2010 Annual Conference of the Canadian Association of African Studies (CAAS)

Published on June 14, 2018

2010 Annual Conference of the Canadian Association of African Studies (CAAS)

Conference Theme 2010

Africa Matters: Celebrating 40 years of the Canadian Association of African Studies

Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
5-7 May 2010

In celebration of its 40th anniversary, the Canadian Association of African Studies (CAAS) extends a special welcome to scholars working on all aspects of African studies at its next annual conference in Ottawa on May 5-7, 2010. The Institute of African Studies at Carleton University is hosting the conference with support from the African Studies Research Laboratory at the University of Ottawa. The Ottawa area, of course, is bilingual. Our aim is to attract both Anglophone and francophone scholars from Canada as well as an international group of specialists and, in so doing, facilitate discussion and dialogue across disciplines and among scholars based in both the North and South. This Call for Papers intends to provide a forum for addressing and presenting academic research and policy proposals that examine the histories, debates, policy issues, and current practices related to African matters.

CAAS contributes expertise, research, and informed debate concerning a wide range of African “matter” related to sociocultural issues, the arts, political economy, the environment and transnationalism, among others. Since 1970, CAAS has demonstrated how African issues matter to a wide range of Canadian and international publics in academic, policy-making, programming, and many other circles. Although the interest of these different publics in African matters has waxed and waned over time, the expanding recognition of African contexts and initiatives to a growing range of transnational practices (from humanitarianism to peace-building; markets to social movements; climate change to food security; religious dynamism to health and education policies; sports to music and cinema; migration and diasporas to the forging of the Atlantic world) means that the continent is becoming more prominent in the attention, imagination, and actions of more and more publics.

Beyond the growing interest in Africa in Canada, however, this conference welcomes investigation and discussion on the vast array of other topics of interest in African Studies. For example, Africa Matters provides participants with the opportunity for sharing research and debate concerning the study of issues related to Africa and African diaspora from events as wide-reaching as the slave-trade, the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and current conflicts to the minutiae of everyday life, such as schooling practices, religiosity, and media consumption, etc.. We encourage the submission of research papers in English or French in these and other areas.