CFP: MACLAS 2023. The Afro-Americas: A Hemispheric Conversation [DEADLINE EXTENDED to FRIDAY, JANUARY 27th]

Call for Papers

MACLAS 2023

Middle Atlantic Council of Latin American Studies

March 10-11, 2023

Salisbury University

The 1950 UNESCO Statement on Race and the 2015-2024 International Decade for People of African Descent proclaimed by the United Nations contained important conceptualizations of the Black experience across the Americas throughout the 20th and early 21st centuries. These documents may be seen as part of a legal framework intended to establish a binding contract with respect to social and human rights in a post-colonial ordering of the world. Yet understanding race from an institutional perspective must go beyond recognizing the historical evidence of cultural and scientific racism that made the history of Western civilization possible. In the context of Latin America and the Caribbean, this means defining the legacy of Afro-descendants by their ongoing struggle for freedom and collective consciousness in a region shaped by economic, social, political, and racial inequalities. From isolated instances of Black political activism during the nation-building process to transnational movements focused on dismantling systemic structures of oppression and violence, Afro-descendants across the Americas have been able to tackle historical racial injustices and develop counternarratives to those of racialized overtones.

The 2023 MACLAS conference theme aims to explore and discuss topics regarding what Black liberation has historically meant in the region as well as the response by dominant groups. What type of challenges do Afro-descendants face when fighting for inclusive and equitable social, political, and environmental justice in the Americas? Topics may include, but are not limited to:

• Manifestations of anti-blackness in state-sponsored violence.
• Racial justice movements.
• Topics of Afrofuturism, Africanfuturism, and Black Joy.
• Black diasporic life.
• Literary representations on black lives in the Americas since the second half of the nineteenth century.
• Black women as victims of violence, poverty, exclusion, and workplace discrimination.
• Interdisciplinary approaches on structural racism and intersectionality.
• Perspectives on the racial wealth gap evidenced in housing and education precarities.
• Race, environment, and culture.
• Racial extractivism.
• Afro and Indigenous identities.
• Perspectives on decoloniality, interculturality, and relationality intersecting the humanities and social sciences.

As always, while MACLAS encourages papers that engage with the conference themes, other submissions are welcome.  MACLAS seeks scholarship from a wide array of disciplines, perspectives, and topic areas in Latin American studies. Undergraduate and graduate students are warmly welcome to participate.

This is predominantly an in-person conference, but some hybrid sessions will be arranged to accommodate those who otherwise cannot attend. Only a limited number of virtual papers will be accepted due to technology and space limitations.

Proposals are due by Friday, January 27th, 2023

Register at https://maclas2023.exordo.com

Middle Atlantic Council of Latin American Studies

www.maclas.org