(RE)THINKING CARIBBEAN CULTURE

Tuesday June 5 - Thursday June 7, 2001

Faculty of Humanities
University of the West Indies (UWI)
Cave Hill Campus
P. O. Box 64
Bridgetown
Barbados
West Indies

Click on the following for important information: 

For an update on the status of the Proceedings, please click here.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Venue: The Teaching Complex, Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies, Barbados, West Indies

Registration Fee (Exchange rate: approx. BD$2 to US$1):

Because UWI does not accept foreign cheques drawn on personal accounts, participants should arrange to send a bank draft for the appropriate amount  Please do not send cash in the mail.  All bank drafts should:

Abstracts due: February 28, 2000 (300-500 words) 

Registration Deadline: April 20, 2001 By this date, all participants must have submitted a completed registration form (including accommodation preferences).   

Overseas participants must register on-line (see link above too).  Local participants may register either on-line or in person with Mrs. Franklin in the Faculty of Humanities.

Completed essays and registration fee due: April 30, 2001 

The essay:

All participants should note that their registration cannot be confirmed until: 

Indeed, given that we have a large number of late applicants waiting for places to open up, failure to meet the relevant deadlines may result in your place being offered to  someone else.

Please address all correspondence, submissions, etc. to: Mrs. Grace Franklin, the Conference Secretary, at gfranklin@uwichill.edu.bb or by snail mail to the address above.

Organising Committee:

INFORMATION ON BARBADOS

Click here for information on Barbados provided by the Barbados Tourism Authority.

Click here for more information on Barbados provided by Ins and Outs Magazine.

Click here for a travel guide to Barbados.

Click here for information on the Caribbean provided by Caribbean On-Line.

Click here for more information on the Caribbean provided by Carib E-Search.

Click here for access to Barbados's two daily newspapers and business weekly:

Exchange rate: BD$2 to US$1

TRAVELLING TO AND FROM BARBADOS

Barbados is accessible via several major airlines, both regional and international.  To make bookings, click on the links below to access the website in question or contact your favourite travel agency or call the relevant toll free number:

TRAVELLING WITHIN BARBADOS

Subsidised transportation to and from campus will be provided in the morning and the evening for persons staying off campus for US$5 per day.  Buses will depart from Rival on the West Coast and Sandy Beach on the South Coast at 8 am each morning of the conference and will return to these hotels in the evening at staggered times, the latest leaving about 10 pm.

There is a reliable public transportation system operated by the Barbados Transport Board that covers all areas on the island and services in particular all the regular routes on the West and South Coasts, the most densely populated and, thus, the busiest regions in Barbados.  The fare to any destination is: BD$1.50.

Alternatively, participants may also choose to use the many privately owned minibuses and ZR vans which ply the same routes as the Barbados Transport Board.  Participants should be aware, however, that these have a less favourable reputation among Barbadians where safety is concerned (the occasional driver has been proved to be reckless).  Nevertheless, they are often used because more of them are to be found on the road as a result of which they are easier to catch and because they tend to get passengers to their destination more quickly than the public transportation system does.  The fare to any destination is: BD$1.50.

Visitors with valid driving licences may apply at the nearest police station for a temporary driving permit and rent a hired car for a limited period.  You should note, however, that to hire a car in Barbados is not cheap.

Given that Barbados is a tourism-based economy, there is a thriving taxi industry with a sound reputation for reliability and safety.  The following average one-way taxi fares may be of interest to you:

ACCOMMODATION

We have identified the following hotels and guesthouses as ones that would be particularly well-suited to the needs of participants.  

Participants may click on the relevant links to access the web sites of particular hotels but all bookings should be made through us via the on-line registration form since we have negotiated reduced rates for conference participants.  In short, in order to get the best rates for you, we will make the reservations on your behalf according to the choices indicated on your registration form.  However, you are, of course, responsible for the costs of your own accommodation.

