Call for Papers
(Deadline Extended to 17 March 2017)
Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora
9th Biennial Conference
Hosted by Pablo de Olavide University
Seville, Spain
ASWAD 2017 Online Conference Program
Final ASWAD 2017 Seville Program | Venue Map
Registration
African/Diasporic Futures: Re-Envisioning Power, Interventions, Imaginations and Belonging
November 7-11, 2017 Seville, Spain
In 2015 the United Nations launched the Decade for the People of African Descent to acknowledge descendants of the African Diaspora as a distinct group whose human dignities and rights have been violated throughout the globe. The Decade for the People of African Descent is a sustained global commitment to recognize, protect, and bring about inclusive social justice to members of the African Diaspora. Contemporarily, Europe is an epicenter of such urgent grappling with systematic and long-term social inequities. Politics and policies of racialized exclusion, particularly through its engagement with Africans and people of African descent, re-center Europe’s non-neutral racial projects in their nation building.
The protection and promotion of human rights has gained greater significance and urgency with the crisis of African migration, and other forced and semi-forced migrations from Western Asia and Eastern Europe. As these individuals and groups have sought refuge and equitable and humane social participation within European societies, they have challenged conceptualizations of the state and citizenship formation, and continue to force new articulations and notions of “home” and belonging. These current migratory flows are newer iterations of a long relationship between Europe and Africa, and between Europe and the African Diaspora that spans centuries.
ASWAD invites panel and individual paper proposal submissions for its 9th biennial conference to be held in Seville, Spain, November 7 to 11, 2017 on the campus of Pablo de Olavide University to discuss, examine, and reflect on the critical nature of the interactions and transformations that African descendants experience in their diaspora, particularly within a European context. As an interdisciplinary organization, ASWAD invites presentations that illuminate the lives of Africans and African descendants from scholars of any discipline, including social sciences, physical sciences, life sciences and performing arts. We aim to collaborate with activist and intellectual communities around sustained dialogue involving diaspora, race and citizenship, and historical and contemporary patterns of racial formation.
In addition to academics, ASWAD welcomes artists, activists, journalists, and independent scholars with specific interests in the African Diaspora. We are especially keen to create a platform for Black European Groups and NGOs.
We encourage proposals that align with the conference theme. Suggested panel themes include, but are not limited to the following:
- The African Diaspora, Modern States and (Re)Conceptions of Citizenship
- Humanitarianism and Human Rights in the Global African Diaspora
- Black Lives Matter Across the Globe
- The African Diaspora, Economics and Immigration to/in Europe
- Religion, Power, and Praxis in the African Diaspora
- African Diaspora and the Arts and Activism in Europe
- Spain and the African Diaspora
- Writing and Translating the African Diaspora and Black Identities in Europe
- The United Nation’s Decade for People of African Descent
- Music and the Performing Arts in Africa and the African Diaspora
- Pedagogy, Higher Education and Activism
- Black LGBTQIA Social Constructs
- Labor and Organizing in Local and International Contexts
- Activism and New Technologies and Media
- African Diasporic Futures: Challenges and Opportunities
- Future Makings: Collective re-imaginations through migration
- Reimagining social spaces and collective identities
The city of Seville is a UNESCO world heritage site and former medieval capital of Euro-African kingdoms, both Muslim and Christian, and later head of Spain’s early modern world empire. The city is a nexus of African Diaspora history, with a living heritage of connecting Europe, America and Africa. Pablo de Olavide University, ASWAD’s 2017 conference host, has a demonstrated commitment to international cooperation and social justice.
Of Special Note for 2017:
(Additional Details Forthcoming):
Friday, November 10
The African and Afro-American roots of Flamenco
Free and Open to All Conference Registrants
Workshop & Performance: Paraninfo, Pablo de Olavide University
This activity (mixture of Flamenco performance with top professional artists who will be collaborating with the event, exposition and installation) is proposed for the closing activity of the conference activity (Friday evening). It will mix images, short explanations and Flamenco performances to introduce the conference attendants to the Flamenco (music, song and dance). Flamenco is a powerful artistic experience formed by sailors, slaves and port workers through the mixture and travel of African music to Andalusia, from there to America and back again, reflecting in its musical and dance evolution the fluxes of the African diaspora.
