Call for Papers: Second Kwara State University Conference on African Cinema, “African Cinema and the Supernatural” Nov 26-29, 2014. Abstract Deadline: 1 October 2014

(Apologies for the long absence from this blog. The blog administrator was busy trying to finish her PhD. She will try to update this blog more frequently from now on -CM)

Second Call for Papers and Panels

Second Kwara State University Conference on African Cinema (November 26-29, 2014).

Conference Theme:

“African Cinema and the Supernatural”

Venues:

Kwara State University/ Kwara Hotels, Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria

Call for Papers

African cinema, especially Nollywood, has shown a remarkable proclivity towards the reiteration of the supernatural. For the most part, the supernatural is embodied in religious precepts and practices. In the world that the African film, especially the Nollywood film, invokes, the representations of gods and goddesses, priests and priestess of different religions are often invested with supernatural powers, which are made to govern everyday activities in the earthly polis. It is for this reason that the loudest criticism of the Nollywood film is focused on the undue emphasis on the supernatural in the world of consumer capitalism. Birgit Meyer cautions that we must place this West African phenomenon in the “wider social context to which it speaks and from where its narratives are drawn (1999).” In other words, it is important that we understand the direct role that religion plays in this visual practice. Jean Comaroff and John L Comaroff (2000) offer a different insight. They argue, for instance, that the “triumph of global capitalism at the millennium, its Second Coming,” has given way to “the exuberant spread of innovative occult practices and magic money, pyramid schemes and prosperity gospel, the enactment, that is, of a decidedly neoliberal economy whose ever more inscrutable speculation seems to call up fresh specters in their wake.” Common to both observations is the belief in religion expressed as the supernatural means of coming to terms with the social and economic debilities of the world in which we live. There is little doubt that the Nollywood film expresses the anxiety of millennial capitalism, the rise of Christian Pentecostalism and the spread of occult practices. This conference solicits papers and panels dealing with the broad themes of religion and superstition in Nollywood. Topics dealing with the role of Nollywood in Africa’s cinematic practices are also welcomed. Of particular interest to the organizers are papers and panels dealing with the representations of different religions; religion and the city; religious consumption in the Nollywood film; representations of local cultures and superstitions; descriptions of evil, the devil, God, magic and “occult economies;” case studies of evangelical church movements in Nollywood; violence, religion, women and the occult economy.

Submissions for individual papers and panels must reach the organizers on or before October 1, 2014. Selected papers will appear in the special issue of Nollywood in Journal of Pan African Studies, California, US.

Confirmed speakers include Professor Jonathan Haynes (Brooklyn College), Professor Afe Adogame (University of Edinburgh, UK), Professor Ken Harrow (Michigan State University, US) and Professor Awam Ampka (New York University). Send queries, paper and panel proposals to: ookome@ualberta.ca, femi.abiodun@kwasu.edu.ng, kwasuworkshop@kwasu.edu.ng simultaneously. 

Call for Papers from Studies in the Humanities: Cityscape- Deadline for abstracts 15 August 2013

Call for Papers

A Call-for Papers for a an edited book and subsequently a special double issue of the journal Studies in The Humanities on the subject of cityscape as discursive node and character.

The changes that have been wrought in the urban experience of space, time, identity, locality, and subjective imaginary, have resulted in the increasing appearance of  the global cityscape virtually as character in cultural studies discussions, drama, literature, film and documentary.  Papers can address conventional modes of representing the cityscape, such as location or background; or new ways in which the local/global dynamic in the metropolis cityscape is remapped; or compare and contrast the two modes of representation in terms of Benjamin’s flaneur, postmodernity, postcolonialism or Gilles Deleuze’s concept of modernity as constituted around a viewing, rather than an (re)-acting, subject. Papers might consider how the old cityscape is demolished in terms of a postculture of dissapearance and replaced by the production of urban imaginaries that articulate new urban visions, rearticulate old distinctions between private and public spaces through new urban militant movements, negotiate changing urban values, and critique problematic urban transformations. Of interest are questions of how the global metropolis is constituted as a cultural, dramatic, literary and cinematic character, how literature, culture, drama and cinema produces the global cityspace, and how these representations of cityspace challenge or confirm conventional understandings not only of cityscape but of citizenry as well. Papers might take up questions of how sexuality, race, class and politics; considerations of genre, nationality, and history intersect with the changing cityscape.

