call for proposals 2010-final

8/6/2019 Call for Proposals 2010-Final

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AfricanStudiesAssociation

V V V V

Rutgers, The State University of New JerseyDouglass Campus

132 George StreetNew Brunswick, NJ 08901-1400

Tel: 732-932-8173 ~ Fax: 732-932-3394Web Site: www.africanstudies.org__________________________________________

__________________________________________

AFRICAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION

53rd

ANNUAL MEETING

Westin St. Francis Hotel, San Francisco, CANovember 18-21, 2010

Program Committee Chair: Mamadou Diouf, Columbia University

CALL FOR PROPOSALSDEADLINE: MARCH 31, 2010

The ASA invites proposals for panels, papers, roundtables and posters that examine currentscholarship and debates in all areas of African Studies. The Program Committee welcomes

submissions from Africanist professionals and scholars at all stages in their careers. TheASA will host a series of events at this year’s meeting directed toward graduate students

and beginning scholars. Proposals are particularly encouraged that focus on this year’stheme:

“A FRICAN DIASPORA AND DIASPORAS IN A FRICA ”

REQUIREMENTS FOR SUBMISSION

Membership dues and the pre-registration fee or the non-member pre-registration fee must

be paid for ALL participants before a Panel, Paper, Roundtable, or Poster Session proposalcan be submitted.

GUIDELINES FOR SUBMITTING PANEL, ROUNDTABLE AND PAPER PROPOSALS

Each individual may make only one presentation, as a paper presenter, a roundtable

participant, a poster session presenter, or a discussant. Individuals may chair one panel orroundtable in addition to making one presentation. The ASA online system will not allow the

submission of more than one Panel, Paper, Roundtable, or Poster Session proposal perindividual. Only complete proposals will be reviewed by the Program Committee. A co-

author may not be added after a paper has been accepted by the Program Committee.

SUBMISSION PROCEDURES:

All proposals must be submitted on line at www.africanstudies.org . Proposals sent

by email, hard copy, or fax cannot be accepted.

PANEL PROPOSALS

A panel typically has a chair, three or four paper presenters, and a discussant. A panel

proposal consists of the “Panel Proposal” form, the panel abstract, and a “Paper Proposal” form with an abstract for each paper presenter. The panel abstract should consist of astatement about the topic and a brief summary of the main argument(s) to be explored

(approximately one paragraph, or 8-10 sentences).

The quality of the panel abstract is the main criterion for acceptance; a panel with a weak

abstract or with two or more weak paper abstracts is unlikely to be accepted. PLEASE NOTE:

The Program Committee may add individual papers to a proposed panel and/or a discussant

if one has not been indicated.

Please note that in addition to the chair’s submission of the overall panel, each individual

presenter must login to the online submission system and submit their individual abstract. If



individuals fail to do so, they will be dropped from the panel during the program review.

Also, please note that each presenter who will submit a paper to the panel must be pre-

registered for the annual meeting in addition to the panel chair.

PAPER PROPOSALS/POSTER SESSION PROPOSALS

The “Paper Proposal” form should be completed for each paper that is being proposed for a

panel or for individual submission. The paper or poster session abstract should consist of astatement about the topic, the nature and extent of the research on which the paper orposter session is based and a brief summary of the main argument(s) (approximately one

paragraph, or 8-10 sentences). The quality of the paper or poster session abstract is themain criterion for acceptance. The Program Committee will create panels from individual

submissions with common themes and identify a panel chair and, if possible, a discussant.

Individual proposals may also be added to proposed panels at the discretion of the ProgramCommittee. Potential presenters are strongly encouraged to develop panel proposals.

ROUNDTABLE PROPOSALS

A roundtable typically consists of a chair and three to five presenters. A roundtable proposal

consists of the “Roundtable Proposal” form, the roundtable abstract, and the proposedroundtable participants. The roundtable abstract should consist of a statement about the

topic and a brief summary of the main argument(s) to be explored (approximately oneparagraph, or 8-10 sentences). The quality of the roundtable abstract is the main criterion

for acceptance. A roundtable with a weak abstract is unlikely to be accepted.

Please note that each individual who will present on the roundtable must be registered for

the Annual Meeting.

