CROSSROADS: MIGRATION, LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE IN AFRICA
February 25-27, 2009
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey


CONFERENCE DESCRIPTION
This conference is designed to foster trans-disciplinary understanding of the complex interplay between language, literature and migration, and of the varied patterns of language and literary movement, formation and practice arising from contemporary and historical migration within, to and from Africa. Since antiquity Africa has been a locus of linguistic, literary and cultural interchange with communities from around the world. The advent of European colonialism on the continent and the impact of more recent articulations of globalization have added to both the scope and complexity of these cultural interconnections. These interactions have often involved human migration, a process that has profound sociolinguistic and literary consequences for the recipient society, the society of origin and the migrants themselves. Uprooted from familiar sociolinguistic contexts, migrants may find themselves reconstituted as ethno-linguistic minorities elsewhere, seeking to inscribe themselves in the new “host” communities --which are themselves often transformed by the arrival of the immigrants -- through new linguistic, literary and cultural practices. At times, however, the migration has been primarily textual, facilitated by scholarly exchanges, translation, and religious conversion. This two day conference will be concerned with both these dimensions of migration and its relationship to language and literature in global Africa.

Pre-conference Lecture/Reception and Art Exhibition
The pre-conference lecture will be given by Ngugi Wa Thiongo (Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature and Director of the International Center for Writing and Translation at the University of California, Irvine). The art exhibition is by Lalla Essaydi and is entitled, “Les Femmes de Maroc.”

Pre-Conference Lecture/Reception and Art Exhibition
February 25, 2009
Venue: The Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum
Lower Dodge Gallery
71 Hamilton Street
New Brunswick, NJ

Conference
February 26-27, 2009
Venue: Rutgers Student Center, Room 407
126 College Avenue
New Brunswick, NJ

Hotel:
Conference presenter accommodations will be provided by The Heldrich, located at 10 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ. Presenters must contact Renee DeLancey by e-mail rdelance@rci.rutgers.edu or by phone at 732.445.6638 to book their guest rooms. ** All presenter reservations must be made by February 4, 2010. **


Sponsors:
CAS; the Department of African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Languages and Literatures; the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum; the Office of the Executive Dean, School of Arts and Sciences; the Office of Undergraduate Education; the Office of the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs; and the Transliteratures Project