Saturday, November 11
Slave route Sagres to Sevilla: Middle Ages to today
Registration needed: 80€, Limited number of seats
Reception: Buses will pick up participants at hotels
Important: Bring a Passport valid for Schengen
This one-day excursion will bring us to the panoramic castle of Sagres in the southern tip of Portugal, from where the Portuguese conquest, slave traffic and commerce with Africa began in the XVth century. From there, we will return to Seville through the route that used to bring the slaves to Seville. We will be stopping at Lagos, the oldest slave market built in Europe. From there we will cross the Guadiana river into Spain, to the area of Ayamonte, Gibraleón and Niebla, where there has been historically a great presence number of inhabitants of African descent (which arrived to the area through in fishing and slave ships), conforming the only collectives in Spain who preserved their historical memory, name and identity amid poverty, isolation and unscrupulous curiosity of journalists, specially between the 1950s and 70s.
We will then connect with the present African migration to Huelva region, which is the result of the rapid development of the intensive cultivation of strawberries, a very harsh work carried out in difficult economic and social conditions. In 2004 the working conditions of African workers in the Spanish agriculture and their problems exploded in conflicts at local level, giving also birth to an international protest movement. Both local associations and NGOs are still working to improve the living conditions of the recent migrants.
Tuesday, November 7, Saturday, November 11
African Seville walking tour: heritage and activism
Free and Open to All Conference Registrants
Registration needed
Meeting point: San Bernardo Metro Station
This walking tour of Seville will bring participants to explore the centuries long connections of the city with Africa. From the “seats” of the Cathedral where slaves were sold, to the present day associations, activism and meeting places, connecting centuries of traditions of black (“negritos”) and metise (“mulatos”) brotherhoods and the imprint of singular artists like the Cuba born Antonio Machin.
Instructions for Submission of Proposals
Whole panel proposals will be given priority in the review process. Please submit a panel proposal of no more than 200 words for thematic panels consisting of no more than four panelists, and a possible discussant. Proposals must include paper abstracts of no more than 150 words and bios of no more than 50 words for each presenter. All participants must be members of ASWAD in good standing at the time of abstract submission. The deadline for Panel/Paper Proposals is March 17, 2017 and acceptance notification is expected April 21, 2017. Confirmation of attendance and paid conference registration are required by June 30th, 2017.
Proposal Submission
Mentoring Sessions:
ASWAD 2017 will feature special mentoring sessions open to registered conference attendees (Sign-up details will be posted at a later date).
- Professing While Black: Navigating the Tenure and Promotion Process (directed towards early and mid-career professionals)
- Crafting a Sustainable Career in the Academy (directed towards advanced graduate and early career professionals and will include panelists discussing the PhD and alternative job markets as well as preparing materials for the academic market)
- Crafting a Sustainable Graduate Career (directed towards rising and early career)
Accommodations/Hotel Reservations:
Seville is a popular touristic destination and offers accommodations of many types and budgets. Special ASWAD 2017 conference rates are available at the following hotels selected for their convenient location, good public transportation link to the Universidad de Pablo Olavide campus (main conference venue), the old town and all major transportation hubs.
Note: You must email the selected hotel contact to make reservations with the conference rate.
Hotel NH Sevilla Collection
Avda Diego Martinez Barrio, 8, 41013 Sevilla
Contact: Manolo Cortés
Email: [email protected]
Tel: +34 954 54 85 00
http://www.nh-hoteles.es/hotel/nh-collection-sevilla
- Discount code(s)
: ASWAD (Email Manolo Cortés to make a reservation with discount code; [email protected])
- Deadline for conference rate
: September 1, 2017
. Double Room for Single use: 104€+ 10% IVA (Sale Tax) per night and room.
. Double Room: 155€ + 10% IVA (Sale Tax), per night and room.
Hotel NH Sevilla Viapol
Calle Balbino Marrón, 9, 41018 Sevilla
Contact: María Pérez
Email: [email protected]
Tel: +34 954 64 52 54
http://www.nh-hoteles.es/hotel/nh-sevilla-viapol
Discount code(s)
: ASWAD (Email María Pérez to make a reservation with discount code; [email protected])
- Deadline for conference rate
: September 1, 2017
. Double Room for Single use: 99€+ 10% IVA (Sale Tax) per night and room.
