OBAFEMI AWOLOWO UNIVERSITY, ILE-IFE, NIGERIA

FACULTY OF ARTS

CALL FOR PAPERS

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON RETHINKING THE HUMANITIES IN AFRICA

                                                            JUNE 13 – 14, 2006

                                    Venue: Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria

If we broadly construe the humanities as embracing Literary Studies, Linguistics and Languages, History, Fine Arts, Music, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Law, Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology and Political Science, there is a growing need for practitioners in the field to collectively re-assess their practice in relation to the socio-political environment in which they produce knowledge. This is not just a necessary response to the frequent official interrogations of the field and its increasing, albeit largely misinformed, marginalisation in the Nigerian context, it is also a timely attempt at a wide-ranging appraisal of the challenges it must respond to. The proposed conference is to provide a forum for scholars, curriculum planners, policy makers and administrators to critically appraise the orientation and utility of the humanities on the one hand and assess the content, methodology and the contemporary challenges of knowledge production in the field on the other.

Papers that engage any of the following and related issues are therefore invited for presentation at this conference:

• Relevance of the Humanities in National Development

• The Content and Structure of Courses in the Humanities

• Decolonising the Humanities and Humanities Scholarship

• Ethical Issues in Research and Teaching in the Humanities

• Societal Perception of the Humanities

• The Humanities and the Sociology of Knowledge

• Multidisciplinary Approaches versus Disciplinary Segregations in the Humanities

• The Humanities and other Disciplines

• African Humanities Scholarship in the Diaspora

• The Humanities, Identity and Difference

• Orthodoxy and Novelty in Contemporary Humanities Scholarship

• Re-conceptualising the Humanities

• Publication in the Humanities

Abstracts of proposed paper should not exceed three hundred (300) words. Each should reflect the title of the paper and author's contact details (institutional affiliation, email address and phone number). We also welcome short research notes that speak to any of the themes.

All submissions are to be made electronically. Abstracts are to be received by 30 January 2006. Authors of accepted abstracts would be informed by 15 February 2006 while full papers should be submitted by 30 March 2006.

Direct all correspondence to: The Organising Committee, International Conference on Rethinking the Humanities in Africa, c/o Dean's Office, Faculty of Arts, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, artsoauconference2006@yahoo.com. Updates on the conference will be available from the web pages of the Faculty of Arts, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife: http://www.oauife.edu.ng/faculties/arts/index.htm

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Received on Fri Sep 30 2005 - 12:32:00 EDT