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RADICAL LISTENING: HUMAN-CENTERED APPROACHES TO AFRICAN ARTS
We invite proposals for panels and roundtables at this time (August 1- December 1, 2023). A call for individual papers for open panels and participation in open roundtables will follow on January 5, 2024.
Recently the field of African arts has shifted from object-centered approaches to ones that are human-, community-, and artist-centered. Who is speaking? How can we listen to each other and invite more diverse and globally-entangled voices? Some strategies for human-centered approaches include collaboration, wellness, healing, pluralities of knowledge, the sustaining and building of relationships, fostering new generations, thinking generously and inclusively and active listening in lieu of, or in addition to, object-centered approaches. We particularly invite panels that consider negotiating plurality of perspective and positionality, and diversifying forms of expertise and knowledge production.
- Diversifying the field of African arts
- Tangible and intangible knowledges and scholarly approaches
- Networking and broadening voices
- Community and artist-centered approaches
- Artist, museum, and/or community approaches or responses to wellness and healing
- Pluralizing knowledges, expertise, and the production of knowledges and expertise
- Developing and sustaining individual, museum, and institutional relationships and partnerships, especially international ones
- Fostering the next generation of artists, scholars, and communities
- Personhood and people-centered approaches and/or their relationship to tangible artworks
- Empathy, radical listening, thinking generously and inclusively
- Mentorship, exchanges, collaborations
- Transparency in museum and institutional practices
- Decoloniality and decolonial approaches to the arts of Africa
This list is meant to be suggestive and not exhaustive, and submissions on any topic beyond the core theme are also welcome. We also welcome proposals for alternative formats – please contact Paul Basu or Amanda M. Maples if you would like to discuss.
Regular panels will be 120 minutes long with either a) four 20-minute papers and a discussant or b) five 20-minute papers. 90-minute roundtables or alternative discussion-based formats (such as lightning talks or poster presentations) are welcome–creativity encouraged.
Participants may only present one paper but may serve as a discussant on another panel or as a presenter on a roundtable.
Proposals for panels and roundtables may be open with a suggested topic or fully constituted with all proposed participants identified. Participation may be in person, virtual, or a combination of these two.
Panel and roundtable proposals must include the following:
- Title of Panel/Roundtable
- Name, Professional Title, Affiliation of Proposer
- Name, Professional Title, Affiliation of Participants (if fully constituted)
- A proposal not to exceed 500 words describing the theme and scope
- An abstract not to exceed 100 words to be published on the ACASA Triennial website, ACASA Member Newsletter, ACASA Social Media channels, and H-AfrArts website/listserv
- Contact information of the chair(s), including phone and e-mail (this information is for internal use only and will not be publicized)
The submission deadline for panel and roundtable proposals is December 1, 2023.
Please submit to https://www.acasaonline.org/2023-triennial-paper-proposal-submission/
Panel, roundtable, and paper proposals may be submitted by anyone, but an active ACASA membership is required to take part in the symposium. Visit https://www.acasaonline.org/join-acasa/ to find information on ACASA membership and to join.
Further deadlines:
- January 5, 2024: Program Committee will announce the approved panel and roundtable proposals on the ACASA Triennial website and publicize them via ACASA Newsletter and H-AfrArts website
- January 5, 2024: Submissions for individual papers to open panels and participation in open roundtables begins
- February 1, 2024: Deadline for submission of individual papers to panels and participation in roundtables to panel/roundtable chairs
- March 1, 2024: Deadline for chairs’ submission of fully constituted panels and roundtables to the Program Committee
- Spring 2024: Preliminary panels and roundtables announced
Triennial Programming Committee:
Paul Basu, University of Oxford (paul.basu@anthro.ox.ac.uk)
Amanda M. Maples, New Orleans Museum of Art (amaples@noma.org)
George Agbo, University of Edinburgh (gagbo@exseed.ed.ac.uk)
Juliana Ribeiro da Silva Bevilacqua, Queen’s University (jrds@queensu.ca)
Zainabu Jallo, University of Basel (zainabu.jallo@unibas.ch)
Mathew Oyedele, University of Benin (oyemart@gmail.com)
Alexandra M. Thomas, Yale University (alexandra.m.thomas@yale.edu)
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