NALAS Conference 2023
“Islands, borders, archipelagos”
Venue: Universitetet i Sørøst-Norge, Campus Drammen
Date: 15-16 June 2023
Call for Panels
The Norwegian Association of Latin America Studies (NALAS), in collaboration with the University of South-Eastern Norway, invites scholars from Norway, the Nordic countries, and the rest of the world from a broad range of disciplines and theoretical perspectives to present proposals for panels for the 2nd NALAS Conference.
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The title of the conference, “Islands, Borders, Archipelagos”, places a non-exclusive emphasis on the Caribbean region and particularly Cuba. It was the Martinican thinker Édouard Glissant who coined the term archipelago as an image for thinking about forms of cultural interaction that do not suppress particularities. We propose the terms islands, borders, and archipelagos as analytical tools to approach the Caribbean and Latin American context, which is marked by widespread crisis and uncertainty, and a strong tension between neo-fundamentalisms, cultural and political reinscriptions, and the centrifugal force of globalization.
From this initial trigger, we wish to rethink the meaning of islands and borders in Latin America and the Caribbean. We use these categories in both literal terms (Cuba, the Malvinas Islands, Hispaniola, Chiloé, Tierra del Fuego and the borders that, for example, segment the original Gran Colombia or separate Latin America from the USA) as well as in metaphorical and abstract terms. That is, as identitarian islands, archipelagos of changing identities, and linguistic, social, and contested borders of identity politics. In this double dimension, the terms allow us to explore, from different disciplines and methodologies, heterogeneous aspects such as:
- Linguistic forms that demarcate political and/or cultural domains as well as contact varieties such as Portuñol or Spanglish.
- Islands and urban borders, which may include poverty ghettos as well as their opposite, gated communities.
- Ethnoscapes or cultural and economic enclaves.
- Migrations involving transits between specific domains (countries, regions, Latin America-USA) thought of as islands always intercommunicated as archipelagos.
- Identities (gender, national, ethnic, class, religious, etc.) that involve borders, but at the same time displacements or transits and coalitions.
- Literary, linguistic, and cultural translation as a way of creating archipelagos.
- Non-acculturating fusions or transculturations.
- Political transformations, such as those occurring in Chile, Colombia, or Brazil, which presuppose national specificity, but at the same time interactions and trends on a regional and/or an international scale.
- The sea as an ecosystem, also in its legal status and as a means of transit between islands.
- Historical perspectives on islands, borders, and archipelagos.
All presentations will be in person. The panels will be organized in parallel sessions. Panels dealing with issues related to Cuba and the Caribbean region are particularly welcome and will be grouped in a specific track.
Although we have chosen the title “Islands, borders, archipelagos” as focus for the plenary sessions at the congress, any proposal related to Latin America research is also welcome.
Deadline to submit proposals: November 30th 2022.
When the panels are decided, a call for abstracts will be announced.
Panel structure
A panel should comprise a minimum of three and a maximum of four presentations. Panels with participants from different research centres will have priority.
A panel should comprise presenters, chair, and convener. The chair and the convener might be the same person.
A participant can only make one panel presentation at the congress. In addition, (s)he might hold the role as chair/convener/discussant in one additional panel.
The panels may be organized in English, Spanish, or Portuguese. Each panel should be held in one language only.
Requirements for proposals
Panel proposals should include:
names of minimum three presenters and the title of their presentations (abstracts can wait, but might well be sent with the proposal)
name of chair and convener (might be the same person) and email addresses
The conveners would be in charge of organizing the panels before the congress.
The proposal should be written in the language to be used by the panel.
The proposals should be submitted to nalas2023@nalas.org by 30 November 2022.
The accepted panels will be published on our website by 31 December 2022, together with the call for individual abstracts. Additional contributors might later be added to the panels, if room for it, from the incoming individual abstracts.
Fees
NALAS Members: 750 NOK
NALAS student members: 100 NOK
Non-members from Europe and USA: 1500 NOK
Non-member students: 500 NOK
Scholars based in Latin America, Africa, and Asia: Free
Organizing committee
Jorge J. Locane, Hans Jacob Ohldieck, Ole Jacob Løland, Guro Nore Fløgstad, Yuri Kasahara, Alissa Vik, Kari Soriano Salkjelsvik, Jørgen Sørlie Yri, Vegard Bye, Fabian Mosenson, Astrid B. Stensrud
Keynote speakers
To be confirmed
