Monday 31 October 2011

Wikipedian in Residence for WikiAfrica

WikiAfrica is looking for a Wikipedian-in-residence hosted at the Africa Center in Cape Town. See the G doc at http://bit.ly/tWZ9BR to apply.

The Africa Centre is a Pan-African cultural and arts social innovator basded in Cape Town, South Africa. One of its projects is WikiAfrica, run in collaboration with lettera27. The aim of WikiAfrica is to redress the critical imbalance of factual information about historic and contemporary Africa on the Internet’s most utilised information resource, Wikipedia. Its goal is to Africanise Wikipedia by generating and expanding 30,000 articles by the end of 2012. For more information on the project, please visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiAfrica



With the growth in reliance on the web generally and the high prominence given to results from Wikipedia, for example in google searches, it is important to reflect on issues about coverage, depth, cultural bias, selectivity, and stereotypes. It is pleasing to see African initiatives to redress the imbalance in coverage, though there is also a continuing need to assess how we in the North do or do not contribute material about Africa, not only on Wikipedia but on the web more generally.

Sunday 30 October 2011

ICCS Biennial Conference: Cultural Challenges of Migration in Canada, Ottawa, May 22-24, 2012

ICCS Biennial Conference: Cultural Challenges of Migration in Canada, Ottawa, May 22-24, 2012


The International Council for Canadian Studies (ICCS) is pleased to announce that its next conference, entitled Cultural Challenges of Migration in Canada, will be held in Ottawa from May 22 to 24, 2012, in collaboration with the Universities of Ottawa and Carleton.

Migration is a factor, which has played a central role in the construction of a Canadian identity. Concepts such as multiculturalism, interculturalism and transculturalism are inextricably linked with phenomena pertaining to migration, and the effects of these phenomena have made themselves felt in Canada’s cultural dynamics. The question therefore arises as to which processes and channels of communication have been instrumental in transmitting these migratory dynamics, and in which form they have manifested themselves in Canadian everyday life and culture. What are the cultural challenges of migration in Canada in the context of “globalization”? Which are the areas where a specific cultural dimension has arisen which, in its turn, has acquired a model character within the global sphere linked to the knowledge-based society? Papers to be read at the symposium should address these questions with regard not only to scientific and popular media and communication, language and literature, music and the visual arts, but also to social and political sciences.

Sessions

1.The 21st Century Migration of Aboriginal Peoples: Identity Formation and Cultural Retention.
2.Latino Migration and its Influence in Canadian Multiculturalism.
3.Migration and Narrative – Narratives of Migration.
4.Migrants’ Views of and Reflections on their Life-Projects: Canadian Identity or Identities in a Pluralist Canada?
5.Migration, Partnership and Social Cohesion.
6.Cross-cultural exchange and interaction: their nature, limits and challenges for the immigrant and Canada as host society
7.The Migrant Spirit.
8.New Local Spaces of Intercultural Dialogue in Canada.
9.Language Challenges in the Immigration Process.
10.Cultural Challenges in the Migration Process on Canada’s East Coast.
11.Multiculturalisms in the Americas.
12.For a Love of the Hunt-Mobility, Family Networks and Social Cohesion in a Plains Metis Transnational Brigade, 1840-1890.

Click here to see abstracts of sessions.

Saturday 29 October 2011

CFP: Canada: Landscapes and Landmarks; Dublin, 10-12 May 2012

CALL FOR PROPOSALS: Canada: Landscapes and Landmarks
Dublin, 10-12 May 2012

 
ACSI (Association for Canadian Studies in Ireland) will host the XVIth Biennial Conference in Dublin on 10-12 May 2012. The theme for 2012 is: “Canada: Landscapes and Landmarks”

The image of the 'land' is an ongoing trope in both past and contemporary conceptions of Canada, from the national anthem, to the flag, to the symbols on coins, the land and nature remain linked to the Canadian sense of belonging as well as to the image of the nation abroad. Linguistic landscapes reflect the multi-faceted identities and cultural richness of the nations. If earlier portrayals of the land focused on a rugged, unspoiled landscape, such as in the paintings of the Group of Seven, contemporary notions of identity, belonging and citizenship are established, contested and legitimized within sites and institutions of public culture, heritage and representation that reflect integration with the land transforming landscape into landmarks. The Highway of Heroes from the Trenton military base, Grosse Île and the Irish Memorial National Historic Site in Québec, the Museum of Civilization in Ottawa, The Rooms in St John's Newfoundland and Ireland Park in Toronto, are examples of landmarks that transform landscape into a built environment that endeavours to respect the land while using it as a site to commemorate, celebrate and promote Canadian identity. Similarly, in literature and the arts, the creation of the built environment and the interaction among those who share it is a recurrent theme.

 
We are seeking papers that consider the portrayal and interaction of the land and the landscape in social, cultural and literary spaces of representation. Possible topics could include (in French or English):
  • The land and landscape in the arts and literature
  • Linguistic and cultural landscapes within the official bilingualism of Canada
  • Spaces of memory and testimony
  • State museums/institutions and representations of citizenship, identity and belonging
  • Political management of the land and landscape
  • The transformation of the built environment and of public spaces
  • History, geography, heritage and the land and landscape
  • Public spaces as sites of difference and diversity
  • Diaspora, migrations, uprooting and ‘heritage’

 Abstracts

 
Abstracts should be submitted before the 30th of November 2011 as a .doc or .rtf file to: ACSI2012@yahoo.ie

 
Abstracts should be no longer than 2 pages. On the first page note the name of your proposed paper, name, contact details and affiliated organisation; on the second page the title of your paper along with your anonymous abstract, 4 or 5 key words and cited references. The abstract should be no longer than 200 words.

 
We welcome submissions in French or English. Abstracts should be written in the intended language of the paper. Presentations will be allocated 30 minutes (20 minutes followed by 10 minutes for questions).

