Florida International University
Call for Panels and Papers
10th Conference on Cuban and Cuban-American Studies
Deadline for submission: October 31, 2014
"More than White, More than Mulatto, More than Black": Racial Politics in Cuba and the Americas
February 26-28, 2015
Modesto A. Maidique Campus
Miami, Florida
The Cuban Research Institute (CRI) of Florida International University continues its
tradition of convening scholars and other persons interested in the study of Cuba and
Cuban Americans by announcing its 10th Conference. We encourage the submission of
panels and papers concentrating on any aspects of the main conference theme, but will
consider all submissions relevant to the history, economy, politics, culture, society, and
creative expression of Cuba and its diaspora.
In 1893, the Cuban patriot, journalist, and poet Jos� Mart� published his famous article,
"Mi raza" ("My Race"). In it he argued against fomenting racial divisions within the
context of Cuba's independence struggle from Spain. His axiom that "man is more than
white, more than mulatto, more than black" has been extensively cited since then.
Although Mart�'s thought has been praised for promoting racial integration and
equality, scholars and activists have criticized the practical implications of his model of
racial democracy in Cuba and elsewhere.
The Tenth Conference on Cuban and Cuban-American Studies takes Mart�'s dictum as a
cue for further academic inquiry and public debate. Our main theme, Racial Politics in
Cuba and the Americas, invites comparisons between Cuban experiences of race and
those of other Latin American and Caribbean peoples (such as Puerto Ricans,
Dominicans, Haitians, and Brazilians), as well as their diasporic communities. Although
we emphasize the racial politics that emerged from the African-European encounter, we
welcome analyses focusing on other racialized groups in Cuba and the Americas. We
are especially interested in examining the economic, social, and cultural underpinnings
of racial politics, as well as their histories, enduring significance, and potential futures.
Panels and papers could focus on but are not limited to the following topics:
- Conceptualizations of race, racialization, racial identity, race relations, mestizaje, and other related terms as they apply to the experiences of Cubans and other peoples in the Americas
- Differences and similarities between the Cuban system of racial classification and that of other Latin American and Caribbean countries
- The origins of race relations in Cuba and the Caribbean during the days of the colonial slave plantation system
- The impact of Chinese indentured labor on race relations in Cuba and the Caribbean
- Changes in racial discourses and practices, political culture, public opinions, and attitudes toward race in Cuba and other Latin American and Caribbean countries
- The contemporary debate about the ethnic and racial diversity of the Cuban population
- The racial politics of the Cuban exodus to the United States and other countries over time
- Afro-Latinidad as an alternative concept of strategic identities and alliances
- Interactions between Cubans and other ethnic and racial groups in the United States, particularly in the Miami metropolitan area
- The impact of racial prejudice and discrimination in the educational, occupational, and housing markets of Cuba and the United States
- Analysis of the multiple intersections among race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, and other factors, both in Cuba and in the diaspora
- Literary, artistic, musical, and religious expressions of racial identities in Cuba and its diaspora
- The performance of blackness in theatre, music, dance, cinema, and the visual arts
- The role of Afro-Cuban intellectuals, writers, and artists in the development of black consciousness
- The rise in racial activism in Cuba and the Americas and its influence on the ideology of racial democracy
- Historical and contemporary exchanges between Afro-Cubans and other Afro-descendants in the Americas
- The racial politics of civil rights discourse
- The effects of the "Special Period in Times of Peace" on racial inequality in Cuba
- The racially differentiated impact of family remittances and the persistence of socioeconomic gaps between people of African and European origin in Cuba
- The representation of race in the media
Guidelines for Presenting Panels and Papers
Although we prefer panel proposals, we will attempt to group individual papers in sessions according to shared themes. Panels will ideally include four paper presenters, a chair (who may be one of the presenters), and a discussant. Panels may feature five paper presentations if they do not include a discussant. Participants may perform two roles at the conference (chair, discussant, roundtable participant, or paper presenter) but may not present more than one paper. Submissions may be in English or Spanish.
Proposals for panels or roundtables must include a general description of the theme and one-page abstracts of each participant's paper. Each presentation will be limited to 20 minutes. The following information must be submitted for each participant: full name, role in the session, academic affiliation, title of presentation, preferred addresses, office, cell, and home phone numbers, fax, and email address. Persons wishing to submit individual papers must present a one-page abstract and all pertinent personal data.
The deadline for submission of all paper and panel proposals is October 31, 2014. Notifications of acceptance (or refusal) will be sent out by December 1, 2014. For further information about the conference and other CRI activities, please visit our website at cri.fiu.edu. All submissions and requests for information should be sent to [email protected]. An acknowledgement of receipt will be sent.
