Call For Papers
The adage children must be seen and not heard points to an inherent ambivalence in the Caribbean’s collective psyche about the place and role of children in its social order which simultaneously recognises and silences their presence. Children and adolescents are central to the region’s cultural practices and creative productions. Children, for instance, have key roles in folk tales, songs and games. Novels of childhood and adolescence are positioned at the core of Caribbean literary culture, often analogising the developing nation and its cultural consciousness, as well as the migratory practices of its citizenry.
Despite iconic status of children in Caribbean cultural practices and spiralling concern about their social and psychological well being, the issues surrounding Caribbean childhood have not been given sufficient academic attention. Sorely lacking on a regional scale is the institutional infrastructure to facilitate effective interventions. The conference seeks to facilitate interdisciplinary dialogue on the social experiences and representational patterns related to the Caribbean child and childhood. It invites analysis of ideological perspectives and discursive practices in relation to children as social and imaginative subjects; the roles, symbolic codes and identities they have been assigned; their acts of resistance and transgression as cultural agents; and the multiple meanings of their presence in traditional and contemporary Caribbean mythologies of being and becoming.
Scholarly papers are invited on a range of topics that include:
- Childhood and the literary imaginary
- Perspectives and representations
- Landscape, being and belonging
- Citizenship, migrancy and transnationality
- The child in Caribbean folk and popular culture
- Youth, community and performance
- Visual and virtual worlds
- Caribbean parenting
- Ways of learning: the school, pedagogy and education
- Trauma, abuse and violence
- Gendering, sexuality and children
Presentation Formats
- Formal presentation using any medium – limited to 20 minutes
- Poster session - presentation/display space limited to 1.5m x 1.5m
- Panel discussion - two or three papers encompassing a range of perspectives on an issue
- Round Table - informal presentation settings limited to 20 minutes
- Performance - drama, dance, music, oratory, etc.
- Exhibition – art, craft, film, audio recording, etc.
- Workshop - practical, interactive sessions limited to 2 hours
What to submit
The proposal should identify the issue and/or topic and presentation type and should include information on resources/facilities that would be required. Submit an abstract of not more than 250 words and a short profile (approximately 150 words). Where there are co-presenters, submit a profile for each presenter.
Schedule
January 31, 2009 Deadline for submission of Abstracts and Proposals
February 15, 2009 Notification of acceptance
Send submissions to
Dr Giselle Rampaul Giselle.Rampaul@sta.uwi.edu; ext. 3025
Dr Jennifer Rahim Jennifer.Rahim@sta.uwi.edu; 868-662-2002 ext.3028
Dr Paula Morgan Paula.Morgan@sta.uwi.edu; 868-662-2002 ext. 3567
Address: Department of Liberal Arts
The University of the West Indies
St. Augustine
Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies
Venue: UWI, St Augustine, Trinidad, W.I.
