Month: February 2017

Call for contributions

Red Africa – a special issue of Twentieth-Century Communism

In Red Africa. Affective Communities and the Cold War, Mark Nash writes: ‘although only a minority of independent African states chose formal affiliation with Marxism and communism, there is no doubt that together with the developing nationalist movements this was a major ideological force in African culture and politics’. Twentieth-Century Communism invites contributions to a special issue on the oft-neglected theme of Communism and Africa. The journal is open to contributions from the field of cultural studies as well as the social sciences. Subjects could include: the history of Communism in Africa before and after decolonisation, notably the experience of ‘tropical Marxism’; relations between Africa and the world Communist movement, in all its tense diversity (East/West, European/non-European, Moscow/Beijing/Belgrade/Pyongyang/ Havana/East Berlin/Tirana/Paris, etc.); the experience of Communist Africans in exile; the place of Africa in Marxist theory.

Contributions of approximately 5000 words should be submitted by 1 October 2017 to Gavin Bowd, gpb@st-andrews.ac.uk. The issue will appear in the second half of 2018.

Memory, Migration, and Decolonisation in the Caribbean and Beyond, 1804 to the Present

Institute of Latin American Studies, Senate House, School of Advanced Studies, University of London, 23^rd–24^th May 2017.

We invite papers that interrogate the intersections between memory, migration, and decolonisation across the Caribbean and its diasporas. The conference seeks to explore how ideas about decolonisation have resonated in the Caribbean, the Americas, and Europe. We take Haitian independence (1804) as a thinking point for debates surrounding concepts of independence, colonialisms, and freedoms. We welcome papers that explore contemporary practices of neo-colonialism and resistances to them as well as issues of formal ‘decolonisation’. We will develop themes of decolonisation by moving beyond any set discipline: we are particularly interested to hear proposals from artists, curators, musicians and community activists, as well as scholars. As part of an ongoing oral history project, this conference will feature a community-led public engagement activity that focuses on the lived experiences of decolonisation and migration amongst members of Britain’s Caribbean diaspora.

Themes of interest include (but are not limited to):

• Memories and experiences of migration, empire, and (de)colonisation;
• (Neo)colonialism in the contemporary Caribbean and beyond;
• The development of national consciousness;
• Caribbean literature;
• Theorising decolonisation;
• Visions of a post-colonial future.

Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words, by Friday 17^th March, to decolconference@gmail.com

Keynote Speaker: Prof Matthew Smith (University of the West Indies, Mona)

Guest Speakers: Prof.Tina K. Ramnarine (Royal Holloway, University of London) Dr William ‘Lez’ Henry (University of West London)

Convenors: Jack Webb and William Tantam (Institute of Latin American Studies); Maria del Pilar Kaladeen (Centre for Postcolonial Studies)

In association with AHRC Translating Cultures Theme.