Dr. Jorge Duany, Director
Cuban Research Institute
Florida International University
Modesto A. Maidique Campus, DM 445
Miami, FL 33199
Tel. (305) 348-1991
Fax (305) 348-7463
[email protected] 
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#Black2theFuture
Call for Papers
29th Annual Symposium on African American Culture & Philosophy
"Black to the Future: Black Culture Through Space & Time"
Keynote Speaker:
Alondra Nelson
African American Studies and Research Center
Purdue University
West Lafayette, Indiana
November 20-22, 2014
African American Studies and Research Center is interested in interrogating the intersections of race, culture and time. Please join us as we go "black to the future." We would like to address the concerns of the African Diaspora through an Afro-futuristic lens.
We seek papers and panels on such sample topics as:
- Afro-futurism
- African American Film
- Black Future
- Black Fantastic
- Diasporas of the Future
- Digital Divide
- Gender and Sexuality
- Global Blackness
- Hip Hop and Afro-futurism
- New Media
- New Theoretical Frontiers
- Second Life
- Science Fiction/ Speculative Fiction
- Race & Technology
Abstracts for individual presentations should be no more than 500 words in length. Accepted presentations will be limited to 18-20 minutes. We particularly encourage panel proposals which should be no more than 1500 words in length. Our ideal panel composition is three presenters; however, we are open to panels with four presenters with presentations of 13-15 minutes. Other formats are possible such as discussants and/or chairs; however, the total number of participants should be limited to four and the total time allotted for panel presentations is 60 minutes as we are committed to discussion time with the attendees. June 6, 2014 to:
Cornelius Bynum, Associate Director,
African American Studies and Research Center
29th Symposium on Philosophy & Culture
Beering Hall, Room 6182
100 North University Street
West Lafayette, IN 47907-2098
Email abstracts to: [email protected] [Include "Abstract" in subject line]
Website: http://www.cla.purdue.edu/african-american/
Registration Fees for the 29th Symposium:
$75.00 for Faculty and Professional
$50.00 for Students
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Call for Papers
The Caribbean Digital a small axe event 5 December 2014 Barnard College / Columbia University New York, NY Deadline for proposals: 1 June 2014 The transformation of the academy by the digital revolution presents challenges to customary ways of learning, teaching, conducting research, and presenting findings. It also offers great opportunities in each of these areas. New media enable oration, graphics, objects, and even embodied performance to supplement existing forms of scholarly production as well as to constitute entirely original platforms. Textual artifacts have been rendered literally and figuratively three-dimensional; opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration have expanded exponentially; information has been made more accessible and research made more efficient on multiple levels. Scholars are called upon, with some urgency, to adapt their research and pedagogical methods to an academic climate deluged by a superabundance of information and analysis. This has created opportunities for open-ended and multiform engagements, interactive and continually updating archives and other databases, cartographic applications that enrich places with historical information, and online dialogues with peers and the public. The need for such engagements is especially immediate among the people of the Caribbean and its diasporas. Information technology has become an increasingly significant part of the way that people frame pressing social problems and political aspirations. Aesthetic media like photography and painting-because they are relatively inexpensive and do not rely on literacy or formal training-have become popular among economically dispossessed and politically marginalized constituencies. Moreover, the Internet is analogous in important ways to the Caribbean itself as dynamic and fluid cultural space: it is generated from disparate places and by disparate peoples; it challenges fundamentally the geographical and physical barriers that disrupt or disallow connection; and it places others and elsewheres in relentless relation. Yet while we celebrate these opportunities for connectedness, we also must make certain that the digital realm undermine and confront rather than re-inscribe forms of silencing and exclusion in the Caribbean. In this unique one-day public forum we intend to engage critically with the digital as practice and as historicized societal phenomenon, reflecting on the challenges and opportunities presented by the media technologies that evermore intensely reconfigure the social and geographic contours of the Caribbean. We invite presentations that explicitly evoke:
- the transatlantic, collaborative, and/or interdisciplinary possibilities and limitations of digital technologies in the Caribbean
- metaphorical linkages between the digital and such Caribbean philosophical, ethical, and aesthetic concepts as "submarine unity," the rhizome, Relation, the spiral, repeating islands, creolization, etc.
- gendered dimensions of the digital in the Caribbean
- the connection between digital technologies and practices of the so-called Caribbean folk
- specific engagements with digital spaces and/or theories by individual Caribbean artists and intellectuals
- the ways in which digital technologies have impacted or shaped understandings of specific Caribbean political phenomena (e.g. sovereignty, reparations, transnationalism, migration, etc.)
- structural means of facilitating broad engagement, communication, and accessibility in the Caribbean digital context (cultivation of multilingual spaces, attentiveness to the material/hardware limitations of various populations)
Both traditional papers and integrally multimedia papers/presentations are welcome. We also welcome virtual synchronous presentations by invited participants who cannot travel to New York City to attend the event. Selected proceedings from this forum will be published in the inaugural issue (September 2015) of sx:archipelagos - an interactive, born-digital, print-possible, peer-reviewed Small Axe Project publication.
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