Hat tip: Angela Shaw
Being Black and Becoming European: Un/Settled Migration and Hidden Histories
“Striving to be European and black requires some specific forms of double consciousness.”
–Paul Gilroy – The Black Atlantic, 1993
The Editors of African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal (Routledge) announce a Call for Papers on Being Black and Becoming European: Un/Settled Migration and Hidden Histories to examine the intersection between Being Black and Becoming European in the context of a changing Europe.
In the last decade, the presence of African Diaspora populations has drawn increased attention from scholars and the public at large. Although the systematic study of the history of what is now generally referred to as Black Europe has just begun, the history African Diaspora populations in Europe remains neglected and hidden.
The Editors encourage a range of contributions that critically examine Being Black and Becoming European amid contestations, negotiations, and competing identity claims through a range of perspectives that touch on questions such as: What does it mean to be Black and Becoming European in a changing Europe? How have processes and dynamics of racialization and gendering of Black subjects materialized and been contested? What are the historical legacies of European colonialism on Being Black and Becoming European? In what ways has Blackness been constructed and negotiated across Europe? What sort of state strategies has been deployed to police, regulate and manage Blackness in Europe? What discursive frameworks are emerging to examine Being Black and Becoming European?
Contributors are encouraged to explore being Black and Becoming European: Unsettled Migration and Hidden Histories in Europe through various disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches such as literature, history, music, performance and cultural studies, photography and visual art, and anthropology etc…
African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal (Routledge) is devoted to a critical interrogation of the trans/national movement, locations and intersections of subjectivity within the African Diaspora in the context of globalization as well as in different discourses, political, social, historical and cultural contexts. The journal maps and navigates the theoretical and political forces set in motion by nation-state and provides a counter-narrative of subject positions regarding resistance, negotiation and cultural production of African descendant populations.
The aim of the journal is to advance the analytical and interrogative discourses that constitute the distinctive interdisciplinary field of African and Black Diaspora Studies in the production of knowledge
about the deterritorialised and transnational nature of the African and Black Diaspora. Eschewing essentialist modes of theorizing, the journal situates the movement of African descended populations (geographic, cultural, social, political and psychological) in the context of globalized and transnational spaces by emphasizing the centrality of African and Black Diaspora as a unit of analysis as well as the development of diasporic identities across time and space.
Abstracts should be 400-500 words in length. Authors should send their material with the abstract attached as a Word document. The abstract should also be included in the body of the message. Please be sure to include the following information in the e-mail as well: Full name, university affiliation, and the title of your abstract.
Deadlines: submission of Abstracts, February 28, 2010 and submission of completed papers, July 30, 2010. Authors of accepted abstracts will receive e-mail notification no later than March 15, 2010.
Proposals should be sent to:
Fassil Demissie,
DePaul University
fdemissi@depaul.edu
Fassil Demissie, Editor
African and Black Diaspora
Department of Public Policy, Suite 150.1
DePaul University
2352 N. Clifton Ave
Chicago, IL 60614
Email: fdemissi@depaul.edu
Hello,
I am currently a college student in a class called “Black Transnational Cultures.” I found this post really interesting because we mainly studied how the Diaspora has affected Afro Germans and Afro British, and the major thing I took from this analysis was the struggle for identity.
Many Afro Germans and Afro British are treated as though they are foreigners in their own countries, or second class citizens. I can't imagine what it would be like to constantly get comments that give away people's thoughts: “Oh, you can't be from here because you're black.” The double consciousness that Gilroy speaks of doesn't come easily, it takes skill to be able to balance both parts of one's identity to create a fusion that is comfortable for the person.
In my final group project, we studied Dubstep and how it reflects the melding of cultures that is necessitated by Diaspora. Gilroy shed some light on the subject and declared that absolutism in situations like that are impossible. When you have various kinds of people coming together to create music, it's no longer “black music” or “British music,” it becomes something else entirely.
The same happens with people. They aren't solely African, they aren't solely British or German or European. They are Afro British, Afro German, etc. I think this is a commendable project because this topic hasn't been talked about enough, and it will bring some attention to the difficulties people go through to secure their identities.
Thanks for your thoughtful response. Did your class come to the UK and/or Germany as part of your studies?
Thanks for your thoughtful response. Did your class come to the UK and/or Germany as part of your studies?