ethnicity and national identity

Editors Hassen Zriba
University of Gafsa, Tunisia

Our age is one of refugee crises, of wars where the civilian population is more exposed than ever before, and of terrorist attacks that can produce more victims than organized combat. Today, information about all of these events circulates faster than ever, particularly outside of traditional media outlets.  Witnessing and reporting about destruction has never been easier, and cultural memory and social responsibility are more mobile and more complicated as a consequence.

The Absurdity of Racism: an International Chester Himes Conference.

4-6 June, 2020

Co-Directors Alice Mikal Craven and William E. Dow

American University of Paris

Chester Himes quotes Albert Camus in the opening to the second volume of his autobiography:  "Racism is absurd. Racism introduces absurdity into the human condition…If one lives in a country where racism is held valid and practiced in all ways of life, eventually, no matter whether one is a racist or a victim one comes to feel the absurdity of life". 

In his classic essay “An Introduction to the American Horror Film,” Robin Wood establishes the basic formula of the horror film as “normality is threatened by the monster.” He subsequently mentions that if one were to “substitute for ‘Monster’ the term ‘Indians’ . . . one has a formula for a large number of classical Westerns.” Wood’s point is to establish the flexibility of his framework but it also points in another direction: the monstrousness of the idea of Indigeneity within the colonial mindset. Today, one of the most exciting growing areas in horror cinema at the moment comes from Indigenous persons.

Call for Papers

The Humanities and Social Sciences Fund Conference on

“Imagining the Renaissance / Defining the Jews”

Jerusalem, January 12-15 2020

The National Library of Israel