(Be)Longing in the Francophone World
Call for Papers: Society for Francophone Postcolonial Studies Postgraduate Study Day 2016, University of Birmingham, 20 June 2016
(Be)Longing in the Francophone World
‘La vraie vie est absente. Nous ne sommes pas au monde’, Arthur Rimbaud
What does it mean, to be, to belong? To belong to (or be a citizen of) a country? To belong to (or be a member of) a family or community - religious or otherwise? Belonging has a particular relevance in the Francophone postcolonial world of today and is caught up in questions of identity – being part of (or identifying with) a place or people group. Moreover, the idea of not being in the world, of belonging elsewhere, is often just as interesting as the idea of belonging somewhere. Increased migration from France’s former colonies, the November 2015 Paris attacks, and subsequent debates in French parliament about the stripping of French citizenship for dual nationality terrorists all raise questions of identity, mobility, and inclusion/exclusion. Recent literary and cultural representations of the Francophone world have turned increasingly to address these issues, including Nancy Huston’s Danse noire (2013) and Céline Sciamma’s film Bande de filles (2014).
This year, the Society for Francophone Postcolonial Studies Postgraduate Conference will be held on Monday 20 June 2016 at the University of Birmingham and will explore issues of identity and belonging across the Francophone world. We are delighted to welcome Dr Helen Vassallo (University of Exeter) as the keynote speaker and Dr Catherine Gilbert (School of Advanced Study, University of London) has agreed to offer a talk on academic careers from the perspective of an Early Careers Researcher.
The SFPS PG study day aims to bring together postgraduate researchers, both at MA/MSc and PhD level, to showcase their current work on identity and belonging in a supportive and friendly environment. The purpose is to facilitate discussion, debate, and exchange among PG students working within the field of Francophone postcolonial studies. We also invite papers from a variety of disciplinary and comparative perspectives (arts and humanities, cultural studies, other social sciences) to share their thoughts on these questions. Papers should be no longer than 20 minutes.
The following is an indicative, but by no means exhaustive, list of the kinds of issues we hope to address:
- Inclusion/exclusion
- Citizenship and ethnicity
- Religious identity
- Belonging within a family, community, or nation
- Non-belonging
- Exilic identity
- Migration and mobility
- Gender and sexuality
- Personal identity: autobiographical writing, memoirs, life stories, biographies
- Belonging within Francophone diasporic communities
- Artistic interpretations of belonging and identity
Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words, with your name, institutional affiliation, and contact details, by 18th March to sfpspg2016@gmail.com and email the same address to register for the study day