CACLALS at COSSH 2006

CACLALS invites proposals for papers and panels at our next annual
conference to be held in May 2006 at York University. The Congress theme of
"The City: A Festival of Knowledge" speaks to some major concerns in the
field of postcolonial studies, such as those raised by notions of
cosmopolitanism.

Dystopian, utopian, cosmopolitan, ghettoizing, liberating, multiethnic,
colonizing, decolonizing are a few of the more prominent terms that appear
in disciplinary engagements with the urban-this apparently constantly
visible of spaces. Of particular interest is the increasingly globalized
economy of the city. However, there are a myriad other concerns, some
indicated in the above terms and others that stretch from considering the
implications of urban planning in the age of European expansion to the
conditions and shape of the largest cities, that are in the South countries,
many of which are also critically informed by their experience as colonial
and postcolonial states.

Recently, Jane Jacobs has suggested that we pay attention to the
particularities that make cities distinctive rather than reducing them to
the generic that situates them as all alike in global flows of cultural and
economic transactions. In response to the question "what should a city be
like?" she replied, "it should be like itself." (Reasononline, June 2001).
This seems as good a place as any to start. What is the "itself" of cities
in literature with postcolonial interests? What does literature
self-identified with social, cultural and political margins contribute or
have to say about ongoing discussions of human and environmental conditions
as they are situated in cities? Her comment also invites us to consider the
issue at a meta-textual level and pay attention to the particular historical
formations that shape an individual city. Thus other questions of interest
include questions about the economy of a given urban social space, its
participation in and perpetuation of particular modes of production, its
negotiation of inherited logic(s) on the one hand and the influence of
global flows on the other and so on.

We invite papers on any one of the following or related aspects of the
Congress theme:

city and counterhistory
the future metropolis
the city and globalization, the role of the city in globalization
the transnational city
the diasporic metropolis
culture and the city
the indigene and the logic of the urban
the colonial past and the contemporary city
the politics of cosmopolitanism
the cultural production of the city scape

Please forward inquiries and proposals (300-500 words) for papers, panels,
workshops, or special sessions by November 15th, 2005 to

Dr. Sukeshi Kamra
Department of English, 1812 Dunton Tower
Carleton University
1125 Colonel By Drive
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
K1S 5B6
SukeshiKamra_at_pigeon.carleton.ca
Fax: (613) 520-3544

Proposals will be blind-vetted by a subcommittee of the CACALS Executive and
you will be informed of acceptance early in the new year. Please note that
only proposals from paid-up members of CACLALS will be considered. Forward
membership inquiries to Dr. Maria Caridad Casas, Secretary-Treasurer,
CACLALS: Department of English, The University of Toronto, 7 King's College
Circle, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 3K1 maricasa_at_cs.toronto.edu

Please watch for a call for papers/participants at the Seventh Annual
Aboriginal Roundtable.

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Received on Mon Sep 26 2005 - 17:35:49 EDT