GSCALA at the ALA Annual Conference

The 36th Annual African Literature Association Conference is being held at the University of Arizona in Tuscon, Arizona. It will take place March 10-14, 2009. We look forward to seeing you there.

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 US. 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 dialogue 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.

ALA Graduate Student Prize

If you are presenting a paper at this year's ALA conference, keep in mind that the ALA now sponsers an annual graduate student prize awarded to the best graduate student paper presented at the annual ALA conference.

The award-winning student will receive $500 and a certificate of accomplishment. The paper will be published in the next issue of the Journal of the African Literature Association (JALA).

The deadline for submissions for the 2009 prize has already passed. The award will be presented during the awards ceremony at the 2010 annual meeting. Look for upcoming information on how to submit your paper from the 2010 conference for next year's consideration.