Detailed abstracts of articles and essays (as well as a biographical note of the author) for the edited book are invited by August 15^th, 2013.  The edited book will examine cinematic, and televisual cultural studies “remapping” of the cityscape and its emergence as character as a form of registering the changed metropolitan city in globalism.

Articles, essays as well as book reviews for the special issue of the  journal will include analyses of literary and dramatic texts on the subject as well cinematic, televisual cultural studies, can be submitted in email consultation with the editor for a publishing schedule of  December, 2014. For the special double issue of the journal, book reviews on the thematic of one book or monograph or several works (at least 750 words and no more than 1,000words) may be discussed and addressed to Ozum Hatipoglu <oh46@cornell.edu.

Studies in the Humanities is a multidisciplinary journal of theoretical investigations in literature, film, drama, and cultural studies, published bi-annually at Indiana University of Pennsylvania since 1968. We encourage articles that reach across disciplines and cultures to deepen our understanding of a work, an artist, a genre, an artistic milieu, or the conditions of artistic production. Studies in the Humanities also publishes reviews of recent books in the areas of our publishing interests. Studies in the Humanities is indexed in the annual MLA Bibliography, the Film Literature Index, the American Humanities Index, An Index to Book Reviews in the Humanities, and the Journal of Abstracts of English Studies.

The manuscript (at least 10,000 words in length but no more than 12,000 words although longer essays will also be considered with good reason), double-spaced, in 12-pt. Times New Roman font using Chicago style of documentation should be electronically submitted to dubereena@gmail.com/ reena.dube@iup.edu. Please do not include your name anywhere on your manuscript or book review. Place it in a separate attachment. Also please do not use embedded endnotes or footnotes. Footnotes should be at the end of the essay with no page division between them and the text or the Works Cited list that should follow it. Email inquires regarding possible essay topics may be sent to: dubereena@gmail.com/ reena.dube@iup.edu; or Reena Dube, Editor, Studies in the Humanities, Department of English; 110 Leonard Hall; Indiana University of Pennsylvania; Indiana, PA 15705.

Call For Papers: Human Rights, Literature, the Arts, and Social Sciences, 21-23 November 2013, Abstract Deadline: 31 March 2013

cross-posted from H-AFRLITCINE

Call For Papers: Human Rights, Literature, the Arts, and Social Sciences International Conference, Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant
November 21-23, 2013

The persistence of repressive and discriminatory national policies, cultural practices, wars, genocide, religious conflict, ethnic cleansing, terrorism, rape, child-soldiering, sex-trafficking, and other forms of violence threaten the maintenance of human rights.  These conditions remind us of the ever pressing need to safeguard our humanity through the preservation of human rights.

For this year, the conference will focus on the following topics: a) Women’s rights/violations of women’s rights; b) children’s rights/violations of children’s rights; c) and Indigenous Rights & Sovereignty.

The envisioned international conference will focus on the role of literature (the Humanities), the arts, Social Sciences and the Law in the discussion, representation, and promotion of human rights, paying special attention to the areas delineated. We wish to bring writers, artists, theorists, scholars, lawyers, and NGOs into a series of conversations that engage the issue of human rights, including the ethical, political, social, economic, and cultural implications of either violations or the constructions of human rights.