INDICATING A SUBMISSION CATEGORY

All proposals should designate the category for which the proposal is most appropriate.

There are two types of categories listed: those within the general program theme andgeneral categories for proposals that are not specific to the conference theme. All proposals

are reviewed by the Category Chair(s), who, together with the Program Chair, constitute the

Program Committee.

COORDINATE ORGANIZATION PROPOSALS

ASA Coordinate Organizations may submit one proposal for a panel or roundtable to be

accepted without review by the Program Committee. Coordinate organizations may alsoorganize submission of additional panel or roundtable proposals that will be evaluated by

the Program Committee like other submissions. All proposals must be submitted on or

before the Call for Proposals dead line of March 31 , 2010.

ASA POLICY ON PROPOSAL ACCEPTANCES

The Program Chair, working with the Program Committee, has final responsibility for

accepting or declining Annual Meeting proposals in accordance with guidelines that havebeen established by the ASA Board of Directors. All paper proposals will be reviewed

separately, whether they have been submitted individually or as part of a panel. TheProgram Committee makes every effort to keep panels intact but in order to accommodate

as many papers as possible and to enhance the overall quality of the program changes must

sometimes be made in the composition of panels. Efforts will be made to contact the chairof the panel affected by a change when it is made.

NOTIFICATION

Accepted proposals will be listed in the Preliminary Program, which will appear on the ASAwebsite, www.africanstudies.org in July. Notice that the Preliminary Program has been

posted to the website will be sent via email.



AFRICA RESIDENT REQUESTS TO PAY ONSITE

Africa residents who experience difficulty in paying their pre-registration fees online mayrequest to pay pre-registration onsite. Payment for membership dues cannot be made

onsite at the Annual Meeting and must be paid in order to receive member benefits

including the discounted member pre-registration rate. Member benefits will not be active

until membership payment has been received and processed. The pre-registration rate willbe based upon the membership status at the time of the request.

All requests to pay pre-registration fees onsite from Africa residents are automaticallygranted upon receipt of the required information which can be found, along with instructions

for submission, on the ASA website at : http://www.africanstudies.org/p/cm/ld/fid=46

Individuals submitting a proposal should submit their request on or before March 24,

2010 to ensure access to the online Call for Proposal system prior to the deadline. Allrequests will be reviewed and processed. Upon approval, individuals will receive a

confirmation email and will be able to participate in the online Call for Proposal process.Individuals who plan to attend the Annual Meeting and are not submitting a proposal should

submit their request on or before September 30, 2010.

Please Note: All requests to pay pre-registration onsite from Africa residents are

automatically granted upon receipt of the required information which can be found, alongwith instructions at http://www.africanstudies.org/p/cm/ld/fid=46. Other prospective

participants who do not reside in the US may contact the Secretariat [email protected] if they are unable to submit funds from overseas because of

difficulties in obtaining foreign currency.

LETTERS OF INVITATION

The ASA will provide a Letter of Invitation to assist individuals in expediting visas and

securing funding. A request for a Letter of Invitation can be made by sending an email to

[email protected] with “Letter of Invitation” in the subject line. If youneed a letter of invitation, you should submit a request at the same time that you submit

your paper/panel/roundtable proposal. Please note: The ASA cannot guarantee thatrequests received after September 30, 2010 will be honored.

CO-AUTHORS RESIDING IN AFRICA

Co-authors who reside in Africa and who WILL NOT be attending the Annual Meeting are notrequired to pay pre-registration fees. Requests to waive payment for a non-attending Africa

resident co-author will be granted upon receipt of written contact via email with “Non-

Attending Africa-Resident Co-Author” in the subject line at [email protected] orvia fax at 732-932-3394. Please include the co-author’s full name, institution or affiliation

name, and contact information. Requests to waive payment for a non-attending Africaresident co-author must be submitted on or before March 24, 2010.

REFUND POLICY

Individuals whose paper, panel, poster, or roundtable proposal has been declined and who

will not be attending the meeting may request a refund of their pre-registration fee. Theserequests must be made in writing via email to [email protected] or via fax at

732-932-3394. Membership dues cannot be refunded. Membership dues and pre-registration fees are not transferrable.

