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ICLA Research Committee on Comparative African Literatures welcomes scholars
The Research Committee on Comparative African Literatures was established to remedy the lack of a committee on the literatures of Africa within the International Comparative Literature Association. It welcomes scholars of the literatures of any African country or the African diaspora.
The Research Committee on Comparative African Literatures is focused on making a lasting contribution to the field of comparative studies while critically interrogating the discipline’s continued Eurocentric biases. The committee welcomes scholars of the literatures of any African country or the African diaspora, of African literatures in colonial languages as well as any of its thousands of indigenous languages, of African literatures’ oral or written forms, and of African literatures in any century. The group aims to shape ongoing debates about African literature and enable scholars to present their research findings and refine them collaboratively. In particular, the Research Committee works to support scholars of African literature on the African continent and their vital scholarship. In view of the enormous ethnic, cultural, and linguistic variety of this continent, the Research Committee aims to encourage scholarship on as many countries and languages as possible. Some of its themes are decolonization, the relation of literature to other media, gender and LGBTQ studies, the ongoing impact of the wars of decolonization and post-independence conflicts, pan-Africanism, African diaspora, and the politicization of translation in African contexts, and so on.
Committee membership is open to anyone with a scholarly interest in African literature, and in particular to comparative approaches to African literatures, histories, and cultures.
Co-chairs:
Brahim El Guabli, Williams College
Wendy Laura Belcher, Princeton University
Members:
William Spurlin, Brunel University London
Marcio Seligmann, Unicamp and CNPq