We invite presentations that address human rights as they relate to the areas identified above or specific topics by themselves or through comparative lenses. Topics/themes include, but are not limited to:

*   The novel, poetry, drama/theatre/performance
*   Ethics and international law
*   Films/cinema and human rights
*   Women’s rights in film/literature
*   The role of NGOs in the human rights debate
*   The role of NGOs in Women’s rights
*   Holocaust/Genocide/War crimes/Crimes against humanity
*   Sex trafficking, slavery, child soldiering
*   Rape as a weapon of war
*   Migration and refugee rights
*   Environmental rights
*   Human rights in the age of globalization
*   TRC or Truth Commissions (Here we want to move beyond South Africa)
*   Women’s rights in cultural, regional, national contexts;
*   Human rights compliance

Presentation formats: Papers, panels, poster sessions, debates, discussions, seminars, lectures, forums, and/or performances, and workshops.  Send abstracts to:

Professor Maureen N. Eke, Department of English
Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant, 48859
Email: eke1mn@cmich.edu; Maureen.eke@cmich.edu         OR

Professor Sterling Johnson, Department of Political Science
Email: johns1s@cmich.edu                                                                 OR

Professor Benjamin Ramirez-Shwegnaabi Department of History
Email: ramir1b@cmich.edu

Abstract Deadline: March 31, 2013

The InVisible Culture journal: Call for Papers, deadline 15 March 2013

Ecologies

InVisible Culture, Issue 20

InVisible Culture: An Electronic Journal for Visual Culture invites papers that consider “ecologies” for Issue 20. We imagine ecologies primarily as organizational spectrums. Political philosopher Jane Bennett argues that attuning our critical sensibilities to the animism of images and objects might “induce a stronger ecological sense.” Similarly, art historian David Joselit suggests that relations between images amount to ecologies of form. Following such thinking, this call for papers signals a desire to flesh out the ecological metaphor vis-à-vis image relations. How do images generate connections? How does an ecological engagement with the visual world alter definitions of life? This issue theme explores the complex relations of nature and culture, image and thing, subject and object, rooted in liveliness.

Visual culture scholars have long asserted that things lead social lives, linking up and separating as they traverse networks. Yet notions of life – of objects and things, their power to define and destabilize us as subjects, as well as the liveliness of nature – animate networks, creating ecological systems of thingly relations. How can we understand the ‘ecological’ turn in contemporary visual culture not merely in relation to crisis and catastrophe, but as potentially generating new ways of thinking about the relationship between images and nature? More than conceiving ‘the ecological’ as exclusively biological or solely tied to the environmental movement, how can this term itself animate visual culture? Moving beyond an entrenched discourse of “media ecologies” in media studies, issue 20 seeks to explore the formation of ecologies in a way that is more attuned to the generative capabilities of images, networks, and things.

Topics could include:

thing theory and ecology; habitats and dwellings; seriality, collage, montage as ecological frameworks; translations between media; circulation and relationships between modes of image production; liveliness vs. the living; figures of the natural; posthumanism; thinking the organic outside of “the natural”; systems and network theory in relation to the ecological metaphor; the visual culture of science; organization and “the natural”; grids, archives, and morphologies

Please send completed papers (with references following the guidelines from the Chicago Manual of Style) of between 4,000 and 10,000 words to ivc[dot]rochester[at]gmail[dot]com by March 15^th, 2013 at 11:59pm EST. Inquiries should be sent to the same address.

Creative/Artistic WorksIn addition to written materials, Invisible Culture is for this issue accepting work done on other media (video, photography, drawing, code) that reflect upon the theme as it is outlined above. For questions or more details concerning acceptable formats, go to http://ivc.lib.rochester.edu/contribute/ or contact: ivc[dot]rochester[at]gmail[dot]com

ReviewsInVisible Culture is also currently seeking submissions for reviews of book, exhibition, and film (600-1000 words). To submit a review proposal, please use the contact form on our website with the subject “Review Submission.”

BlogThe journal also invites post submissions to its blog feature, which will accommodate more immediate responses to the topic of the current issue. For further details, please use the contact form on our website with the subject “Blog Submission.”