 
Proposals will be anonymously evaluated by at least two members of the scientific committee

Friday 28 October 2011

CFP: Archives of Post-Independence Africa and its Diaspora, Dakar, Senegal, June 20-23, 2012

Call for Papers: Archives of Post-Independence Africa and its Diaspora

Dakar, Senegal; June 20-23, 2012

Archives of Post-Independence Africa and its Diaspora is an international conference to be held in Dakar, Senegal, June 20-23, 2012, organized by the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa(CODESRIA), the African Studies Centre, Leiden (ASC), and the University of California African Studies Multicampus Research Group (MRG).The conference features an interdisciplinary array of activities that include a public debate, training workshop, film screening, as well as four keynote addresses and academic panels.

The event is conceived as a forum with pre-circulated papers and contributions from a wide range of academics, archivists, librarians, public intellectuals, and artists from the African continent, Europe, North America, and beyond.

We are now accepting paper abstracts until November 30, 2011.

Abstracts should relate to one of the conference's five themes:

(1) Archival Absences and Surrogate Collections of the African State
(2) Performing the Archive
(3) Post-Independence Media Formations
(4) Spatialization of Art and the Archive
(5) Administering the Archive

A system for online submission of abstracts has been set up on the conference website: https://sites.google.com/site/dakarconferencecfp A French version of the website will be available shortly and will be accessible by a link from the English version of the site.

Any questions about the conference or the submission process? Please contact: archives.diaspora@codesria.sn

Thursday 27 October 2011

CFP: Caribbean Studies Association 37th Annual Conference, May 28-June 3, 2012, Le Gosier, Guadeloupe

Call for Papers: Caribbean Studies Association 37th Annual Conference

May 28-June 3, 2012, Le Gosier, Guadeloupe

The Caribbean Studies Association issues a call for papers for its 37th Annual Conference with the theme "Unpacking Caribbean Citizenship: Rights, Participation and Belonging." We invite scholars, practitioners in the humanities, social sciences, public policy and members of civil society organizations whose works focus on the wider Caribbean and its diasporas to submit abstracts of approximately 250 words or less for research papers and presentations. We also welcome graduate student submissions and multi-lingual panels.

While we expect individual paper submissions, we especially encourage participants to submit proposals for complete panels (four presenters), roundtable discussions that engage with the conference's timely theme.

Unrelated topics will also be considered. More information on the conference's theme can be found on the CSA website, (http://www.caribbeanstudiesassociation.org/). Submissions must be made electronically via the CSA website. Deadline for submissions is December 30, 2011.

With respect to the film/art/performance track: Next year, a very limited number of films that pertain to the conference theme as well as the Francophone Caribbean will be selected for presentation during the conference. This new direction is designed to both streamline and better integrate the film/art/performance track within the conference. Please see the CSA website for submission information. A visual art and performance component will be curated by a committee consisting of members of the Executive Council and CSA members.

CSA is able to offer a limited number of travel grants to assist selected participants. A call for applications for the travel grant will be issued on the CSA website as well as in the CSA fall newsletter scheduled for December.

For information concerning the program only, contact: Dr. Gina Athena Ulysse, Program Chair, csa2012@wesleyan.edu

For information pertaining to registration and membership, please contact: Mrs. Joy Cooblal, Secretary-Treasurer, Joy.Cooblal-CSA@sta.uwi.edu

For questions on the travel grants, please contact: Dr Samuel Furé Davis, Grant Committee Chair, sfuredavis@flex.uh.cu

Wednesday 26 October 2011

Olive Schreiner Letters Project and the Olive Schreiner Letters Online

Souith African writer, Olive Schreiner (1855-1920) is one of the world’s great feminist writers and social theorists, with her novels including The Story of an African Farm and From Man to Man, her allegories including Dreams and Dream Life and Real Life, and her political treatises including Woman and Labour. She also wrote over 5500 exceptionally important letters, the earliest dating from 1871, the last written just a few days before her death in December 1920.


Schreiner’s letters – all of them, full and complete just as she wrote them – will be published in January 2012 and will be freely available world-wide in a fully-searchable electronic edition. The Olive Schreiner Letters Online will provide a new, detailed, and unique electronic resource for feminist research, women’s studies and gender studies.

The Olive Schreiner Letters Online will be hosted at http://www.oliveschreiner.org/ from January 2012 on and will provide fully searchable transcriptions of Schreiner’s 5500+ extant letters located in archives across Europe, the US and South Africa, as well as a detailed editorial interpretive apparatus around these. The Olive Schreiner Letters Project has been funded by the UK’s ESRC (RES-062-23-1286) and the letters are being published by the renowned electronic research resources publisher HRIOnline. The research team includes Liz Stanley, Helen Dampier, Andrea Salter, David Shepherd, Michael Meredith and Kiera Chapman.

Schreiner’s letters are of exceptional interest because containing her unfolding thinking about her writing and publishing activities, and also her developing analysis and social theorising around the crucially important topics that preoccupied her, including: metropolitan feminism and socialism, prostitution and its analysis, imperialism and the ‘scramble for Africa’, war & peace, changing understandings of ‘race’ and capital, intersectional theorising around women, gender and ‘race’, the South African War (1899-1902) & its concentration camps & women’s relief organisations, governance & federation, international women's franchise campaigns, labour issues, international feminist networks, the Great War, diplomacy & pacifism, and much more as well.

Information about the Schreiner Letters Project is available at: http://www.oliveschreinerletters.ed.ac.uk/. Many Project publications are available to download and there is also information about Schreiner and her core concerns, including downloadable copies of her major publications.
If you would like to hear more about Olive Schreiner Letters Online and receive information about activities and events from across the globe concerning letters and other forms of life representation more broadly, please subscribe to the Lives & Letters mailing list by emailing oliveschreiner@yahoo.co.uk Alternatively, you can self-subscribe to the mailing list by sending a blank email to sympa@mlist.is.ed.ac.uk  with the following in the subject: sub lives-and-letters.