. Double Room: 140€ + 10% IVA (Sale Tax), per night and room.
Hotel Hesperia Sevilla
Av. Eduardo Dato, 49, 41018 Sevilla
Contact: Antonio Silva
Email: [email protected]
Tel: +34 954 54 83 00
http://www.nh-hoteles.es/hotel/hesperia-sevilla
- Discount code(s)
: ASWAD (Email Antonio Silva to make a reservation with discount code; [email protected])
- Deadline for conference rate
: September 1, 2017
. Double Room for Single use: 99€+ 10% IVA (Sale Tax) per night and room.
. Double Room: 140€ + 10% IVA (Sale Tax), per night and room.
Hotel Sevilla Center
Av. de la Buhaira, 24, 41018 Sevilla
To reserve a room, email [email protected]
Tel: +34 954 54 95 00
http://www.hotelescenter.es/hotel-sevilla-center/
. Double Room for Single use: 95€+ 10% IVA (Sale Tax) per night and room.
- Discount code(s)
: NO CODE necessary
- Deadline for conference rate
: September 1, 2017
NH Collection Sevilla: [email protected]
Manolo Cortés
NH Viapol: [email protected]
María Pérez
Hesperia Sevilla: [email protected]
Antonio Silva
Transportation details:
Closest airport(s)
Seville
The airport of the city of Seville (Sevilla San Pablo) is well connected to the area where hotels are located. It is a 20 minute ride both by taxi (22-25€) or the Airport bus (4€ single).
Malaga
A major holiday resort by the Mediterranean Sea, the airport of Malaga (Malaga Costa del Sol) it is directly connected to many European and world destinations. Connections with Seville are frequent and comfortable. There is a train shuttle at the airport that brings travelers to the main station of Malaga (1,70€ single) from which trains depart roughly each hour to Seville Santa Justa station (24-40€ depending time and speed). It is highly advisable to book long-distance tickets directly online at: http://www.renfe.com. The main coach station of Malaga is located just next to the main train station (María Zambrano). Non-stop direct buses connect Malaga with Seville (19-26€ single). Timetable and tickets are available at: http://www.alsa.com Be aware that the destination of the coach in Seville is Plaza de Armas station (see below).
Madrid
The airport of Madrid (Madrid Barajas-Alfonso Suarez) has flights connecting most countries of the world. There are several daily flights between Madrid and Seville airport.
Transfer by train between Madrid and Seville is also a good option. There is a train shuttle at the airport that brings travelers to the Station of Madrid-Atocha (1,70€ single). From there, high speed trains depart roughly every hour to Seville (40-80€ single), taking 2 hours 30 minutes to reach Santa Justa Station. It is highly advisable to book long-distance tickets directly online at: www.renfe.com
- Train station
The main train station connecting Seville to Malaga (1:55) and Madrid (2:30) by high speed train is Santa Justa. It is highly advisable to book long-distance tickets directly online at: www.renfe.com
- Plaza de Armas Coach station
The main coach station of Seville is plaza de Armas, located by the river. It offers direct connection to both Malaga (3 hours ride, tickets available at www.alsa.es) and Madrid (6 hours ride, tickets available at www.socibus.es).
Conference Transportation:
The hotels proposed for the conference offer direct connection by Metro (there is just one line operating) to Pablo de Olavide Campus from San Bernardo stop (NH Viapol, NH Collection and Sevilla Center) or Nervión Stop (Hesperia). Both the metro and the tram (there is only one line of it) connect the hotel area with the old town.
Conference Meals:
Lunch and coffee/tea included for all registered attendees.
Program Committee
- Sonya Maria Johnson (Co-Chair)
- Benjamin Talton (Co-Chair)
- Peggy Piesche
- Walter Rucker
- Deborah Thomas
Local Arrangements Committee (LAC)
- Herman Bennett
- Evelyne Laurent-Perrault
- Igor Pérez Tostado
Conference languages are Spanish & English.
To receive updates and conference news, sign up for ASWAD’s mailing list and announcements
All ASWAD conference presenters must be members of ASWAD. To join or renew, please click here:
All conference inquiries (other than proposal submission and membership) should be forwarded to: [email protected]
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