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23rd-25th September, 2011. Univeristy of Warwick, UK.

This conference looks to provoke debate on the relationship between Caribbean environments and literature and the arts. We invite papers that consider the intersection of aesthetics, imperialism, and ecologies, and which examine the role of cultural production in mapping and responding to environmental crises and natural catastrophes across the pan-Caribbean. How has fiction or travel writing, for example, registered the transformations in landscapes, seascapes, flora, and fauna occasioned by the plantation regime, or national development projects, or tourism? How has the “open, exploded, irrupted” space of the Caribbean (Glissant) been mediated in artworks?  We are also interested in the intersection of social justice with environmental justice, and the role the writer or artist might play in addressing such issues. What is the potential of the artist as activist, and how might the arts offer new approaches and perspectives for thinking about and dealing with these issues?

We welcome papers on any linguistic area of the Caribbean, and on any form of cultural production (literature, drama, art, music, etc). Possible themes might include, but are certainly not limited to:

  • Imperialism, ecology, and aesthetics
  • The significance of natural disasters and ecological crises to Caribbean aesthetics
  • Ecology, creolization, and politics
  • Fictions of resource extraction
  • The role of the artist as activist in the Caribbean
  • The arts and environmental justice
  • The arts and social movements
  • Visions of environmental Utopia and dystopia in the Caribbean
  • The environment as historical memory
  • The environment in national, regional, or diasporic imaginaries

Individual papers should be no longer than 20 minutes. Please send a 300 word abstract and a biographical sketch (150 words) to Michael Niblett at eapconference@gmail.com by March 1st, 2011.  Proposals for panels (3 speakers) are also welcome: please send a 200 word summary of the rationale for the panel, in addition to individual abstracts. Any enquiries, please contact Michael Niblett at the above email address.

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