Tuesday 25 October 2011

JOB: Community Project Officer - Caribbean Images (National Archives)

Exciting news of a new project, and a job opportunity for someone!

The National Archives is recruiting for a Community Project Officer to work with Caribbean images from their collection for a period of 18 months. Community engagement is fundamental to this project and the deadline is 7th November. Please pass this notice on to others you think might be interested.


The vacancy can be found on the National Archives website by searching under the jobs section, or following this link.
You may also be interested in viewing images of Africa from this collection: 'Africa through a lens' http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/Africa/

Monday 24 October 2011

Australian Studies: latest issue

The journal 'Australian Studies', is available online and free to access at the following address:
http://www.nla.gov.au/openpublish/index.php/australian-studies/issue/current

First appearing in 1988, 'Australian Studies' covers a wide range of disciplines (including geography, history, law, political science, economics, literature, the media, sociology, science etc). The journal has established itself internationally as a respected context for the publication of scholarship and comment on many aspects of the Australian scene, and is DEST recognised in Australia.

The journal's particular aim is to foster innovative critical approaches, and to encourage connections between traditionally discrete areas of research. Scholarly contributions to general issues are always welcomed, while contributions to themed issues are also commissioned. 'Australian Studies' is a fully-refereed journal, enjoying the support of a distinguished international body of scholars.

Various back issues are now also available online, together with a very handy index. For details, see:
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/humanities/depts/menzies/basa/journal.html

The latest issue, Vol 3, 2001 has just been rerleased and includes the following articles:
"The National Apology Three Years Later" Gay McAuley

"Circus Oz and Kangaroos: Performing Fauna and Animalness for Geo-National Identity"
Peta Tait

"Welcome to Country? Aboriginal Sovereignties and Asylum Seekers" Emma Cox

"I'll Write to Richie Benaud" Heather Nimmo

"'Not Celebrated for its Agriculture’: Emigrant Guides and Land Settlement in New South Wales, 1831-65"
Edward Cavanagh

"Transcultural Horizons and the Limitations of Multiculturalism in 'The World Waiting to be Made'" Lyn Dickens

"Traditional Australian Circus: Change and Survival"Andrea Lemon

"Shifting Visions: Developmentalism and Environmentalism in Australian History" Jillian Koshin

"A Ham Funeral: Patrick White, Collaboration and Neil Armfield" Elizabeth Schafer

"Appendix to 'A Ham Funeral': List of Productions of Patrick White's Plays" Elizabeth Schafer

Friday 21 October 2011

Commonwealth Studies archives material in Kipling Exhibition

Two items from our archive collections have been included within a small exhibition mounted on the 1st floor of Senate House, in association with the "Rudyard Kipling: An International Writer" Conference taking place from 21 - 22 October 2011.

Kipling, hailed as 'an interpreter of Empire' (Times, 18 Jan 1936), was regarded as a national institution when he died in 1936, and his funeral in Westminster Abbey was attended by the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin. His current reputation is many-sided: sometimes condemned as a racist who embodied the imperial mind-set or dismissed as a writer 'whom nobody read', he is increasingly both valued and criticised for his complex response to the 'otherness' and diversity of races and classes in his writing.


This conference, sponsored by the Kipling Society, focuses on the figure of Kipling as an international writer. It seeks not only to re-assess Kipling's involvement in imperial ideology, but also to examine his interests in wider international affairs and his connections with foreign locations both within and outside the British Empire. The conference thereby aims to re-examine his work and achievement by exploring his diverse roles as an internationalist, and by considering his relevance to our post-modern globalising world

Senate House Library Special Collections staff have mounted this exhibition to highlight material relevant to the conference held in our collections. These include two items from the Institute of Commonwealth Studies Library collection - a letter from Kipling to Richard Jebb, thanking Jebb for a copy of an article from the 'Empire Review' and stating that he fears that he could not undertake to hold himself responsible for any deduction that may be made from anything that he may have written on the future of the Empire, and typescript notes by Sir Stephen Tallents, of a conversation with Kipling, held soon after Tallents took on his role within the Empire Marketing Board, to discuss ideas for the promotion of Empire good and EMpire trade.





Event Type: Conference / Symposium



Speakers





Keynote Speakers: Amit Chaudhuri and Charles Allen





Description





This conference, sponsored by the Kipling Society, focuses on the figure of Kipling as an international writer. It seeks not only to re-assess Kipling's involvement in imperial ideology, but also to examine his interests in wider international affairs and his connections with foreign locations both within and outside the British Empire. The conference thereby aims to re-examine his work and achievement by exploring his diverse roles as an internationalist, and by considering his relevance to our post-modern globalising world.

CFP: 36th Annual Conference of the Society for Caribbean Studies

36th Annual Conference of the Society for Caribbean Studies

Wednesday 4th to Friday 6th July 2012
Rewley House and Kellogg College
University of Oxford

The Society for Caribbean Studies invites submissions of short abstracts of no more than 250 words for research papers on the Hispanic, Francophone, Dutch and Anglophone Caribbean and their diasporas for this annual international conference. Papers are welcomed from all disciplines and can address the themes outlined below. We welcome abstracts for papers that fall outside this list of topics, and we particularly welcome proposals for complete panels, which should consist of three papers. Those selected for the conference will be invited to give a 20-minute presentation.

Abstracts should be submitted along with a short CV by 6th January, 2012.

Proposals received after the deadline may not be considered.

PROVISIONAL PANELS
Oxford and the Caribbean
Independence
Sport and athletics
Cuba in the Caribbean
Knowledge production and circulation
Life-writing, memoir, and biography
Caribbean economics, past, present and future Citizenship, borders, and intraregional migration

To submit an abstract online, please visit our website:
http://www.caribbeanstudies.org.uk/

The Society will provide a limited number of postgraduate bursaries for presenters to assist with registration and accommodation costs.  Postgraduate researchers should indicate that they are seeking a bursary when submitting their abstract, but please note that travel costs cannot be funded.