NON-ATTENDANCE/WITHDRAWALS

Presenters should notify the Secretariat in writing as soon as possible if they will not be able

to attend. The information will be included in the Final Program or in the Final Programaddendum. Replacement presenters cannot be added after the Call for Proposals has closed.



REPLACEMENT CHAIRS

If a person assigned as a Panel or Roundtable Chair cannot attend the Annual Meeting, the

replacement chair will be selected from the other panel/roundtable presenters on the basisof alphabetical order by last name. Efforts will be made to contact the chair of the panel

affected by a change when it is made.

ACCESS POLICY

The African Studies Association is committed to ensuring that its services and meetings areaccessible to all Africanists. If you have any special needs or require special assistance to

participate in an ASA event, please contact Kimme Carlos, Program Manager, AnnualMeeting Services, at 932-732-8173 x15 or by email at [email protected].

AUDIO VISUAL EQUIPMENT

Due to the rapidly increasing costs charged by hotels for AV equipment, the ASA is no

longer able to provide projection or sound equipment. However, each meeting room will

have a screen. Presenters may arrange to rent AV equipment through the ASA’s contractedAV vendor. Please consult the contact information that will be on this page on or before

August 15, 2010. Presenters are also encouraged to bring their own AV projectionequipment onsite. The ASA understands the importance of AV support for many presenters

and the Association is working to develop strategies to facilitate AV support.

GRADUATE STUDENT PAPER PRIZE

The ASA Board of Directors established the Graduate Student Paper Prize in 2001 torecognize the best graduate student paper presented at the previous year's Annual Meeting.

All papers presented by graduate students at the Annual Meeting are eligible for the prize,

which is awarded at the subsequent Annual Meeting. The editors of the African Studies

Review will coordinate an expedited peer review process for possible publication of the

prize-winning paper. Graduate students may submit their paper with a letter of

recommendation from their advisor postmarked on or before April 1 of the year followingthe Annual Meeting to: Graduate Student Paper Prize Competition, African StudiesAssociation, Rutgers University, Douglass Campus, 132 George Street, New Brunswick, NJ

08901-1400, or emailed as a PDF attachment to [email protected].

2010 ANNUAL MEETING THEME STATEMENT

“AFRICAN DIASPORA AND DIASPORAS IN AFRICA” Mamadou Diouf,

Middle East, South Asian &African Studies and History DepartmentsDirector, Institute of African Studies

Columbia University

What relevance does the concept diaspora hold today for the study of Africa? The primary

objective of this year’s theme, “African Diasporas and Diasporas in Africa,” is to take up thisquestion, and to revisit the concept of diaspora from the perspective of the African continent

to assess its application and utility today in the study of Africa and a broader self-identifiedBlack diaspora. This kind of enquiry entails the double movement of revisiting the concept

and its development since the 1950s, and picking up where the early scholars left off toexplore past and present articulations, conceptualizations, and theories of the “African

diaspora,” internal and external to the continent in order to assess/examine the impact of

these communities on the history of and contemporary situations in Africa and beyond.



Concurrently with the formation of African and Black communities exterior to the continent

has been the emergence of different migrant communities within it, that is, “internal

diasporas” composed of two main strains: foreign populations settling on the continent andAfricans migrating within Africa. Africa has long attracted migrants and settlers: Arabs in

the Saharan and Sahelian borders from the West Atlantic coast to the Indian Ocean; variousAsian groups in the East African coast before and during colonial rule; Afro-Brazilians in the

Bight of Benin; Malay slaves and convicts; Indians indentured laborers and traders; Chineseworkers and traders in Southern Africa; Lebanese and Syrians traders in West and Central

Africa; and European settlers, traders, and colonial administrators since the beginning with

the Atlantic slave trade, and African Americans to Liberia between 1825-1893 from whichanother native/settler narrative and conflict would emerge. These formations compel us to

rigorously interrogate the various and distinct zones of interaction across time and space,and the changing power relations between indigenous Africans and migrants that have

created new sites of power, new and transformed tensions and antagonisms, wealthaccumulation and on-going poverty, gender relations and diverse sexualities, and

economies of knowledge framed by issues of race, ethnicity, religion, and community

formation and membership, none of which are settled nor can be assumed as similarlymeaningful transnationally.

