How will Haiti begin to address the destruction of many of its cultural institutions and artifacts? This is just one of the many questions that will be posited at The Global Caribbean Symposium: Interrogating the Politics of Location in Literature & Culture. The conference will take place March 4-6, 2010 in Coral Gables and Little Haiti*. The gathering is hosted by the University of Miami Department of English’s Caribbean Literary and Cultural Studies Program and the Little Haiti Cultural Center (City of Miami). The conference has received generous support and assistance from UM’s Department of English, the Haitian Cultural Arts Alliance, the Little Haiti Cultural Center (City of Miami), puma.creative and the www.CreativeCaribbeanNetwork.com.
The Global Caribbean Symposium will address the crisis in Haiti and encourage further dialogue about the politics of location in the Caribbean region. As society begins to move from the humanitarian efforts to the difficult work of rebuilding Haiti’s infrastructure, there is an unseen and yet extremely invaluable aspect of Haiti’s past and future that needs to be addressed also. The loss of educators, writers, painters, filmmakers – all whom have been an integral part of preserving and developing Haiti’s rich cultural traditions – means there is much work to be done to reconstruct cultural institutions down the road when the rebuilding begins.
The conference brings together more than 50 writers, artists, curators and academics to participate in a three-day dialogue not only about Haiti, but also about how political, social and cultural locations in the Caribbean and the Diaspora help to shape imaginations of Haiti and other countries in the region.
The organizers are UM faculty members Patricia J. Saunders and Sandra Pouchet Paquet, along with revered Haitian artist Edouard Duval Carrié from the Haitian Cultural Arts Alliance. UM faculty and graduate scholars involved in the conference panels include; Yi Huang, Brandi Kellett, Lara Cahill-Booth, Kate Ramsey, Joanna Johnson, Marta Fernandez Campa, and conference organizer Patricia Saunders. puma.creative provided mobility grants to enable Roshini Kempadoo (University of East London), Nicole Awai (Yale University School of Art), and Joscelyn Gardner (University of Western Ontario) to participate in the conference.
The three-day symposium will is part of a recent partnership that began last year with the opening of the Little Haiti Cultural Center (City of Miami). This partnership between the University of Miami, the Haitian Cultural Arts Alliance, puma.creative and the City of Miami’s Little Haiti Cultural Center is the beginning of what promises to be a continuing discourse about the importance of culture for social change and development in the Caribbean region.
The UM Caribbean Literary Studies group began in 1999 with the goal of creating imaginative and critically productive spaces to hold discussions about Caribbean literature, culture and the arts. The team is made up of graduate students (M.F.A., M.A., and Ph.D.), alumnae, faculty and other interested parties from the University of Miami community and the Greater Miami area that have a serious interest in topics related to Caribbean culture.
For more information, visit http://www.as.miami.edu/cls/ or contact caribbeanlit.english@miami.edu. Register for the conference by visiting http://www.as.miami.edu/cls/docs/CLCS2010RegistrationForm.pdf .
CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS:
FRIDAY, MARCH 5, 2010
9:00 AM – 10: 00 AM KEYNOTE ADDRESS
Mimi Sheller, Drexel University, Professor of Sociology,
Department of Culture and Communication
Director, Center for Mobilities Research and Policy
Broken Borders: Caribbean Mobilities, (Im)Mobile Technologies and Fractured Spatialities
SATURDAY, MARCH 6, 2010
10:30 AM – 11:45 AM
Counter-Cultures, Mobility and Migrant Identities
Moderator: Kate Ramsey, Department of History, University of Miami
Jon Glover, University of Florida
The Haitian Diaspora as a Counter-Culture of Modernity: Rethinking Haitian Political Modernity in The Dewbreaker and The Butterfly’s Way
Walteria Tucker, Florida Atlantic University
Prepare, Process, Package: The Consumption of Haiti in Hispanic Caribbean Literature
April Shemak, Sam Houston State University
The Limb/o Gateway of Caribbean Refugee Articulations
Emilio Ceruti, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras
Breaking down the pater familiae patterns: The castration of the Latin “macho” in the Nuyorican literature
3:30 PM – 4:30 PM
Black Diaspora Identity and the Politics of “Pop” Culture
Jerry Philogene, American Studies Department, Dickinson College
“Wyclef Jean and Cultural Citizenship: Don’t Believe the Hype, Lips “Do” Lie”
Sika Dagbovie, Department of English, Florida Atlantic University
“Race as Costume & Commodity: Mariah Carey and the Marketing of Racial Fluidity”
Patricia Saunders, Department of English, University of Miami
“When the Empire Bites Back: Food, Fun and F**king for Discerning Tourists”
The University of Miami’s mission is to educate and nurture students, to create knowledge, and to provide service to our community and beyond. Committed to excellence and proud of the diversity of our University family, we strive to develop future leaders of our nation and the world. http://www.miami.edu
*Locations:
-Day 1 Registration: Holiday Inn – 1350 SOUTH DIXIE HIGHWAY, Coral Gables
-Day 2 Registration: University of Miami – Learning Center – 5150 Brunson Drive, University of Miami Coral Gables Campus
-Day 3 Registration: Little Haiti Cultural Center – 212-260 NE 59th Terrace, Miami