Arts researchers or practitioners living and working in the Caribbean are eligible to apply for the Bridget Jones Award, the deadline for which is also 6th January, 2012. For more information on the Bridget Jones Award, contact Kate Quinn at kate.quinn@sas.ac.uk or visit the website.

For further queries please contact the Conference Coordinator, Lorna Burns, at societyforcaribbeanstudies@gmail.com

Thursday 20 October 2011

The Commonwealth in the world: governance, resistance & change

The Commonwealth in the world: governance, resistance & change


Please find below the details of the seminar 'The Commonwealth in the world: governance, resistance and change', organised by the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, the Commonwealth Advisory Bureau (CA/B) and the Université Paris Diderot. The first seminar will take place on 1 November 2011 in London and the second one in Spring 2012 in Paris.

The Commonwealth in the world: governance, resistance and change Occasional Seminar Series Institute of Commonwealth Studies Commonwealth Advisory Bureau (CA/B) and Université Paris Diderot

Pascal Bianchini: Anti-colonial scholarship: (re) discovering Jean Suret-Canale
Tuesday, 1 November, 12:30-14:30
Institute of Commonwealth Studies
Senate House - Room ST275

How is it possible to lead two extraordinary careers in a same life? Jean Suret-Canale was a politically committed intellectual and a pathfinder in African history (though he was in fact a geographer). He could be compared to Basil Davidson with whom he had epistolary exchange. As Davidson, Suret-Canale was involved in the Resistance during the Second World War and tried to disentangle African history from its colonial bias.

Suret-Canale published some major volumes read by generations of African intellectuals and militants in the 1960's and the 1970's and many of them were translated into several languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Russian, Japanese and even Chinese...) His correspondence reveals that he was in contact with some major intellectual and political figures from Africa (Ruben Um Nyobe, Sekou Toure, Mongo Beti, Mario de Andrade...) or with major academic figures working on Africa (Melville Herskovits, Walter Markov, Henri Brunschvig...).

Though Suret-Canale played a major role as a founding father in African studies, he was only appointed by a French university at the age of 57 and ended his academic career in the relatively junior position of assistant professor. This paradox is a major clue to a non-French audience about the reality of French African studies. Suret-Canale, in the interview he gave to Pascal Bianchini, (Suret-Canale. De la résistance à l'anticolonialisme) explained his setbacks in the French academe by his membership of the Communist Party (he was a member of the Central Committee and assistant director of Centre for Marxist Studies and Research in the 1960's) and his official status of geographer while his main work was in African history.

In addition, his personal story reveals that his consistent anti-colonial commitment had prevented him from making a career matching his international influence. Unfortunately, since the 1980's, he has been rejected and/or forgotten by contemporary French Africanists. He has also been criticized by African militants for his alleged support to Sekou Toure, the leader of independence in Guinea where Suret-Canale worked and lived from 1959 to 1963.

However, whatever criticism can be levelled at his political positions, his intellectual contribution to the decolonisation process is important and echoes through to the 'postcolonial debate' that occurred in recent years in France. Suret-Canale's name remains completely unknown to a new generation.

Attendance is free but contact Dr Leo Zeilig (leo.zeilig@sas.ac.uk) and Dr Mélanie Torrent (melanie.torrent@univ-paris-diderot.fr if you want to attend.


This seminar series arises from a double objective: to encourage research on transnational, transregional and international history, and to stimulate contacts between researchers across national spheres and academic disciplines. The history and current politics of the Commonwealth of Nations can only be fully understood when related to transformations occurring in other parts of the world and this seminar intends to focus on connections and encounters - be they governmental or non-governmental, open or secret, intentional or accidental, multilateral or bilateral, elite or grassroots.

This seminar series also arises from discussions held within the Commonwealth and Democracy Network, formed in June 2010 following the Round Table Centenary Conference on Democracy in the Commonwealth.

Investigating long-term evolutions, this seminar series hopes to generate debate on the processes of governance and regime change in the Commonwealth world from an international - but not necessarily strictly comparative - perspective. If national systems of governance and government institutions will be investigated, the scope of the seminar series is wider, also focusing on the governance at work in multilateral organisations (regional or international) and in non-governmental bodies.

The heart of the seminar series will be the Commonwealth of Nations, as an association of people, civil society groups and member governments which is open to the world and entertains constant discussion with non-members.

Papers presented at the seminar series will therefore be relevant for the study of Commonwealth history and politics but will not be solely focused on intra-Commonwealth affairs. Diplomacy, trade, migration or travel generate transnational networks and the formal and informal circulation of ideas which results from all this will have a central part in this seminar series. The Commonwealth of Nations spans all continents and the seminar series will intentionally have no geographic restrictions. Surveying transformations from the transitions to independence to current debates on democracy, development and human rights, the seminar series hopes to give prominence to new international and transnational insights into Commonwealth transformations.

In order to reflect this approach, this seminar series will be organised jointly by the Institute of Commonwealth Studies/Commonwealth Advisory Bureau at the University of London, and the Université Paris Diderot. This decision comes from the strong belief that relations between France and Britain, and between the French-speaking and English-speaking worlds in the post-independence era, have been rather neglected in the study of governance processes and resistance to oppression. This, however, does not restrict the seminar series to this dual approach - although papers will be presented in either French or English, for practical purposes. We are aware that attendance to both London-based and Paris-based seminars might be difficult and we intend to offer registered participants the possibility of accessing papers.

The inaugural seminar will be held at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies on 1 November, 12.30-14.30. Rm. ST275, Senate House, University of London. 'Anti-colonial scholarship: (re)discovering Jean Suret-Canale'

Pascal Bianchini. The joint organisers, Mélanie Torrent and Leo Zeilig, will also use the opportunity of the first seminar to present the series in further detail to the participants and exchange ideas.

