CFP: SERSAS FALL 2017 Conference, Tuskegee and Auburn Universities, 20-21 October

"America in Africa, Africa in America: Ties that Bind or Blind"

The Southeastern Regional Seminar in African Studies (SERSAS) is pleased to announce a conference to be hosted by Auburn and Tuskegee Universities beginning at 2 pm on Friday, October 20 and continuing through Saturday evening, October 21, in Auburn, Alabama, USA. Some funds for lodging may be provided to presenters--details to follow.

Tuskegee University's distinguished and signal leadership in cultivating educational and development opportunities in various African nations is a vital example of the ties that Americans have forged with Africans. While certainly not all American involvement in Africa has yielded positive, constructive outcomes, the on-going dialogue has proven to be one of the world's most dynamic forces of change. The conference organizers particularly invite proposals for papers and presentations which highlight the themes of dialogue, development, education and cultural exchange between Americans and Africans at all levels and from any disciplinary perspective.

The conference keynote lecture, "Popular Pan-Africanism in Idi Amin's Uganda" will be delivered by Dr. Derek Peterson, Professor in the History Department and the Department of Afro-American and African Studies at the University of Michigan. In addition to award-winning research on ethnicity and religion in East Africa, Dr. Peterson coordinates an ongoing collaboration with Mountains of the Moon University to organize and preserve archives in Uganda. He is the principle investigator for a Mellon Foundation grant that supports joint workshops with the University of Michigan's African Studies Center and the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research in South Africa. In 2016 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in African Studies and elected Fellow of the British Academy (for a brief profile, see https://derekrpeterson.com/).

Faculty, independent scholars, and graduate students are all encouraged to participate.  In preparing proposals, please keep in mind that SERSAS explicitly seeks to disrupt the conventional "three people reading papers" session.  We seek innovative and unconventional proposals from all fields for this interdisciplinary conference (for example, we invite you to propose an experimental session with 5 presenters making presentations of 7-10 minutes each).  More traditional proposals for individual papers, entire sessions, round-tables, interactive workshops, and conversations, are still of course welcome.  SERSAS will award the graduate student who presents the best paper at the conference the SERSAS Graduate Student Prize, which carries a stipend of $100.

Conference registration for faculty is $35.  There is no registration fee for graduate students.  Conferees become SERSASians for life.

Please send your proposals of no more than 300 words per presenter to:

Daren Ray <daren.ray@auburn.edu> and Bill Ndi <wndi@mytu.tuskegee.edu>

The deadline for receipt of proposals is Monday, September 4. Notification of acceptance (or otherwise) will be sent by Friday, September 8th.

Sponsors for the SERSAS Fall 2017 Conference:  Southeastern Regional Seminar in African Studies; Tuskegee University College of Arts and Sciences; Department of Modern Languages, Communication and Philosophy, Tuskegee University; Department of History and Political Science, Tuskegee University; Department of History, Auburn University; Africana Studies Program, College of Liberal Arts, Auburn University; Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities, Auburn University; and Auburn University Libraries.

On-site Conference Organizers:  Bill Ndi <wndi@mytu.tuskegee.edu> and Daren Ray <daren.ray@auburn.edu>

SERSAS Web Site:  http://www.ecu.edu/african/sersas/

Registration Link:  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScJUKGutnZws2SJtpo8KcxcyvoolHx5eaCDE9pkcLoHkFfF3A/viewform?embedded=true