As for the organization of the first two international and inter/multidisciplinary conferences, the third international and inter/multidisciplinary conference, “African/Diaspora Migrations, Displacements and Movements: Histories, Politics, and Poetics” (October 30 – November 1, 2019, Howard University), echoes both the U.N.’s Proclaimed Year (2011) and Decade for People of African descents (2015-2024), while it is an attempt also to weigh in the conversation about the recent non-banding Migration Pact of Marrakech (Morocco, December 10, 2018). In this context, this international conference aims to invite local, national and international scholars from all disciplines, students, artists, journalists, film(makers) critics, activists, policy makers, NGOs, community organizers, and Human Rights Organizations to address one of the most challenging and paradoxical human experience, i.e. African/diaspora migrations in a world self-defined as “global(ized)”. They are invited also to discuss, among other issues, the acute human rights crisis generated by the discriminatory laws on (African/Diaspora) migrations, or by the reproduction of the enslavement derived from the contemporary middle passage. Moreover, they will exchange/cross ideas about how races and cultures have a continuous influence on the politics of (im/e)migration or on the (im/e)migration as political project of phobia. Participants will analyze discourses on migrations are produced on a historical, social and ideological contexts and reveal the problematic representation of African/Diaspora in the construction of the identities and nations in Africa, Europe, the Americas (including Latin America, US, Québec, Canada), Asia, Oceania, etc.

Key focus areas

The proposals will focus, but not limited to, the following key areas

• African/Diaspora Migrations in Histories, Politics, Arts, Poetics and Films
• African/Diaspora Displacements, Middle Passage and Enslavement (Past and Contemporary)
• Black Atlantic, Black Mediterranean, Black Pacific, etc.
• Movements as Deterritorialization, Reterritorialization, and Resistance
• Census, (New) Identities and Civil/Human Rights
• Untaught (Hi)stories of African/Diaspora Women Migrating/in Migrations
• African/Diaspora Migrations and Public Policy (Education, Health, Labor, Urbanization, etc.)
• Comparative and Multidisciplinary Studies on Migrations: Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, U.S./Québec, Oceania
• Theorizing (on) Migrations, Exile, Exodus, Refugee Status and Asylum

Submission rules

1. Panel proposals must have a minimum of three and a maximum of four participants
2. Workshop and roundtable proposals must have a minimum of three participants and there is no maximum
3. Panels, workshops and roundtables should have at least one session organizer (maximum two), one chair, and a discussant (if necessary)
4. Individual proposals will consist of title, abstract (75-100 words) and five (5) keywords. They should include also the name, institution and email of the participant
5. Panels, workshops and roundtables proposals will consist of title, abstract (75`-100 words) and five (5) keywords. They should include also the names, institutions and emails of the chair/discussant/respondent and the participants. If the organizer and the chair are different, specify them. Each participant’s title and abstract should be submitted by the organizer/chair
6. Only one proposal per person is allowed. Exceptions are made for chairs who can lead one panel and present one paper
7. Each participant will have a maximum of 15 minutes for presentation
8. Panels, workshops and roundtables will last 1h15 minutes

​Deadine to send proposals: June 15, 2019

Send proposals (in English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish) to: howardconference2019@cluttergmail.com

For all additional questions, please, contact: Dr. Clément A. Akassi, International Conference Chair, cakassi@clutterhoward.edu

Original Call for Papers