to a moderator. The fourth panelist could be a presenter or a commentator. We will consider submissions of two to three interconnected panels on key issues that relate to the main theme of the conference. These panels will take place at different days and times throughout the conference to be determined by the organizing committee. We also encourage panels that seek to establish dialogues among scholars, and artists, professionals, activists, and community leaders who are in dialogue with intellectual and scholarly work. All presenters will be asked to pay conference fees, and in most cases, membership to the association as well. The conditions for membership and the fees for this year will be announced soon and are expected to be no more than most professional associations in the United States.

"American Tropics: Towards a Literary Geography," Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies, University of Essex, July 4-7, 2009.

By 'American Tropics' we understand an extended Caribbean, or what Edouard Glissant calls “the estuary of the Americas,” or what earlier scholars sometimes called 'Plantation America': an area including the southern USA, the Caribbean littoral of Central America, the Caribbean islands, and northern South America. The American Tropics project at Essex seeks to understand the writing associated with this area through a study of particular places within it: cities, borders, regions, natural features. Each place is a zone of encounter, bringing together sets of writing in different languages and styles, from different literary and cultural backgrounds, all of which have in common that attention to the same place. The project therefore approaches literary history via literary geography.

We call for papers which engage with this project in a number of different ways:-

• through attention to particular places and the writing associated within them;
• through consideration of the cultural features of particular places or regions within the American Tropics;
• through engagement with ideas of tropicality more generally, in America or beyond;
• through theoretical engagement with the ideas of literary geography or area studies as they pertain to the American continent;
• through consideration of significant circuits (personal, commercial, cultural) within and beyond the area.

Confirmed speakers include: Barbara Ladd, Richard Price, Sally Price, Susan Castillo, Elizabeth DeLoughrey, Sharon Monteith, Gordon Brotherston, Neil Whitehead, Selwyn Cudjoe, Bill Schwarz, Luciana Martins, William Rowe, Margarita Zamora, María Cristina Rodríguez, Lowell Fiet, Ineke Phaf-Reinberger, Shalini Puri, Leah Rosenberg, Wendy Gaudin, Sue Thomas, Susan Gillman.

The final call for papers runs until 31 December 2008.

Colleagues are encouraged to look at the developing project at http://www.essex.ac.uk/literature/American_Tropics/index.htm; Informal enquiries to Peter Hulme at phulme@essex.ac.uk; Formal offers of papers (title plus 300 word synopsis) to Lesley Wylie at lwylie@essex.ac.uk.

33rd Annual Conference, Society for Caribbean Studies, University of Hull, July 1-3, 2009.

The Society invites submissions of one-page abstracts and a short CV by 15th January, 2009 for research papers on the Hispanic, Francophone, Dutch and Anglophone Caribbean, and on Caribbean Diasporas for this annual international conference. Papers are welcomed from all disciplines and can address the themes outlined below. We also welcome abstracts for papers or for full panel proposals that fall outside this list of topics. Those selected for the conference will be invited to give a 20-minutepresentation and will be offered the opportunity to publish their work as part of the Society's online series of papers. Provisional Panels: Slavery and Emancipation Caribbean geographies: place and space Crime and criminality Sexualities Sickness, health and healing Visual and material culture Cultures of resistance Caribbean Religions Civil society and political economy Environment and development Sport and recreation The Cold-War Caribbean Short stories and oral traditions Theatre and performance Remittances and the transnational economy Further information is available here: http://www.caribbeanstudies.org.uk/.

Carter, Jacoby Adeshei. "Review of Lewis R. Gordon's AN INTRODUCTION TO AFRICANA PHILOSOPHY." NDPR (November 2008).

Gordon, Lewis R. An Introduction to Africana Philosophy. Cambridge: CUP, 2008. An Introduction to Africana Philosophy begins, as any text with that or any similar title should, with a discussion of the difficulties of firmly fixing an accurate conception of Africana philosophy. It is Gordon's aim to introduce Africana philosophy as a modern philosophy, where the modern period is inaugurated by the discovery of the "new world" and the institution of the Atlantic Slave Trade and continues on to the present. Gordon presents the reader with a veritable Who's Who of intellectuals who have made some contribution to Africana philosophy from antiquity to the present day. The result is a comprehensive, yet nuanced, account of how and by whom central themes in Africana philosophy have originated and been developed over time throughout the diaspora. For the most part, Gordon's book gives a comprehensive account of the wide ranging field of Africana philosophy while also providing a close look at its instantiations in particular thinkers and select geographic regions. Gordon makes an effort to pay attention to the emergence and development of central themes in various parts of the diaspora though, on the whole, the book is heavily weighted in favor of discussions of African American and Afro-Caribbean philosophy over African philosophy. . . . Read the rest here: http://ndpr.nd.edu/review.cfm?id=14705.