Race, Ethnicity and American Studies (Finland) (3/15/03; 6/6/03-6/8/03)

Close Encounters of an Other Kind:
New Perspectives on Race, Ethnicity and American Studies
University of Joensuu, Finland, 6-8 June 2003

First Call for Papers

Differences in race have generally been seen as the main point dividing people in North American society. The dichotomy has traditionally been expressed in terms of black and white. The conflict has even been examined between black and one segment of the white population-there is a growing body of critical works concerning the dialogue between blacks and Jews, a relationship which seems to have been exacerbated in the last third of a century. How have relations between whites and other people of color evolved? Have some achieved a status of "honorary white?" How is "whiteness" currently defined? How do globalization and transnationalism affect the construction of communities? How can we characterize relations between and representations of blacks and other people of color or even between African and Caribbean Americans/Canadians? The racial violence of the last decade shows that they too are far from harmonious. And what of the ties between various seemingly related groups, is there no friction in these relationships? How has American Studies as a discipline addressed these issues?

We invite papers (maximum 20 minutes) for this international conference exploring new directions in American Studies: literature, history, cultural studies, sociology, film, art, music, linguistics etc. We encourage submissions focusing on the relationships and representations of race in the contemporary context as well as in earlier periods in the Americas.

Invited speakers include Amritjit Singh (Rhode Island College), co-editor of the Postcolonial Theory and the United States: Race, Ethnicity and Literature, and Cheryl Greenburg (Trinity College, Hartford), whose Troubling the Waters: Black-Jewish Relations in the American Century will soon be published by Princeton University Press. A conference website is currently under construction and will include information concerning registration and the conference fee, accommodation, the city of Joensuu and travelling here, and the University of Joensuu.

Please send an 300-word abstract to: roy.goldblatt@joensuu.fi or Close Encounters of An Other Kind, Department of English, University of Joensuu, P. O. Box 111, 80101 Joensuu, Finland.

The deadline for submissions is 15 March 2003.

Welcome!
Jopi Nyman, PhD
Head of Foreign Languages Department
University of Joensuu
P O Box 111
80101 JOENSUU
FINLAND
Tel +358 13 251 4331
Fax +358 13 251 4211