CFP: Diaspora and Jewish & Arab Culture (4/6/07; collection)

full name / name of organization: 
Field, Robin
contact email: 

Seeking one essay addressing diaspora and Jewish culture (broadly
conceived), and one essay addressing diaspora and Arab culture (broadly
conceived), for a collection of essays entitled Transforming Diaspora.
We wish to receive queries/proposal from interested scholars by April 6,
2007. The full CFP for the essay collection follows. Send email
submissions to robinfield_at_kings.edu.
Transforming Diaspora (Book Collection)=20
=20
Eds. Parmita Kapadia and Robin Field=20
=20
Cultural studies has generated a re-evaluation of the long established
tropes governing the diasporic condition. The emergence of various
diasporas prompts a rethinking of the field to include the experiences=20
of exiles, expatriots, refugees, migrants, tourists, as well as racial,
religious, ethnic, and linguistic "Others." The existence of the
diasporic state has been at the forefront of postcolonial scholarship
for over a decade now, but this scholarship has mainly focused on the
home/abroad binary. This collection of essays seeks to investigate the
growing impact of the diasporic condition in light of recent studies in
transnationalism, transculturalism, and globalization. How does the
existence of a diasporic community figure into the politics of the
nation-state? For longstanding diasporic communities, which place is=20
home and which is exile? How is the diasporic identity constructed,
particularly for later generations? How does the ascendancy of
globalization co-opt diasporic concerns?=20

Recent scholarship has only begun to explore the cultural impact of
these historically marginalized individuals and communities.
Diasporas-both established and emergent-are central and integral to
colonial, postcolonial, and transnational studies, especially critical
analyses of race, nationhood, modernity, identity, changes in economic
and social structures, and ethnic, religious, political, and
linguisticaffiliation. Transforming Diaspora seeks to further our
understandingand application of theories of diaspora through sustained
engagement with the literature of diasporic communities. What cultural
practices challenge monolithic understandings of nationhood and instead
gesture to a transnational ethos? What are the effects of multiple
cultural inheritances on migrant populations? How does generational
affiliationaffect the formation of cultural practices and notions of
citizenship? How are borders (of any sort) represented, critiqued, or
exploded in diaspora literature?=20
Building on the recent work by Arjun Appadurai, Paul Gilroy, Robin
Cohen, Stuart Hall, Homi Bhabha, and Vijay Prashad, this collection
seeks to redefine the composition, influence, and position of
diasporasand their contested relationships with dominant cultures and
discourses. We seek essays that are grounded in the literary and/or
cultural texts of any diasporic community, including South Asian,
African, Jewish, Latin American, Middle Eastern, etc. In discussing the
ideas of culture,citizenship, and transnationalism, these essays should
offer interpretations, extensions, and challenges to the current
theoretical understandings of diaspora(s). We welcome submissions from
diverse theoretical and critical approaches, particularly border
cultures, literary transnationalism, race, film studies, colonial and
postcolonialism.

Robin E. Field, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of English
King's College
133 N. River St.
Wilkes-Barre, PA 18711
Robinfield_at_kings.edu
(570) 208-5900 x. 5771

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Received on Mon Mar 19 2007 - 14:35:45 EST