* InVisible Culture (An Electronic Journal for Visual Culture) is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to explorations of the material and political dimensions of cultural practices: the means by which cultural objects and communities are produced, the historical contexts in which they emerge, and the regimes of knowledge or modes of social interaction to which they contribute. *

Malumfashi @ 50: Celebrating 85 Years of Hausa Prose Fiction, 8 December, Kaduna State University

UPDATE 30 November 2012: PLEASE NOTE THAT THERE HAS BEEN A DATE CHANGE FOR THIS EVENT

MALUMFASHI @ 50
CHANGE OF DATE
Due to unforeseen Kaduna State Government event taking place on 2nd December 2012, the organizers have shifted the event to now take place on the 8th December 2012. All other activities remain the same. We are sorry for any inconvenience this change may cause you!

 

MALUMFASHI @ 50: CELEBRATING 85 YEARS OF HAUSA PROSE FICTION

VENUE: Science Lecture Theatre, Kaduna State University, Kaduna

DATE: 8 December 2012

Chief Host:
• Professor William Barnabas Qurix

Vice Chancellor Kaduna State University, Kaduna
Host: • Head of Department, Nigerian Languages and Linguistics Kaduna State University, Kaduna
Special Guest of Honour: • Professor Dalhatu Muhammad, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria
PROGRAMME OF EVENTS
2nd December, 2012
9 AM– 11AM
POETRY FAIR (Organised By Ibrahim Malumfashi’s Students) Artists Expected at the Event • Aminu ALA • Ahmed Yariman Waka
11 AM-1 PM
SPECIAL PAPER PRESENTATIONS
Chairman of the Occasion: Professor Sa’idu Muhammad Gusau Bayero University, Kano
1st Presentation: Professor Abdullah Uba Adamu (Tafiyayya, Rubutatta: Labaran Hausa Bisa Faifan Nazari An Overview of the Development of Hausa Prose Fiction).
2nd Presentation: Dr. Balbasatu Ibrahim (Mata Marubuta A Kasar Hausa Jiya Da Yau: Hausa Women Writers: Yesterday and today).
3rd Presentation: Professor Yusuf Adamu (Ruwan Saman Marubuta A Kasar Hausa: Daga Daminar 1980 zuwa 2012: The deluge of Hausa Prose Fiction Writers from 1980 to Date).
4th Presentation: Ibrahim Sheme (Gudunmuwar da Tattaunawa Da Nazartar Labarin Hausa A Cikin Jaridu Da Mujallu Suka Bayar Ga Ci Gaban Harkar): The Contribution of debates and analyses on Hausa Prose Fiction in the Print Media in the Further Development of the Genre
5th Presentation: Ado Ahmad Gidan Dabino: (Me Ya Sa Muke Rubutu? Wace Irin Gudunmuwa Muke Bukata?: Why do We Write What We Write? What Kind of Support Do We need?)
6th Presentation: Hafsat Abdulwaheed: (Yadda Aka Soma, Yadda Ake Yanzu, Ina Za A Dosa? The Beginning, the present and future over view)
Vote of Thanks: Professor Ibrahim Malumfashi: (Kurungus Kan Kusu Ba Don Gizo Ba Da……: The End….We are Just Writers of Fiction)
2 PM – 5 PM
Chairman of the Day: Dr. Bukar Usman, OON
Special Guest of Honour: Hajiya Bilkisu Bashir Karaye
AUTHORS READERS RENDEVOUZ: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Rahma Majid and Mace Mutum
Ibrahim Sheme and ‘Yartsana
Balaraba Ramat Yakubu and Ina Son Sa Haka
Ado Gidan Dabino and Inda So Da Kauna
8 PM – 10 PM Chairmen of the Occasion: Professor Munir Mamman Katsina and Dr. Bala Muhammad
Dinner, Award Night, Brainstorming and the formation of National Association of Hausa Writers

“Yoruba Movies: Creating Indelible Authentic Identity”: First International Conference of Yoruba Films, Adeleke University Ede, Abstract Deadline 1 February 2013

