From: Gladys Smiley Bell <GBELL@KENTVM.KENT.EDU>
CALL FOR PAPERS
Inaugural World Conference of the Black Expressive Culture Studies
Association
In Celebration of the 10th Anniversary of _The Literary Griot_
and the 40th Anniversary of Achebe's _Things Fall Apart_
Keynote Speaker: Chinua Achebe
November 19-21, 1998, at Kent State University
Theme-Celebrating Black Expressive Cultures:
Global, African-Centered, and other Approaches
This international conference is a celebration of three major events:
the birth of the Black Expressive Culture Studies Association, the 10th
Anniversary of _The Literary Griot: International Journal of Black
Expressive Culture Studies_ (founded in fall 1988), and the 40th Anniversary
of the publication of Chinua Achebe's _Things Fall Apart_, a world classic
that also marked the beginning of a new narrative tradition. The core event
of the conference is a symposium on _Things Fall Apart_. Both the
conference and the symposium are a fitting gift for Achebe, a true "literary
griot," whom we honor for the forty years of excellence that he has given to
the world.
The Conference Program Committee is soliciting abstracts of proposed papers
and panels on aspects of the arts in the continental and/or the diasporan
African experience: aesthetic theory, music, sculpture, painting,
literature, oral traditions, architecture, film, theater, dance, etc.
Papers dealing with other disciplinary areas of African World Studies
(history, linguistics, translation, African languages, etc.) are also
welcomed. (Papers will be limited to 15 minutes, panels to 90 minutes.)
For the symposium on _Things Fall Apart_, the committee is soliciting paper
and panel abstracts dealing with major issues or problems in the forty years
of criticism on this novel, including its influence on the modern African
and diasporan novel, gender, links to oral traditions or to the other arts,
technical aspects of the narrative, manuscript history, film and other
adaptations of the novel, translations, non-African elements, etc.
Papers selected from the general conference panels will be published in a
special issue of _The Literary Griot_. A selection of papers on _Things
Fall Apart_ will be published with a commercial or academic press.
Preference will be given to papers grounded in well-developed theory and/or
innovative and perceptive analysis.
The conference will also provide a forum for the launching of a new
organization, the Black Expressive Culture Studies Association, which is
devoted to the study, teaching, and preservation of expressive culture by
people of African descent across the globe. The membership fee of $50
entitles you to two issues of _The Literary Griot_ per year and a reduced
conference registration fee.
Please send a $50 check or money order payable to the Black Expressive
Culture Studies Association to Workshops, College of Continuing Studies,
Kent State University, P.O. Box 5190, Kent, OH 44242-0001. Thank you for
your support.
DEADLINE: Proposals received by October 15 will be given priority.
Submissions should be sent to Professor O. B. Traore, Conference Program
Chair, 300 Pompton Rd., Wayne, NJ 07470. Fax: (973)
720-2171. E-mail: faakoli@frontier.wilpaterson.edu
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