The second seminar will be held at the Université Paris Diderot in the Spring of 2012 and will be followed by a discussion on future projects and areas of interest for the seminar series in 2012-2013.

Wednesday 19 October 2011

New Zealand Studies Network Event - Disciplining the Europeans: Earliest Maori engagement with pen, paper, school

New Zealand Studies Network Event

Disciplining the Europeans: Earliest Maori engagement with pen, paper, school

28th October 2011, 6pm
Room: 251 Malet Street, Birkbeck (Off Torrington Square)

This illustrated talk gives an account of how Englishmen were invited by Maori leaders – who were aware of the dangers of such an invitation – to establish the first school in New Zealand (the school was built in 1816). The talk will  focus on the earliest Maori instruction of the European teachers, the Maori desire for writing, and make new connections with England through a series of unpublished letters about the Industrial Revolution written by two young Maori men who stayed in Shropshire in 1818, and saw ‘the iron run down like water’.

The research was carried out by Professor Alison Jones and Professor Kuni Jenkins. Professor Jones will also talk about the possibilities and impossibilities in telling ‘other people’s stories’.

Alison Jones is a Professor of Education at the University of Auckland. She currently teaches and writes in the field of Maori-Pakeha (indigenous-settler) educational relationships. She and Kuni Jenkins have completed a book entitled Words Between Us: He Korero: First Maori-Pakeha Conversations on Paper, due from Huia Publishers, NZ, later this year.

Alison works on the Maori Missionary Register and on Tuai and Titere, and Maori/Pakeha Conversations in the 19th century

Tuesday 18 October 2011

Further recently added books (Sept 2011) - but not so new

Through donation and purchase we're sometimes able to fill gaps in the collection, and add useful material to the shelves. In September this material included material published before the library was founded as well as more recent difficult to obtain reports: Some of the additional titles are:

King , Jaqueline A. (ed). The Bi-Centennial handbook, 1779-1979. [Kingston] : Jamaica Chamber of Commerce, 1979.


Britain and the Commonwealth : a St Catharine's conference held at Cumberland Lodge, April 1987. Windsor : King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Foundation of St. Catharine's, [1987]

 Morrison, C. Dennis. The citizen and the law : perspectives old and new. Kingston, Jamaica : Grace, Kennedy Foundation, 2004.

Colonial Office Conference, 1927 : memoranda and papers. Great Britain. Colonial Office. Miscellaneous [Publications] ; no.385. [London], 1927.

Colonial Office Conference, 1930 : memoranda and papers. Great Britain. Colonial Office. Miscellaneous [Publications] ; no.385. [London], 1930.


Quebec (Province). Declaration of sovereignty. London : Quebec Government Office, [1995]

Krishnan, N. Evaluation study on Commonwealth Secretariat/Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation assistance for Diplomatic Training. London : Commonwealth Secretariat, 1991.

Sealey, Sally, Wahome Mutahi, and Innocent Chukwuma. Monitoring state-sponsored violence in Africa : a practical guide. London and Johannesburg : Article 19 ; Lagos : Civil Liberties Organisation ; Nairobi : Kenya Human Rights Commission ; Durban : Network of Independent Monitors, 2000.

Coulombe, Françoise. The official languages in Canada : federal policy. Ottawa : Library of Parliament, Research Branch, Political and Social Affairs Division, c1995.

Cole, Fay-Cooper, The peoples of Malaysia. New York : D. Van Nostrand, 1945.

India. Labour Investigation Committee. Report on an enquiry into conditions of labour in plantations in India / by D.V. Rege, chairman, Labour Investigation Committee. Delhi : Manager of Publications, 1946.

Tourism Planning and Research Associates. St. Kitts and Nevis tourism development policy and marketing plan. St. Kitts and Nevis : Caribbean Tourism Organisation : St. Kitts and Nevis Ministry of Tourism, [1996]


Australia. Parliament. Statistical returns showing the voting within each subdivision in relation to the Senate elections, 1958, and the general elections for the House of Representatives, 1958; issued under the authority of the Hon. Gordon Freeth. Canberra : Commonwealth Government Printer, 1959.

Submission to the Working Group of Experienced Officials on the High Level Appraisal Group of the Commonwealth from the conference Joining in change : a commonwealth of peoples for the 1990s, held at Cumberland Lodge, 6-8 July 1990. Windsor : King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Foundation of St. Catharine's, [1990]

Quebec (Province). Text of the Agreement between the Parti Quebecois, the Bloc Quebecois and the action democratique du Quebec : in Quebec City June 12, 1995. London : Quebec Government Office, 1995.

You and the new pass laws. Johannesburg : Black Sash Publications, 1982.

Monday 17 October 2011

New books - September 2011

A selection of new books added to the collection in September:

Lopi, Barbara et al. Beyond inequalities : women in southern Africa : a profile on the situation of women in southern Africa, Harare, Zimbabwe : Southern African Research and Documentation Centre, Women in Development Southern Africa Awareness Programme, 2008.


Hale, Geoffrey, and Monica Gattinger. Borders and bridges : Canada's policy relations in North America, Don Mills, Ont. : Oxford University Press, 2010

Goldblatt, Israel. Building bridges : Namibian nationalists Clemens Kapuuo, Hosea Kutako, Brendan Simbwaye, Samuel Witbooi, Basel : Basler Afrika Bibliographien, 2010.

Hubbard, Ruth and Gilles Paquet (eds). The case for decentralized federalism, Ottawa : University of Ottawa Press, c2010.

Jensen, Kurt F. Cautious beginnings : Canadian foreign intelligence, 1939-51, Vancouver : UBC Press, 2009.

Aronsen, Lawrence. City of love and revolution : Vancouver in the sixties, Vancouver : New Star Books, c2010.

Miller, J. R. Compact, contract, covenant : Aboriginal treaty-making in Canada, Toronto : University of Toronto Press, c2009.