PRESS RELEASE

FIRST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF YORUBA FILMS
The development of the film enterprise in Nigeria cannot be complete
without stating the fact that the Yoruba were among the front runners in
its development. With the shifting of emphasis from the Colonial Film Unit
to Nigerian Film Corporation, the fact remains that some Yoruba, the likes
of Alade Aromire and Adebayo Salami broke the monopoly of film making from
the celluloid stock to video technology with the introduction of the
Structural Adjustment Programme. Many film artists rose after this
experience, just as more opportunities were opened for young talents. This
however, is after Chief Hubert Ogunde, Ola Balogun, Moses Ola-iya, Ademola
Afolayan, Ojeleke Ajangila (the masquerade drama guru) and a host of other
leading Yoruba artists have opened up great opportunities through their
ventures in celluloid films and their theatricality. With the setting up
of the Nigerian Film Corporation, post production that was always done in
London was shifted to Nigeria.  It will not be outrageous to say that the
Yoruba opened up the technological investment opportunities the genre can
offer in Nigeria, though they may not be seen as defining the genre
outside the shores of Nigeria.

Attempts therefore need to be made to explore some unique features of
Yoruba films and compare it with what obtains within and outside Africa.
Thus, it is important to give real and specific academic attentions to it
because of the latest modern developments of identity accolades. This is
necessary, because while some other Nigerian groups have readily keyed
into the wood identity, and some have suggested Oduwood from the Oduduwa
progenitor, the Yoruba film makers would rather prefer to be classified
under the Association of Nigeria Theatre Artists Practitioners, (ANTP) and
their productions simply identified as YORUBA FILMS or Naija Films
(Ogunleye 2012). Thus, because no world acclaimed identity has been
created for it, Yoruba films have had to grudgingly feature under the
Nollywood identity, and thereby had to play the second fiddle.
This is why the Mass Communication Department of Adeleke University Ede,
Nigeria is inaugurating a yearly International conference on Yoruba Films,
with the intent of not only opening up research into the genre, but
restoring the lost glories and identity created by the pioneering Yoruba
Film makers, but also an avenue to showcase Yoruba films, promote upcoming
artists, and open a library for Yoruba films in the University.
This conference is therefore organised for academics of Yoruba and
non-Yoruba extractions, within and outside Nigeria to present scholarly
papers and, Yoruba movie artists and producers to showcase their films.

Theme: Yoruba Movies: Creating Indelible Authentic Identity

Sub-theme: Abstracts are invited from any of the sub-themes below:
1.    Theatre Practice from the Alarinjo, Ajangila set up to the Screen.
2.    Contributions of Yoruba doyens of modern and traditional Theatre to
film developments in Nigeria.
3.    Contributions of Yoruba Movies to film development in Nigeria.
4.    Yoruba Films and global identity.
5.    Yoruba films, technology, quality, distribution and marketing.
6.     Unique features of Yoruba Films- scripting, dialogue and production
acting styles.
7.     The ANTP and movie ethics and morality in Nigeria
8.    And any other relevant ideas.

Abstracts not exceeding 300 words which should contain personal and
organisational details of the scholar should be sent to:
yorubafilms@rocketmail.com

and copy:
ayansolamd@ymail.com

Deadline for submission of abstracts: 1st February, 2013.
Submission of full papers: February 15th, 2013.

Guest Speaker:  Prof Ayo Akinwale- Department of Theatre and Performing
Arts, University of Ilorin, Kwara State Nigeria.
Royal Guests: Yoruba Obas that have been involved in Theatre practise.
Date: March 12th to 14th 2013.
Venue: Multipurpose Hall, Adeleke University, Ede Osun State Nigeria.