Compared to the intensity with which the debates regarding the African diaspora have beentaken up, diasporas in Africa remain underexplored; it is still necessary to explore the

different trajectories of each of the diasporic and migrant communities and consider thesocial, economic, political, health and environmental consequences of their settlement

and/or continuous relocations, especially in the case of second generation migrants whocreate their own images and projects and use their initial or acquired identity to challenge

directly or indirectly local notions of hierarchies and power.

The issue of migration, which might also be captured within the concept of diaspora – if we

consider diaspora is one form of migration - has become an important and controversialquestion in the political, social, cultural arenas all over Western countries as well as in

Africa. Migration is impacting communities, policymakers, development practitioners as wellas activists and non-governmental organizations since the beginning of the 1980s. On the

receiving side in the in-migration countries, access to resources, cultural, social and

religious differences have fueled anti-migrant sentiment providing the foundations for largeand powerful anti-immigrant coalitions and deadly xenophobic manifestations and hate

crimes. Political parties, grassroots organizations, governments and internationalorganizations have developed specific strategies and policies in the debate over migration,

focusing on risk factors, security, push and pull factors, the need of national immigrationpolicy framework, the creation of new transnational economic spaces, migration potential

for development from remittances, skills and knowledge transfers.

The internal migration in Africa that has intensified in the last twenty years has had a

profound impact at national and regional levels. From the 1980s onward, conflicts,economic hardships, and political repression have led to the massive displacement of

different groups, and the creation of refugee transit or quasi-permanent camps. However,migrants are not only originating from conflict-ridden regions and are not all refugees. They

also include people moving for a variety of reasons that involve varying degrees of coercionand opportunity, or at least the hope of opportunity. Concepts such as “refugee diasporas”

and “economic diasporas” are currently being used by scholars, humanitarian and human

rights activists, and policy makers to account for the formation and consolidation of thosecommunities, and to address their role as active agents in the perpetuation and resolution

of conflicts, peace building, and economic recovery; and, in the case of the African Unityorganization, in promoting regional economic integration.

Internal migration is continuing to have a disruptive effect on the social, political and

economic life of different African countries, and we are seeing a dramatic impact on



relations between migrant and pre-existing communities around issues of access to

agriculture and pastoral land, urban wealth accumulation and investment processes, and to

political power, thereby creating other native/settler antagonisms and conflicts. Specificgrievances have been generated by these new conditions—from the local to the national and

regional levels—concerning the reconfiguration of notions of citizenship and belonging.Migration flows have also influenced local, national and regional ecologies and have led to

increasing competition among different groups to access symbolic and material resources.These developments require additional research, especially in relation to policy making.

This year’s theme is about how African diasporic communities, however broadly or narrowlydefined, are, for a variety of reasons, repeatedly reproduced and/or engaged with multiple

challenges within specific geographical, historical, social, political, and economic situationsto reinvent and reframe Africa in relation to their own needs, challenges, and interests as

well as demands and expectations from home and/or community, indeed from “homeland”

to simply “home.” It is also about how African and non-African groups and communitiessettling in different regions of Africa are negotiating their presence and reacting to issues of

development, residence, rights, access to resources (including cultural), and citizenship.

2010 ANNUAL MEETING SUBMISSION CATEGORIES

Categories Specific to this year’s Theme: African Diaspora and Diasporas in Africa1. Theoretical Approaches to Diasporas and Migration studies

2. Old Diasporas/New postcolonial diasporas3. Diasporas and Conflict & Accord/Peace-building

4. Diaspora, Xenophobia and Racialization

5. Diasporas and Religions6. Diasporas and Development

7. Diasporas, Identity and Belonging8. Diasporas and Public Health

9. Virtual and Digital Diasporas10. Comparative Diasporas

11. Gender, Sexuality, Family and Diasporas12. The Politics of Diaspora Communities

13. Art and Literature of Diasporas

General Categories: New Directions

1. Cultures (arts, music, performance, literature, language, and folklore)2. Education

3. Environment4. Health and Population

5. Human Rights6. Gender, Family and Sexuality

7. Politics and Policy

8. Religions9. History

10. Other

call for proposals 2010-final

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