Ooi, Kee Beng. In lieu of ideology : an intellectual biography of Goh Keng Swee, Singapore : Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2010.

Cheema, Zafar Iqbal. Indian nuclear deterrence : its evolution, development and implications for South Asian security, Karachi ; Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2010.

Slumkoski, Corey. Inventing Atlantic Canada : regionalism and the Maritime reaction to Newfoundland's entry into Canadian confederation, Toronto : University of Toronto Press, c2011.

Handmaker, Jeff and Remko Berkhout (eds). Mobilising social justice in South Africa : perspectives from researchers and practitioners, Pretoria : Pretoria University Law Press (PULP), 2010.

Brodie, M. Janine and Isabella Bakker. Where are the women? : gender equity, budgets, and Canadian public policy, Ottawa : Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, c2008.

Friday 14 October 2011

Free articles from Journal of African History

To conclude the celebrations of 5 decades of publishing, the Editors of The Journal of African History have compiled a collection of key articles.


This is your final opportunity to access these 50 articles for free. The papers selected give a sense of how work published in JAH has shaped the development of the field. The offer ends 31st October 2011.

Thursday 13 October 2011

Film Africa 2011: Celebrating African Cinema

Film Africa 2011: Celebrating African Cinema


November 3rd – 13th

The Royal African Society are organizing a Film Festival screening over 50 African films at 5 cinemas across London. You will find the details and the programme of films at: http://www.filmafrica.org.uk/

Tuesday 11 October 2011

New photocopying and printing prices from Monday 10 October 2011

From Monday 10th October 2011 the prices for photocopying and printing will change as follows:

- Self-service, A4 black and white photocopy 6p

- Self-service, A3 black and white photocopy 12p

- Self-service, colour A4 print, 40p

The Library makes every effort possible to keep photocopying and printing prices low. It has been necessary to make these changes to keep up with the significantly increased price of paper and consumables.

Walter Rodney Memorial Lecture: The Fanon-Rodney approach to Neo-colonialism and the Caribbean Nation-state Today

Yesu Persaud Centre For Caribbean Studies - University of Warwick
Walter Rodney Memorial Lecture

Wednesday 19th October 2011
R0.12, Ramphal Building, 5.00pm



Cecil Gutzmore

The Fanon-Rodney approach to Neo-colonialism and the Caribbean Nation-state Today


Frantz Fanon (1925-1961) and Walter Rodney (1942-1981) are two of the most significant revolutionary activist-intellectuals of the twentieth century. Both were African-Caribbean, functioning in the era of the Cold War. Their complex praxis saw them directly engaged in both African Diasporic and Continental African territories (Martinique and Algeria for Fanon; Jamaica, Guyana and Tanzania for Rodney). Both made important contributions to more than one academic discipline (between them psychiatry, political science, political economy and historiography). Their urgent and active concern with and for human liberation led them both to recognize capitalist-imperialism as the crucial current form of domination-exploitation. Both saw that, for Africans, victories against the colonial projection of such power represented an insufficient rupture, given its reincarnation in the structures and processes of neo-colonialism and its hegemonic global hold. This led them both to contribute theoretically and practically to the ongoing struggle against capitalist-imperialism as neo-colonialism, the concept having been coined by Kwame Nkrumah. Lasting victories in this struggle have to date been few. The principal concern of this lecture will be to examine the contemporary Caribbean nation-state, in all its apparent variety, in the light of Fanon’s and Rodney’s anti-neocolonial praxis.


All Welcome

Monday 10 October 2011

New books August 2011 (part 2)

A further selection of new titles added to the library's collections in AUgust 2011:

Olssen, Erik. An accidental utopia? social mobility and the social foundations of an egalitarian society, 1880-1940. Dunedin, New Zealand: Otago University Press, 2011.


Holman, Jeffrey Paparoa, Best of both worlds : the story of Elsdon Best and Tutakangahau, North Shore, N.Z. : Penguin Books, 2010.

Maundeni, Zibani at al. Consolidating democratic governance in Southern Africa : Botswana, Johannesburg : EISA, 2007.

Murphy, John, A decent provision : Australia welfare policy, 1870 to 1949, Farnham, Surrey, England ; Burlington, VT : Ashgate, c2011.

Malone, David. Does the elephant dance? : contemporary Indian foreign policy, Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2011.

David, Maya Khemlani et al (eds). Ethnic relations and nation building : the way forward, Petaling Jaya : Strategic Information and Research Development Centre (SIRD), 2010.

Jacobs, Keith. Experience and representation : contemporary perspectives on migration in Australia, Farnham, Surrey, England ; Burlington, VT : Ashgate, 2011.

Ravi Raman, K. Global capital and peripheral labour : the history and political economy of plantation workers in India, London ; New York : Routledge, 2010.

Ashton, Paul and Paula Hamilton. History at the crossroads : Australians and the past . Ultimo, N.S.W. : Halstead Press, 2010.

Jackson, Ashley and David Tomkins. Illustrating empire : a visual history of British imperialism. Oxford : Bodleian Library, 2011.

Hazell, Alastair. The last slave market. London : Constable, c2011.

Kilimwiko, Lawrence I.M. Media power and politics in Tanzania : critical analysis of media trends and practice, Dar es Salaam : Association of Journalists and Media Workers, 2009.

Matlosa, Khabele and Kebapetse Lotshwao. Political integration and democratisation in southern Africa : progress, problems and prospects, Johannesburg : EISA, 2010.

Cavalier, Rodney. Power crisis : the self-destruction of a state labor party, Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press ; [Clayton, Vic.] : Monash University, National Centre for Australian Studies, 2010.

Niazi, Zamir. The press in chains, Karachi ; Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2010.

Mpabanga, Dorothy. Promoting the effectiveness of democracy protection institutions in Southern Africa : Office of the Ombudsman in Botswana, Johannesburg, South Africa : EISA, 2009.

