Constructing Black Canada: "Becoming" Canadian

Constructing Black Canada: "Becoming" Canadian

Call for Papers
Southern Journal of Canadian Studies
Guest Editor: Amoaba Gooden (Kent State University)

For centuries, people of African descent and other people of colour have made their voices heard in Canada's national arenas. Throughout the nation, thousands of individuals, civil society organizations, and social movements participated in these struggles, working on a wide range of issues, from labour to the arts, from migration to health care access, from racism to the building of transnational networks.

In the last two decades, the presence of the African Diaspora in Canada has drawn increased attention from scholars. However, there is still a dearth of research relating to the Black Canadian experience. Most of this work acknowledges that as colonial or ex-colonial subjects, as migrants, and as members of the global African diaspora, the black Canadian population is diverse.

You are invited to submit abstracts for a special issue of the Southern Journal of Canadian Studies on the theme, "Constructing Black Canada: 'Becoming' Canadian" Papers will be peer-reviewed.

Papers will help map and navigate the theoretical, socio-economic and political forces set in motion by the Canadian nation-state in direct relation to its Canadian black population and/or prospective black immigrants. This special edition desires to advance the analytical and interrogative discourses that constitute the distinctive interdisciplinary field of Black Canadian Studies in the production of knowledge about the nature of the African Diaspora in Canada by exploring the different and complex meanings of being black in Canada. This call for papers fits into a conscious effort to move beyond particular national histories in order to grasp the complexities of the diverse articulations of blackness found in Canada.

Contributors are encouraged to explore being black in Canada through various disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches that touch on questions such as: What does it mean to be black in Canada? How have processes and dynamics of racialization and gendering of black subjects materialized and been contested? What are the historical legacies of being black in Canada? In what ways has blackness been constructed and negotiated across Canada? What strategies have been deployed by the Canadian nation to police, regulate and manage blackness?

Papers exploring the construction of identity within the Canadian nation state and or transnational identity are especially welcomed. Other possible topics include:

Geography and identity
Race/ethnicity/national/dual identities
Migration, settlement and diasporas, translocal/transnational communities
Place and space
Popular culture
Memory
Arts (music, photography, film, dance)
Gender, sexuality, and the black body
Diasporic economics and labour markets
The recognition of multiple origins and mixedness
The role of youth in relationship to diasporas, migration and
identities
Representation, performance, discourse and language
Writing blackness
Historical amnesia

GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSION:
Please submit a working title and a brief abstract of 250-300 words, an abbreviated CV (2 pages), your full name, institutional affiliation, phone number, and e-mail address. The due date is June 30, 2010. Please send all materials electronically to:

Amoaba Gooden, PhD
Assistant Professor, African Diaspora Studies
Department of Pan-African Studies
Kent State University
P.O. Box 5190
Kent, Ohio, USA
44240
email: agooden@kent.edu
phone: 330 672-0149
fax: 330 672-4837

Decisions on accepted papers will be made by August 1, 2010.

Completed papers will be due by November 30, 2010.

Revised papers will be due by January 31, 2011.


The Southern Journal of Canadian Studies is a peer-reviewed, electronic journal of the Southern Association of Canadian Studies. For more information on the journal, please contact the editor:

Richard Nimijean
Assistant Dean (First-Year Programs)
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Carleton University
1125 Colonel By Drive
Ottawa, Canada
K1S 5B6
(613) 520-2600 ext. 2029 (office)
(613) 520- 4481 (fax)
richard_nimijean@carleton.ca
www.sacscanada.org