cfp.english.upenn.edu

This is a call for papers for the annual American Comparative Literature Conference which will be held in Toronto, Canada, April 4 - 7, 2013. The abstracts need to be submitted on the ACLA website: < http://www.acla.org/acla2013/> by November 15, 2012.

Seminar Title: (Re)formulations of Blackness in 21st-century France
Co-Organizers: Mame-Fatou Niang & Jean-Baptiste Meunier
Seminar Proposal:

In the midst of the second round of the presidential election in April 2012, France was rocked by another vote, with the first edition of “Miss Black France” in Paris. This type of competition routinely takes place in Great Britain as well as in the United States, where “Miss Black America” was institutionalized in 1968. However, in the Hexagon the event was condemned for its racial overtones. “Miss Black France” was shocking because it was a national contest that openly embraced a particular racial identity: young French nationals and foreign residents who were natives of Africa or the Americas were invited to compete in an event that openly questioned the country’s long-held stance on ethnic invisibility. Our purpose here is neither to judge the relevance of these positions, nor the real motives of the contest organizers, but to discuss the aftermaths of the event, and its consequences in the (re)mapping of blackness in the Hexagon.

The seminar welcomes papers that engages with:
• Blackness in France
• Definition(s) and reality of a black community in France
• African Diaspora in France
• Black Womanhood
• Citizenship and Bodies

Seminar Proposal Keywords:

France
African Diaspora
Body
Citizenship
Race
Blackness