Caribbean Philosophical Association (Miami 2009)

The Caribbean Philosophical Association
Announces
A CALL FOR PAPERS FOR ITS
2009 ANNUAL MEETING:
August 12-15, 2009
UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI, CORAL GABLES
FLORIDA (USA)
Theme: Shifting the Geography of Reason:
Migrations and Diasporas

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.

In keeping with this focus, we encourage papers and panels on topics such as:
Nation and migration
Decolonization theory/decolonial thought
Religion in the Caribbean and the Diaspora
Africana philosophy
Diaspora in literature, music, and visual art
Oppositional consciousness
Caribbean & Third World feminist thought
Migration of social movements
Citizenship, Diaspora, and “illegal” migrant status
Political theory and political economy
Critical race theory
Maroon practice and thinking
Caribbean migration in the North
Indo-Caribbean philosophy & literature
Indigeneity, mestizaje, and creolité
Philosophy and literature in the Antilles & the Diaspora
Postcolonial phenomenologies
Radical philosophies
Pan-Africanism
Afro-Judaism
Psychoanalysis and deconstruction
Social contractarianism

Board Members and Participants include:
Nelson Maldonado-Torres, UC-Berkeley, President
Michael Monahan, Marquette U., Vice-President
Michelle Gonzalez Maldonado, U. of Miami, Main local organizer
Lewis R. Gordon, Temple U. & UWI-Mona
Linda Martín Alcoff, CUNY-Graduate Center
Brinda Mehta, Mills College
Walter Mignolo, Duke University
Enrique Dussel, UAM/UNAM-Mexico
Paget Henry, Brown University
Jane Anna Gordon, Temple University
Arturo Dávila, Laney College/UC-Berkeley
Clevis Headley, Florida Atlantic U.
Marina Banchetti-Robino, Florida Atlantic U.
Ramabai Espinet, University of Toronto/Seneca College
Brian Meeks, University of the West Indies, Mona
Françoise Naudillon, Concordia University
Marilyn Nissim-Sabat, Lewis University
Stephen Haymes, De Paul University
Patrick Goodin, Howard University
Alexis Nouss, University of Montreal
Rozena Maart, The Biko Institute, South Africa
Charles Mills, Northwestern University

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.

We thank the University of Miami for offering its facilities and sponsoring this conference. Other sponsors include the Institute for the Study of Race and Social Thought at Temple University. We also thank Florida Atlantic University for its contribution to the CPA’s official publication, the CLR James Journal. Other sponsors will be listed here and in other spaces as the conference approaches.

The Caribbean Philosophical Association

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.

More information on the CPA:

The CPA is a non-profit organization founded on June 14, 2002 at the Center for Caribbean Thought at the University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica. Since then, the organization has held conferences in Barbados, Puerto Rico, Montreal (Canada), Jamaica, and Guadaloupe.

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.

Although the focus is on engaging philosophy that emerges in the Caribbean, membership is not limited exclusively to scholars with degrees in philosophy, and any region and historic moment is open to the exchange of ideas. In similar kind, membership in the organization is not limited to professional scholars. Any one with an interest in theoretical and philosophical work can become a member. Finally, the Caribbean Philosophical Association is also dedicated to assisting with the development of institutions that would preserve thought in the Caribbean and facilitate the creation of new ideas.

The CPA offers two prizes every year: the Frantz Fanon prize for outstanding book on Caribbean philosophy, and the Nicolás Guillén prize for outstanding literary book.