Abstract
Deadline: 11/15/2002
Event:
Blacks and Asians in the
Making of the Modern World - An International Conference
Event
Date:
4/11- 4/13/2003
Website:
http://www.bu.edu/afam/calendar/2003Call.html
Information:
The African American Studies Program at Boston University
announces its second annual international conference on
global intercultural relations. Following on the success
of our inaugural conference Blacks and Asians: Encounters
Through Time and Space, April 2002 we seek to convene an
interdisciplinary assembly of scholars to explore how African
and Asian descent populations have influenced the development
of the modern world from the fifteenth century. Specifically,
we are interested in comparative studies of their role in
the development of the world economy and the culture(s)
of modernity including religious, artistic, literary, philosophical,
and political expressions such as democracy, humanism, socialism,
ethical thinking, and rational thought. We want to examine
how categories such as race, ethnicity, civilization, culture
and nation continue to limit our understanding of the role
of non-European people in world history. This includes addressing
the problematic nature of putative collective identities
such as Black and Asian. Central to our enterprise is the
study of gender and gender relationships outside of the
West and among Black and Asian people inside Western societies.
We want to encourage proposals for papers that reveal the
contributions of Black and Asian women to modernity; examine
gender relations in the historical experiences of Asian
and Black people; and grapple with the implications of privileging
Western feminist theories in understanding gender in the
Third World.
We
invite proposals for single papers and complete panels from
scholars in all social science and humanities disciplines.
The modern world and the culture of modernity are typically
seen as entirely European and Euro-American in origin. In
Western narratives of world history modernity, including
such hallmark features as rational thought, the capitalist
system, the ideal of individual liberty and the quest for
gender equality, begins in Europe and is carried around
the world by Europeans. This view assumes that people outside
of the West and people of color within it played little
role in the development of modern economy, society, or culture
beyond providing labor power and serving as consumers. While
Europeans have indeed played a major part in generating
the modern world, they did not do so alone. Africans and
Asians were not only present at the creation but were often
the principle creators. In addition, they have had significant
impact on the formation of western culture itself. Unfortunately,
their participation remains under-investigated despite the
pioneering work of such scholars as John Thornton, Jack
Goody, Ann Douglass, and K.N. Chudhuri. This failure is
partly the result of exaggerating Europes uniqueness. It
is also due to our habit of studying people and societies
in terms of discrete, relatively well-demarcated racial,
cultural, and national groups that can be traced to 19th
century Europe and America. Thinking about human society
in this way obscures interaction between peoples that is
the moving force in world history and hides the degree to
which economic, cultural, and intellectual developments
are the result of borrowings, conflict, struggle, and cooperation.
Submission
Guidelines / Information:
This conference will investigate the role of people
of African descent and people of Asian descent globally
in terms of exchanges. By comparing the experiences of these
two populations we hope to avoid glib generalizations about
the role of either group, while highlighting commonalities
and differences. We invite proposals for single papers and
complete panels from scholars in all social science and
humanities disciplines. Please send a 250 word abstract
together with a current curriculum vita to Ronald K. Richardson.
You may submit by email to Dr. Christine Loken-Kim. To be
considered proposals must be received no later than November
15, 2002. Electronic correspondence
is encouraged.
Registration
Information:
Visit the website at http://www.bu.edu/afam/calendar/2003Call.html.
Contact:
Ronald K. Richardson, Director
African American Studies, Boston University
138 Mountfort St.
Brookline, MA 02446
617-358-1421
617-353-0455
or
Christine Loken-Kim
Email: lokenkim@bu.edu
