Subject: CFP: Caribbean Phil Assoc: Shifting the Geography of Reason

Conference website: http://www.caribbeanphilosophicalassociation.org/CPA_2012.html

Call for Papers Theme: Shifting the Geography of Reason Subtitle: Racial Capitalism and the Creole Discourses of Native-, Indo-, Afro-, and Euro-Caribbean s Type: 2012 Annual Meeting Institution: Caribbean Philosophical Association (CPA) University of the West Indies Location: St. Augustine (Trinidad and Tobago) Date: 19.-21.7.2012 Deadline: 31.3.2012 __________________________________________________

Under this broad heading, the Caribbean Philosophical Association(CPA) will take as its organizing theme the impact of the global capitalist crisis on old and new thinking in the Creole discourses of the region. For the Caribbean, global capitalism has always been a racial capitalism as Africans and Asians were incorporated into it as "negro workers" and "coolie laborers" in contrast to white workers, Middle Eastern retailers, and white capitalists. As the Great Recession of 2008 continues to change the inner workings of this racialized capitalist system, how have these changes affected its racial codes and hierarchies, and are the latter forcing changes in the Creole discourses of the region, including our political economy? Caribbean Creole discourses have emphasized the mixed and fluid nature of our cultural heritage, the importance of external economic dependence, emigration, and the influences of this growing Diaspora. In one of his classic essays, Stuart Hall suggested that in our increasingly globalized world the mutual influences between cultures of home and Diaspora have been displacing the mutual ties between cultures of home and Caribbean nation-states. Are these features and claims of Caribbean Creole discourses, whether Native-, Indo-, Euro-or Afro-Caribbean, still true? Or are they being changed by shifts in the balance of power between geographical regions of this economic world system? For its ninth annual meeting, the CPA now invites the submission of papers and panels that will engage various aspects of this question of regional race/ethnic change or stability as a result of major tremors and aftershocks in the capitalist world economy. Are race/ethnic identities changing in our region at this time? Is it getting any easier for Native-, Euro-, Afro-, and Indo-Caribbean s to enter each other's identity spaces? Are we getting better at understanding each other's religious and philosophical traditions? Is it getting easier for us to enter each other's discursive spaces? Are the patterns and paces of race/ethnic changes the same or different in the Spanish-, English-, French-, and Dutch-speaking parts of the region? What of the mixed identities of these different linguistic groups: the Mestas, the Dougla, and the Mulatto? Has the rise of China, Brazil and India in this global economy affected the race

ethnic codes by which Indo-Caribbean s and Chinese Caribbean s and Brazilians have been defined? Have these shifts in global positions had any impact on their relations with Afro-Caribbean s and Euro-Caribbean s? Has the crisis reinforced old patterns between these groups or has had no impact at all? It is issues of this type, which link race/ethnic identities and shifts in the global political economy, that we would like to make our broad organizing theme for2012. As in the past, we continue to welcome papers from multiple disciplines and on related themes, including presentations that focus on other parts of the globe or that seek to contribute to South-South dialogues. Our view of philosophy is a highly intertextual one in which it occupies space in other disciplines at the same time that other disciplines occupy philosophical space. Thus in the context of the Caribbean we see disciplines like literature, religion, history economics and political science as having deep inter textual relations with philosophy. Consequently, papers from these and other disciplines have been and will continue to be welcomed at CPAmeetings. The goal is not to keep either philosophy or these fields strictly divided or their methods intact, but to foment atransdisciplinary form of reflection that seeks not only to understand, but also to creatively (re)interpret and change the world. To this extent, we also invite artists, public intellectuals, and organizers who see a value in engaging scholars to join our meeting. We also invite panel proposals that include dialogues among scholars, scholar-artists, or scholar-activists with other scholars, artists, and/or activists. Although each year we have a special focus, we have always welcomed papers that go beyond the scope of our organizing theme. For example, we will welcome papers on past organizing themes and such vital areas as development, gender, creolization, music, literature, African, and Indian philosophy. And, of course always welcome are papers on any aspect or phase of Caribbean philosophy, whether Native-, Indo-, Afro-, or Euro-Caribbean, whether Spanish- French-, Dutch- or English-speaking or some complex combination of these variants. We accept proposals in Spanish, French and English. We also encourage the submission of papers to the CLR James Journal, the official journal of the CPA. In addition to proposals that verse on the specific topic this year, we encourage papers and panels on areas such as: Decolonization theory/neocolonial thought Critical race theory and philosophy Africana philosophy& critical theory Feminist philosophy and queer studies Border Studies and Border Thinking Critical race theory Critical African, Asian, and Latin American thought Maroon practice and thinking Caribbean migrations Ecology and the environment Indo-Caribbean philosophy& literature Indigeneity, mestizaje, and creolit Philosophy and literature in the Antilles& the Diaspora Psychoanalysis and deconstruction Law and Human Rights Religion in the Caribbean and the Diaspora Performance studies Social and political philosophies

Send submissions for panels, roundtables, discussions, and abstracts of individual presentations by March 31st, 2012 by email to<caribphil@gmail.com>. Abstracts should include: 1) name, position, institutional and department affiliation (if any), and highest university degree obtained, 2) title of proposed paper, panel, roundtable, or discussion, 3) up to one page description of the problem(s) addressed and identification of the sources used per participant. Panel presentations must include a description of the panel as well as title and abstracts of individual presentations and the basic biographical information (as listed above) of each presenter. The maximum of presenters per panel is four, in addition to a moderator. The fourth panelist could be a presenter or a commentator. We will review proposals in English, French, and Spanish and will create panels for presentations in those three languages. Panelists are responsible for providing translation if they wish their presentations to be translated. They also need to consider the time for translations as they prepare their panels. We will consider submissions of two to three interconnected panels on key issues that relate to the main theme of the conference. These panels will take place at different days and times throughout the conference to be determined by the organizing committee. We also encourage panels that seek to establish dialogues among scholars, and artists, professionals, activists, and community leaders who are in dialogue with intellectual and scholarly work. All presenters will be asked to pay conference fees and membership tithe association as well. The membership and the registration forms will be posted on this website soon. Membership and registration are non-refundable.