Call for Proposals
Archipelagic Memory:
Intersecting Geographies, Histories and Disciplines
International, In-Person Conference
University of Mauritius
August 2-4, 2022
Deadline: March 20, 2022
About the Conference
We welcome papers and panel presentations from scholars at any point of their academic career addressing the theme of archipelagic memory. Suggested topics for papers include, but are not limited to:
- Archipelagic epistemologies
- The memorialisation of transoceanic connections, transnational movements and displacement, and cosmopolitan cultural entanglements in the archipelagic mode
- New and old meanings of ‘archipelagic thinking’ in the humanities and social sciences and critical archipelagic methodologies for memory studies
- The archipelago and postcolonial, heritage and memory studies
- Archipelagic memory practices
- The thematic and symbolic dimension of archipelagic memory
- Performative memory-making in and across archipelagos
- Museums, mnemonic centres, non-canonical and disobedient archival practices: orality, musicality, embodied knowledge, the senses
- Textual and symbolical translation, cultural borrowing and divergence
- Archipelagic memory spaces
- Ships, shorelines, port towns and other places where archipelagic memory is inscribed
- Isthmuses, canals, peninsulas, and their role in increasing the sense of the archipelagic
- National, ancestral, and imaginary homelands as archipelagic memory palimpsests
- Trans-oceanic identification across islands and archipelagos; archipelagos as continents, continents as archipelagic
- History, trauma, and archipelagic memory
- Human (e.g. slavery, indenture, genocide, the Holocaust) and natural catastrophes (e.g. storms, cyclones, tsunamis, diseases, climate change) in archipelagic spaces
- Ways of remembering and moving beyond past conflicts and collective traumas across oceans and continents
- Vestiges of the colonial past in the postcolonial archipelagic present
- Memory and politics in the archipelago
- Bi- or multi-lateral relations between archipelagic states, small island nations, and established or emerging continental powers
- Maritime and territorial claims and their impact on regional stability and peace-keeping
- Activism and its implications in the building of an archipelagic future
We invite contributions in English and French for 20-minute papers. Please send a 300-word abstract, accompanied by a 100-word bio-note, to: archipelagicmemory@gmail.com.
We also invite proposals for panels of 3 papers. Panel proposals must include: a panel title and short description; a 300-word abstract for each presentation, accompanied by a 100-word bio-note.
Deadline for proposals: 20 March 2022
Notification of acceptance: 31 March 2022
We are happy to announce that the PSA, Postcolonial Studies Association, is offering four grants to facilitate attendance of postgraduate students and ECRs at the conference. Find all information on how to apply in the Travel Grants page.