Appel à com : "Negotiating the African Presence : Rastafari Livity and Scholarship"

[Madeleine L.]

UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES, MONA CAMPUS

Institute of Caribbean Studies

presents

“Negotiating the African Presence: Rastafari Livity and Scholarship”

The Inaugural Rastafari Studies Conference

In celebration of the anniversary of the 1960 UWI Report on the Rastafari Movement

August 17 – 20, 2010

2nd Call for Papers



2010 will mark 50 years since the “Report on The Rastafari Movement in Kingston, Jamaica” was first published by the then University College of the West Indies. This report authored by M.G. Smith, Roy Augier and Rex Nettleford not only validated the University’s relevance in undertaking pertinent community research, but was one of the most successful monographs in the history of this institution. Today in its eigth reproduction without any changes to its original form or content, the Report is arguably a most highly referenced document on the Movement. Rastafari in 2010 also celebrates 80 years of existence marked by its symbolic birth with the coronation of the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I in November 1930. During these years the Rastafari has consistently represented the pariah intellectual, analysing, critiquing and framing alternatives to European hegemony, so much so that the Movement’s adherents have become recognised as Diasporan teachers, perhaps best represented through the voice of Bob Marley. The Rastafari movement has been a vital force in reconstructing and elevating the African Presence, in a western landscape which sought to deny its citizenry knowledge of, and the repairing of linkages with Africa. Scholars today agree that Rastafari is the memory of the Jamaican people, representing a quantum leap in the negotiation of the post-colonial self. As such Rastafari has consistently advocated for the completion of the emancipation process and justice for people in general, but especially for Africans who were taken away in captivity.

The Institute of Caribbean Studies now hosts an inaugural Rastafari Studies Conference to recognise the tremendous growth of the Rastafari phenomenon, highlighting the diverse issues which have emerged around the ideas and interests of this community, particularly since the University of the West Indies took the controversial decision to research the Movement. Scholars are therefore invited to submit abstracts 150-200 words in length contributing papers related (but not restricted) to the following sub-themes.

Conference Sub-themes:

1.

Conference themes:
1. ‘Reasoning’ and Articulating African ‘Freedom’
2. Rastafari Thought and Philosophy
3. Rastafari and the City
4. Historicising Rastafari and the State
5. Rastafari Reflections: The Visit of HIM Emperor Haile Selassie I to Jamaica
6. Theocracy, Resistance and the Elaboration of Black Religion
7. Routinization and new religious movements
8. Interrogating Rastafari Icons & Iconographies
9. Rastafari Studies and Institutions of Higher Learning
10. Rastafari Communities and Sustainable Development
11. Rastafari and the Black Intellectual Tradition
12. Rastafari Tributes & Testimonies
13. Repatriation to Africa as Practise: Case Studies
14. Rastafari Geographies and Demographics
15. Regional and Global reach of Rastafari
16. Rastafari and other Caribbean Worldviews
17. Universities and corporate social responsibility
18. Social Movements, change and identity
19. Diasporan Citizenry
20. Youth, Pedagogy and Rebuilding African Diaspora Communities
21. Family, Gender & Power in Rastafari
22. Staging/Representing Rastafari: Literature, Film, Media & Reggae Festivals
23. Rastafari Drumming Rituals
24. Health and Healing: Rastafari Ministries
25. Negotiating the Twenty First Century: Rastafari in the Global Moment
26. Rastafari and the Caribbean Arts

The conference welcomes creative and non-academic contributions through, workshops, video presentations, artistic displays and other articulate forms of expression.

Abstracts may be submitted to rastafaristudies2010@gmail.com



Final date for the submission of abstracts is April 21, 2010.

Hosted by: Institute of Caribbean Studies, in collaboration with SALISES, Smithsonian Institution, Institute of Jamaica, Office of the Principal, Office of the Vice Chancellor Emeritus, IRIE FM.



For further information contact:

Dr. Jahlani Niaah

Institute of Caribbean Studies

Faculty of Humanities and Education

University of the West Indies , Mona

Kingston 7, Jamaica

Tel: 1 (876) 977-1951

Fax: 1 (876) 977-3430; Email: rastafaristudies2010@gmail.com