For more details, Yoruba movie producers and other interested scholars who
wish to display their films at the conference venue can contact:
Dr. Kayode Animasaun: Head, Mass Communication Department.
Tel: +2348073787551
Margaret Ayansola: Secretary, Conference Planning Committee.
Tel: +2348136903086

Call for Papers: Language, Communication and Literature in the Globalised and Digital Age, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife: Abstract Deadline: 30 June 2012

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH OBAFEMI AWOLOWO UNIVERSTIY ILE-IFE, NIGERIA

Announces

Ife English Language, Literature & Communication Conference

Date: August 20 – 23, 2012

Venue: Conference Centre, Obafemi Awolowo University,Ile-Ife

Theme: Language, Communication & Literature in the Globalised & Digital Age

Keynote Speakers ·Professor McPherson Azubuike, Department of English, University of Jos and Professor Remi Raji-Oyelade, Department of English, University of Ibadan

Lead Paper Presenters: Dr. Suleiman Salau, Department of Mass Communication, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria

We invite paper abstracts from scholars on any of the following sub-themes:

·Language & Culture in the Digital Age

·Literary Discourse in the Digital Age

·Language Contact in the Digital Age

·Language & Rhetoric in the Digital Age

·Literature & Rhetoric in the Digital Age

·Film in the Digital Age

·Literature and The Internet

·Discursive Features in Synchronous & Asynchronous Online Interactions

·Communication & the Social Media

·Language & identity in the Digital Media

·Drama & Theater in the Digital Age

·Linguistic & Literary Creativity in the Digital Media

·English Language Teaching in the Digital Age

·Language, Literature & Gender in the Digital Age

·African Writing in the Transnational Space

·Emergent Trends in Nigerian Writing

·Migrancy, Exile & Globalisation in Black Writing

·Imagining the New African Diaspora

·Linguistic & Literary Representation of Diaspora Communities

Contributors should send a 250 – 300 word abstract containing their full names, institutional affiliation, email and telephone number on or before *30th June, 2012*.

The mail should be addressed to: ifelanglitcomconf@gmail.com

*Conference Registration:

Early Bird Registration: N8,000 to be paid into Skye Bank A/C No 1770730734, Account Nam Things Fall Apart @ 50. Deadline, 30th July, Payment at the Conference Venue *N10,000

Graduate Students: Early Bird: N3,500 Payment at the Conference Venue: N5,000

Further Enquiries:

Dr. Kehinde Ayoola +234-8056342354,

Dr. Yemi Adegoju +234-08033867602,

Dr. Rotimi Taiwo+234-8034069746, (Chair, Central Coordinating Committee),

Prof Segun Adekoya +234-8059186247, Head, Department of English, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife,

Prof Bamitale Omole, The Vice Chancellor, Obafemim Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Chief Host*

Call for Papers: Evolving African Film Cultures: Local and Global Experiences at the University of Westminster, London: Abstract Deadline 8 June 2012

CALL FOR PAPERS

 

Evolving African Film Cultures: Local and Global Experiences

 

Conference organised by the

Africa Media Centre, University of Westminster

 

Date: Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 November 2012

Venue: University of Westminster, Regent Campus

309 Regent Street, London, W1B 2UW

 

This is the first call for papers for a two-day conference on changes in African film and television production and, of equal importance, the transformation of African film audiences in local and global contexts. African film production, distribution and consumption have been more noticeable in the West African region, as showcased by biennial exhibitions at the FESPACO festivals in Burkina Faso. Arguably, such festivals have encouraged a type of production that is admired by Europeans, but which is rarely available to, or appreciated widely by audiences in those productions’ countries of origin. Portuguese and Arab-speaking regions in Africa have also developed diverse and high quality film cultures, but their experiences need to be debated within a wider context. More recently, Anglophone regions, led by Nigeria, have developed popular commercial film models which have been enthusiastically received by African audiences. One could say that African film markets have been rapidly expanding, with many implications for film and policy makers, distributors and audiences. 

 

Since 2000, audiences for African film elsewhere in the world have grown in size. Such expansion has implications for film content, form, production strategies, distribution mechanisms and policy frameworks. African filmmakers have to delicately negotiate widening markets, for instance, by paying  more attention to the political economy of film consumption in the rapidly changing local and global contexts. The digital economy, especially the internet, has opened up huge opportunities for the wider distribution of African film. Papers may focus on, among other topics, the following:

 

•             Production cultures and circulation of film;

•             History, myth and identity in African film;

•             The representation of African cultures in film;

•             Audiences, reception and sites of spectatorship;

•             Indigenous language films and the problems of subtitles and illiteracy.

