Panel on Contemporary Slavery=20

At the Annual Meeting of the American Studies Association ("The United =
States from Inside and Out: Transnational American Studies")

October 12 - 15, 2006, Oakland, California.=20

There are 27 million slaves alive today - more than at any point in =
history. This panel will discuss modern slavery in relation to the =
"United States from Inside and Out," this year's conference theme. 140 =
years after the Emancipation Proclamation thousands of slaves are =
trafficked into the US every year and this panel examines a very =
different kind of transnational exchange to the more obvious "cultural =
exchanges" implicit in the ASA theme - that of people for money, around =
the world.=20

Papers might examine the rhetoric of contemporary abolition, or the =
ideas of freedom explored in contemporary slave narratives. They might =
look at the geographical, social and historical background of =
contemporary slavery, or seek to explain slavery's economic and =
political causes. They might set slavery in the context of human rights =
legislation. They might lay out the role of globalization, the =
population explosion, organized crime, and the complicity of governments =
and corporations. Or they might define this new slavery: does this =
include prison labor, all forms of child labor, or extreme poverty and =
sweat-shop labor? And in examining "types" of slavery, should we address =
the issue of child slavery differently? Or sex slavery? They might =
discuss the difference between enslavement out of freedom and hereditary =
slavery, or explore whether this new slavery is as racialized as =
historic American chattel slavery. Are race, caste, tribe, and religion =
markers of slavery today? What are the similarities and differences =
between today's slavery and that of nineteenth-century America? =20

These topics or any others are welcome. We'll try to advance the =
conversation about contemporary slavery. This conversation is currently =
building - from Nicholas Kristoff's articles on Cambodian sex slavery in =
the New York Times in January 2005 and Andrew Cockburn's article in =
National Geographic in September 2005, to Len Morris' film Stolen =
Childhoods of September 2005 and the new miniseries, Human Trafficking, =
on Lifetime in October 2005.=20

The panel welcomes submissions from academics, abolitionists, human =
rights activists and all other social activists, community members, =
secondary school teachers, journalists, creative writers and artists.=20

Please submit short proposals and a brief biographical paragraph to Zoe =
Trodd at Harvard University, trodd_at_fas.harvard.edu by January 5, 2006. =
Early submissions encouraged.=20

         ==========================================================
              From the Literary Calls for Papers Mailing List
                        CFP_at_english.upenn.edu
                         Full Information at
                     http://cfp.english.upenn.edu
         or write Jennifer Higginbotham: higginbj_at_english.upenn.edu
         ==========================================================
Received on Sun Nov 27 2005 - 16:44:03 EST