Frank Worrell Hall (UWI Student Accommodation), Cave Hill Campus

UWI Shell Suite, Cave Hill Campus 

Rival Enterprises, Sunset Crest, St. James (located on the West Coast--fairly close to UWI)

Sandy Beach Island Resort, Worthing, Christ Church (located on the South Coast)

Oasis Hotel, Accra, Christ Church (located on the South Coast)

Blue Horizon Hotel, Accra, Christ Church (located on the South Coast)

Security: participants should be aware that although Barbados is a beautiful and very safe holiday destination, it is not without occasional incidents of crime.  Participants are therefore urged to exercise the same caution that they would in any thriving metropolis.  

Access to the Internet: Participants should note that e-mail and internet facilities will be available on campus during the conference.

MEALS, CULTURAL ACTIVITIES, AND ENTERTAINMENT

Breakfast: A continental breakfast will be available for US$6 by those who are staying on campus from 7.30 am to 8.30 am, Tuesday June 5 to Friday June 8.  Please indicate when registering if you are interested in this option.

Lunch: A buffet lunch will be available for US$10 from 12 noon to 1 pm, Tuesday June 5 to Thursday June 7.  

Dinner: a light meal will be available for US$6 from 6.30 pm to 7.30 pm on Wednesday June 6 only.  There will be no dinner available for purchase on Tuesday June 5 (given the food available gratis at the Opening Ceremony) and on the final evening of the conference Thursday June 7 (you should make your arrangements then). 

Breaks: a mid-morning coffee break (including snacks) and a mid-afternoon liquid break will be provided gratis to participants.

Exhibitions and Displays: participants should look out for the following on an ongoing basis from June 5 - 7:

Tuesday June 5: Opening Ceremony (LT1):

Wednesday June 6: Cultural Evening (LT1): from 7.30 pm, there will be:

Thursday June 7: Closing Activities

Please e-mail Dr. Aviston Downes directly if you are interested in this option.

Friday June 8: Post-Conference Island Tour (Please indicate when registering if you are interested in this option)

Participants who opt to go on the tour will be picked up at 8.45 am from Sandy Beach hotel on the South Coast, at 9 am from Rival on the West Coast, and at 9.15 am from campus and taken to the Mount Gay Rum Factory, one of Barbados's leading rum manufacturers.  Those not staying at any of the above must make their own way to Mount Gay by 9.15 am.  Given that the tour begins promptly at 9.30 am, you will miss the tour if you are late. 

After leaving Mount Gay, the group will proceed along the West Coast visiting several scenic spots such as Speightstown, Cherry Tree Hill, Nicholas Abbey, Morgan Lewis Mill, and Chalky Mount potteries.  The group will stop for lunch at the beautiful Barclay's Park on the East Coast.  After lunch, the group will drive through Bathsheba along the beautiful East Coast road, take in the majestic view from St. John's Parish Church, and visit Harrison's Cave (one of the largest and most spectacular limestone caves in the world).  The precise details of this itinerary may be subject to change due to circumstances which may be beyond our control.

The price of US$50 / BD$100 will include the following:

CONFERENCE THEME

Believing . . . that man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun, I take culture to be those webs, and the analysis of it to be therefore not an experimental science in search of a law but an interpretive one in search of a meaning--Clifford Geertz (The Interpretation of Cultures

>Caribbean culture= is a term bandied about both within and without academe with ever increasing frequency.  For example, at the bidding of the Vice Chancellor, the University of the West Indies has recently undertaken what has come to be called the >Cultural Studies= initiative.  But what exactly do we understand by terms such as these? 

