AFRICAN LITERATURE ASSOCIATION
36th Annual African Literature Association Conference
March 10-14, 2010
UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
Tucson, Arizona

CALL FOR PANELS, ROUNDTABLES AND PAPERS

GENERAL THEME: ECO-IMAGINATION: AFRICAN AND DIASPORAN LITERATURES AND SUSTAINABILITY

In the recent past, sustainability referred more to development, environment, and economics, and some scholars did not think that the humanities and the arts could be included in this intellectual inquiry. There are now several centers of sustainability and the humanities, and courses such as “The literature of sustainability as literature of life” are being offered across the nation. Defining sustainability in broad terms, the 36th annual ALA conference will focus on how the environment and environmental issues are addressed in the literature of Africa and other areas where African peoples have settled, particularly the Americas. The conference will explore subtopics on matters including globalization and immigration and their connection to environmental questions. One objective of the conference will be to foster inter-disciplinary dialog about topics such as climate change or desertification, in the context of languages, literature and cinema.

SUBTHEMES
-Literature and the environment
-Eco-criticism and Literature
-Literature, Land and Landscape
-New Trends in Fiction
-Literature and Cinema
-African Language Literatures
-Women’s Literature and Cinema
-Literature and Globalization
-Literature and Children’s Rights
-Immigration in Literature and Film
-Translation Issues
-Teaching African and Diasporan Literatures

To follow the ALA tradition, papers and panels on all aspects of African/Diasporan literature are invited, but particular focus on the conference themes is encouraged.

Please send panel proposals including names of presenters and titles of topics by November 30, 2009 or individual paper abstracts by December 15, 2009 to the convener, Irène d’Almeida at ala2010tucson@gmail.com.