Race, Memory and Reclamation: "There are years that ask questions
and years that answer."(Zora Neale Hurston).

The school of American studies at the University of East Anglia, Norwich,
UK, is holding a two-day international conference entitled, "Race, Memory
and Reclamation" from September 07-09, 2007.

2007 marks the 200th anniversary of the ending of the slave trade throughout
the British Empire. Following this step by the British government the
relatively young republic of the United States of America passed a federal
law prohibiting the external slave trade with Africa, which effectively
outlawed the transatlantic slave trade between this country and the
continent of Africa. Whilst this legislation saw the slave trade outlawed,
slavery itself continued via the domestic slave trade that developed between
the southern states until the 13th Amendment was passed in 1865, marking at
least officially, the ending of slavery in the United States.

All sorts of questions are raised by this anniversary of the formal ending
of the transatlantic slave trade within the United States -- How important
is this commemoration given that slavery continued within the interior of
the United States until 1865? Have African-American communities been able to
reclaim the history of enslavement for themselves and in what ways? And to
what extent can the legacies of slavery ever be done justice to?

The anniversary of the ending of the slave trade will serve as a peg on
which to hang wider questions relating to subaltern people within the United
States and the ways in which they have sought to reclaim the histories of
their ancestors that for so long have been subject to the master narrative.
The conference will therefore be reflecting on questions regarding the
commemoration of various histories within the United States and will
consider issues such as:

. How have the histories of subaltern groups been commemorated within
these specific communities?
. How has the nature of the ways in which various peoples have
scripted their remembrances of theses pasts changed over time?
. Can the remembrances of these histories in their various forms be
regarded as a form of cultural resistance and/or resurrection?
. What are the implications of commemorative history to both dominant
and subaltern groups within American society?

Papers are invited from various disciplines including, (but not exclusive
to), history, literature, gender studies, cultural studies, and folklore.
For more information or to submit proposals please contact Dr Rebecca
Griffin (becky.griffin_at_uea.ac.uk) or Dr Malcolm
McLaughlin(m.mclaughlin_at_uea.ac.uk) in the school of American studies at the
University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK. Proposal deadline: 1st August 2006.

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Received on Mon May 15 2006 - 12:34:36 EDT