This international and interdisciplinary conference will attempt to both specify and assess the dominant ways in which Caribbean culture in its various manifestations has historically been conceptualised.  Given that much research on the Caribbean has been largely empirical in thrust, we are of the view that a conference devoted to the precise theoretical / philosophical frameworks which inform the study of particular aspects of Caribbean culture is both timely and necessary.  The old adage that the answers one gets depends on the nature of the questions posed is one that has arguably not been sufficiently explored in the region up to now.  The overriding question motivating this conference is, accordingly, the following: how can we effectively make use in both our research and teaching of concepts such as ‘race’ or ‘gender’ or ‘class’ or ‘diaspora’ or ‘nation-state’ or ‘realism’ or the ubiquitous ‘identity,’ to cite just a few examples, if we are not clear in our own minds what exactly these mean for us in this field?  

Some of the issues which will hopefully, therefore, be addressed include:

Equally importantly, therefore, where particular orthodoxies may arguably have become enshrined or even stale or disproved, this conference will also seek to explore alternative perspectives from which Caribbean culture might / ought to be rethought.

Although the emphasis will be on the precise theoretical / philosophical frameworks which inform the study of particular aspects of Caribbean culture, theoretically self-aware contributions which seek to apply particular concepts (e.g. close readings of literary or other texts or discussions of specific historical controversies) are also welcome.

The ultimate goal of this conference is the production of a peer-reviewed collection(s) devoted to the theorisation of Caribbean culture in its various manifestations which will assemble the most important contributions.

KEYNOTE ADDRESSES AND PANELS
 (arranged thematically)

  1. (Re)Thinking 'Creolisation'
  2. (Re)Thinking 'Diaspora' (two panels)
  3. (Re)Thinking the Caribbean 'Nation-State' and 'Nationalism'
  4. The 'Local' and the 'Global'
  5. Caribbean Cultural Identity
  6. Tourism and Caribbean Cultural Identity
  7. Technology and Caribbean Cultural Identity
  8. The Law and Caribbean Cultural Identity
  9. Religion and Caribbean Cultural Identity
  10. Cultural Identities in the Caribbean Diaspora (two panels)
  1. (Re)Thinking 'Ethnicity,' 'Race,' and 'Racism' in the Caribbean (two panels)
  2. Colonial Discourse and the Construction of Race in the Caribbean
  3. The Indian and Chinese Diasporas in the Caribbean
  1. (Re)Thinking Gender and Misogyny in the Caribbean
  2. (Re)Thinking Sexuality and Homophobia in the Caribbean
  1. The Historiography of Caribbean Slavery
  2. The Legacy of Jose Marti
  3. The History of Caribbean Sports
  1. Language and Caribbean Cultural Identity (two panels)
  2. Nation Language and Caribbean Literature
  1. Contested Concepts and Conceptual Contests in the Caribbean
  2. Caribbean Philosophical Issues
  3. Afro-Caribbean Philosophy (two panels)
  1. Caribbean Pedagogical Issues
  2. The Curriculum and Caribbean Cultural Identity
  1. (Re)Thinking Caribbean Cultural Studies
  2. (Re)Thinking Form, Genre, and Representation in Caribbean Literature
  3. Towards a Caribbean Aesthetic
  1. Anglophone Caribbean literature
  2. Francophone Caribbean literature
  3. Hispanic Caribbean Literature
  4. Comparative Approaches to Caribbean Literature
  5. Caribbean Film
  6. Caribbean Fine Arts 
  7. Caribbean Carnivals
  8. Caribbean Music

PROGRAMME

Two copies of each paper (minus those which their authors have declined to circulate or which are still outstanding) are stored behind the Circulation Desk in the Main Library.  Participants may use the facilities there to photocopy papers from specific panels in which they are interested.

In each session, there are at least four and sometimes five simultaneous panels.  Each panel has a maximum of four persons.  Each session will last for an hour and a half.  Where the panel consists of three persons, the presentation time for each paper will be 20 minutes.  Where the panel consists of four persons, the presentation time for each paper will be 15 minutes.  Presentations will be followed by up to 30 minutes of discussion.

Click here to access the programme of keynote addresses, panels, and events for each day.