Musuva, Catherine. Promoting the effectiveness of democracy protection institutions in southern Africa : South Africa's Public Protector and Human Rights Commission, Johannesburg, South Africa : EISA, 2009.


Blaauw, Lesley. Promoting the effectiveness of democracy protection institutions in Southern Africa : the case of the Office of the Ombudsman in Namibia, Johannesburg, South Africa : EISA, 2009.

Chewe-Chanda, Annie. Promoting the effectiveness of democracy protection institutions in Southern Africa : the Commission for Investigations and the Permanent Human Rights Commission in Zambia, Johannesburg, South Africa : EISA, 2009.

Patel, Nandini. Promoting the effectiveness of democracy protection institutions in Southern Africa : the Malawi Human Rights Commission and the Office of the Ombudsman, Johannesburg, South Africa : EISA, 2009.

Darga, L. Amedee. Promoting the effectiveness of democracy protection institutions in Southern Africa. The Ombudsman and the National Human Rights Commission of Mauritius, Johannesburg : EISA, 2009.

Holland, Alison and Barbara Brookes (eds). Rethinking the racial moment : essays on the colonial encounter, Newcastle upon Tyne : Cambridge Scholars, 2011.

Long, Joey Shi Ruey. Safe for decolonization : the Eisenhower administration, Britain, and Singapore, Kent, Ohio : Kent State University Press, c2011.

Mwebaza, Rose. Sustaining good governance in water and sanitation in Uganda, Pretoria: Institute of Security Studies, 2010.

Gender Links (ed). This seat is taken : elections and the under-representation of women in seven Southern African countries, Richmond, Johannesburg, South Africa : EISA, 2010.

Santos-Paulino, Amelia U., Mark McGillivray, and Wim Naudé(eds). Understanding small-island developing states : fragility and external shocks, London : Routledge, c2011.

Matlosa, Khabele Gilbert M. Khadiagala and Victor Shale (eds). When elephants fight : preventing and resolving election-related conflicts in Africa, Johannesburg : EISA, 2010.

Saturday 8 October 2011

New books - August 2011 (Part 1) (Canada)

Catching up on publicising new books with a list of books added to the catalogue in August from or about Canada:



Howard, Heather A. and Craig Proulx (eds), Aboriginal peoples in Canadian cities : transformations and continuities, Waterloo, Ont. : Wilfrid Laurier University Press, c2011.


Aboriginal Policy Research Conference (3rd : 2009 : Ottawa, Ont.) , Aboriginal policy research : health and well-being Vol. 9, Toronto : Thompson Educational Publishing, c2011.

Aboriginal Policy Research Conference (3rd : 2009 : Ottawa, Ont.) , Aboriginal policy research : voting governance, and research methodology Vol. 10, Toronto : Thompson Educational Publishing, c2011.

Davis, Lynne. Alliances : re/envisioning indigenous--non-indigenous relationships, Toronto : University of Toronto Press, 2010

Mensah, Joseph, Black Canadians : history, experience, social conditions, Halifax : Fernwood Pub., c2010.

Palmer, Bryan D. Canada's 1960s : the ironies of identity in a rebellious era, Toronto ; Buffalo : University of Toronto Press, c2009.

Borrows, John, Canada's indigenous constitution, Toronto : University of Toronto Press, c2010.

DiGiacomo, Gordon and Maryantonett Flumian (eds). The case for centralized federalism, Ottawa : University of Ottawa Press, c2010.

Leduc, Timothy B., Climate, culture, change : Inuit and Western dialogues with a warming North, Ottawa : University of Ottawa Press, c2010.

Jeffrey, Brooke. Divided loyalties : the Liberal Party of Canada, 1984-2008, Toronto ; Buffalo : University of Toronto Press, c2010.

Kallen, Evelyn. Ethnicity and human rights in Canada, Ontario ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2010.

Smith, David E., Federalism and the constitution of Canada, Toronto : University of Toronto Press, c2010.

Koop, Royce, Grassroots Liberals : organizing for local and national politics, Vancouver : UBC Press, c2011.

Dutil, Patrice (ed), The guardian : perspectives on the Ministry of Finance of Ontario. Toronto ; Buffalo : University of Toronto Press, c2011.

Lachapelle, Réjean and Jean-François Lepage, Languages in Canada : 2006 census, Gatineau, Québec : Canadian Heritage, [2010]

A low-tax plan for jobs and growth : the next phase of Canada's Economic Action Plan : Tabled in the House of Commons by the Honourable James M. Flaherty, P.C., M.P. Minister of Finance, June 6, 2011. Ottawa : Public Works and Government Services, 2011.

Petter, Andrew. The politics of the Charter : the illusive promise of constitutional rights. Toronto : University of Toronto Press, c2010.

Anderson , Cameron D. and Laura B. Stephenson (eds). Voting behaviour in Canada, Vancouver : UBC Press, 2011.

Bashevkin, Sylvia B. Women, power, politics : the hidden story of Canada's unfinished democracy, Don Mills, Ontario : Oxford University Press, 2009.

Friday 7 October 2011

NZ-UK Link Foundation Visiting Professorship Lectures Programme

THE NZ-UK LINK FOUNDATION VISITING PROFESSORSHIP

LECTURES PROGRAMME 2011-12

The NZ-UK Link Foundation, in conjunction with the School of Advanced Study, University of London, is delighted to announce that its second Visiting Professor, Jonathan Gardner, will deliver the Foundation’s series of Visiting Professorship lectures between October and December 2011.