•             Morality and spirituality in African cinema;

•             Exhibition, financing and distribution of African film;

•             Cinema and digital technologies;

•             Film festivals and the development of national cinemas in Africa;

•             Revenue, business models and piracy

•             Auteur, film genres and form

•             Collaborative filmmaking in the global north/trans-national collaborations

•             African film philosophy

•             The image, sound, written and spoken word in filmic narratives

•             Institutions, policies and film agencies

 

 

DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACTS

 

The deadline for submission of abstracts is Friday 8 June, 2012. Successful applicants will be notified by Monday 18 June, 2012. Abstracts should be 300 words long. They must include the title of the conference, presenter’s name, affiliation, email and postal address, together with the title of the paper. Please ensure when saving your abstract that your name is part of the file name. Please email your abstract to Helen Cohen, Events Administrator at: (journalism@westminster.ac.uk).

 

PROGRAMME AND REGISTRATION

 

This two day conference will take place on Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 November, 2012. The fee for registration (which applies to all participants, including presenters) will be £140, with a concessionary rate of £60 for students, to cover all conference documentation, refreshments and administration costs. Registration will open in September 2012.

Call for Papers: Special Issue of Black Camera on Nollywood as a New Archive of Africa’s Worldliness, Deadline: 15 September 2012

CFP: Special Issue of Black Camera on Nollywood as a New Archive of Africa’s Worldliness

The cinema journal Black Camera invites submissions for a special
issue, or a section of a future issue, that will investigate
Nollywood, the Nigerian commercial movie industry, as a new archive of Africa’s worldliness. Inspired by the work of Achille Mbembe, this issue seeks to understand Nollywood as an everyday practice “through which Africans manage to recognize and maintain with the world an unprecedented familiarity” (Mbembe 2002). Nollywood’s significance, then, involves not only its staggering productivity and commercial success, but also encompasses its implicit challenge to dominant narratives that represent Africa as absolutely other or as defined by an essential difference.

We invite papers that put Nollywood in contact with current debates in film theory and world cinema studies, or that place Nollywood beside other transnational film and media industries so as to highlight its singularity and make visible a more variegated and complicated cultural ecology of globalization. We also welcome contributions that seek to understand Nollywood within the context of recent structural, technological, and ideological transformations associated with globalization and late capitalism and that explore Nollywood as shaped by its multiple circuits of consumption and production and by the global processes it participates in. We are interested in papers that attend to the aesthetics, stylistics, and imaginaries of Nollywood movies, with particular focus on the global popular and other discourses as reimagined and remixed by Nollywood.

Possible essay topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
Nollywood as a minor transnational practice; Nollywood and regional media flows in West Africa; affiliations between Nollywood and Hollywood, Bollywood or other commercial industries; Nollywood and the African diaspora; the transnational flow of Nollywood aesthetics; the New Nollywood; Nollywood and the “Worlding” of Africa; the Afropolis and Nollywood; video technology and Nollywood; Nollywood and transnational screening circuits; Nollywood co-productions;  Nollywood in South Africa; Nollywood in East Africa; cosmopolitan subjectivities and Nollywood; Nollywood and the governmentalities of neo-liberalism; the uneasy interaction of Nollywood and international film festivals.

In addition to essays, interviews and commentaries will be considered.

Essays should be 6,000-10,000 words, interviews 6,000 words, and commentaries 1,000-2,000 words.

Please submit completed essays, a 100-word abstract, a fifty-word
biography, and a CV by September 15th, 2012. Submissions should
conform to the most recent edition of the Chicago Manual of Style.
Please see the Black Camera website for journal-specific guidelines:
http://www.indiana.edu/~blackcam/call/#guidelines

Direct all questions, correspondence, and submissions to guest editor Carmela Garritano (University of St. Thomas) at
cjgarritano@stthomas.edu.

International Conference: Nollywood, Women, and Cultural Identity, at Benue State University, Makurdi, 8-11 May 2012