The Foundation’s purpose is to make a significant contribution to the bilateral NZ-UK relationship in a changing world. For more information, please visit http://www.nzuklinkfoundation.org/

Booking is essential: Please contact Steve Rowland-Jones NZ-UK.Link@hotmail.co.uk

New Zealand is generally regarded as a world leader in marine protection because it has established 33 full ‘no take’ Marine Reserves, with several more planned. The UK currently has three statutory Marine Nature Reserves, in addition to a number of other types of Marine Protected Areas where some fishing is permitted. Professor Gardner is a marine biologist with extensive research expertise in the fields of Marine Protected Areas, biodiversity conservation and population genetics. During his lecture series Professor Gardner will bring together these fields to address the UK’s new Marine Bill, drawing on New Zealand’s own Marine Protected Area Policy and Implementation Plan. The Foundation believes that his work will contribute to a greater understanding of how Marine Protected Areas can most effectively be set up and run to achieve their conservation goals and help protect marine biodiversity.

Professor Jonathan Gardner, who is British born, has been based at Wellington’s Victoria University since April 1994. In December 1994 he became an active member of the South Coast Marine Reserve Coalition, a group set up to promote the establishment of a marine reserve on Wellington’s south coast at Island Bay, in front of the University’s marine laboratory. The Taputeranga Marine Reserve was formally opened in August 2008, almost 20 years after it was first mooted. Professor Gardner is therefore a long time activist for marine protection and has longstanding, first-hand experience of the marine reserve process. He has published more than 50 papers on various aspects of marine protected areas and on aspects of the population genetics of coastal plants and animals.

Mon 17 Oct 2011 6:00pm followed by reception
Venue: The Royal Society, Kohn Centre, London SW1

The importance of Marine Reserves & Marine Protected Areas - the New Zealand experience
In this lecture Professor Gardner will outline the development of Marine Reserves in New Zealand and the strengths and weaknesses of the legislation used to establish reserves. He will describe the different types of Marine Protected Areas in New Zealand and outline the roles played by different sectors in both supporting and opposing the establishment of Marine Reserves. He will assess the limitations and successes of marine protection strategies and will look forward to the new Marine Protected Areas strategy for New Zealand.

Thu 3 Nov 2011 6:00pm followed by reception
Venue: Plymouth University

The design of a Marine Protected Areas network
In this lecture Professor Gardner will discuss what genetics and connectivity tell us about the structuring of populations of New Zealand coastal species. He will outline the essential requirement of science to underpin the establishment of Marine Protected Areas as well as the relevance of genetic connectivity to Marine Protected Area networks. He will describe the New Zealand approach to marine conservation, including a review of New Zealand coastal species, the assessment of population genetic structuring and genetic connectivity, and the contribution of these to New Zealand’s Marine Protected Area network. He will also discuss future directions for science as it can contribute to network design.

Tue 29 Nov 2011 1.15pm
Venue: York University

Do Marine Reserves deliver conservation benefits?
In this lecture Professor Gardner will address the rationale, purpose and establishment of Marine Reserves in New Zealand and describe the expected conservation outcomes. He will explore the processes of monitoring, including the establishment of baselines, ‘before & after’ surveys, internal and external comparisons and habitat mapping. He will ask how Marine Reserve success can best be measured and indicate ways in which reserves can be used as long term conservation tools.

Wed 7 Dec 2011 6:00 pm followed by reception
Venue: Zoological Society of London, Huxley Theatre, Regents Park, London

The future of Marine Protected Areas
This lecture will concern Professor Gardner’s own personal view of Marine Protected Areas. He will review where Marine Protected Areas have been and where they are going in terms of global changes, what Marine Protected Areas can and cannot achieve and what science is needed to support the development of a network of Marine Protected Areas. He will discuss optimum timeframes for the establishment of Marine
Protected Areas as well as for sound conservation outcomes. He will give some examples of successes and failures and the lessons to be learned from these positive and negative experiences.

Thursday 6 October 2011

CFP: The Grenada Intervention 30 Years On: A Retrospective

The Grenada Intervention 30 Years On: A Retrospective

Almost 30 years on from the intervention the events of that period are still strongly contested; so too the legacies of the intervention.

However, a number of recent developments have begun to heal some of the wounds. For example, several former detainees of the People's Revolutionary Government (PRG), including current Prime Minister Tillman Thomas, are now serving in government. In 2006 a Truth and Reconciliation Commission published its report - Redeeming the past: A time for healing; in 2009 the international airport, which was a source of great controversy under the PRG, was renamed after Maurice Bishop; and also in 2009 the last members of the 'Grenada 17' convicted of Bishop's murder were released.

Therefore as the 30th anniversary of the intervention approaches it is a good time to reflect on the significance of these recent developments, as well as looking back at the PRG, the intervention and its aftermath.

Possible topics for inclusion in the special issue of The Round Table are (not exhaustive):

* The legitimacy/legality of the intervention from a contemporary perspective (post-Iraq etc.)
* The role of the US in the Caribbean after the intervention
* The PRG: a re-evaluation
* Intervention and the death of reformist left-wing politics in the Commonwealth Caribbean
* The UK and Grenada from associated statehood to intervention and beyond
* The legal/judicial story of the Grenada 17
* The legacy of the 1979 to 1983 PRG period for Grenada

Schedule for the special issue:

The deadline for papers is Friday 20 July 2012. The editing and peer-review process will take place between August and November 2012. Final copy will be submitted to The Round Table in December 2012. The issue will then be published in April 2013.

Instructions for authors can be found on The Round Table website here:
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/authors/ctrtauth.asp

For further information and/or submission of manuscripts please contact Dr Gary Williams or Dr Peter Clegg.

Dr Gary Williams, University of Essex, E-mail: gcwill@essex.ac.uk
Dr Peter Clegg, University of the West of England, E-mail: peter.clegg@uwe.ac.uk

Wednesday 5 October 2011

‘In but not of the West’: Caribbean histories and geographies

All are welcome to the Annual David Nicholls Memorial Trust Lecture


Regents Park College, Oxford, Pusey Street, OX1 2LB

5.00pm Tuesday 11th October, 2011

Dr David Lambert, University of Warwick
‘In but not of the West’: Caribbean histories and geographies

Dr David Lambert is Reader of Caribbean History in the Department of History at Warwick University and a former Visiting Fellow at Exeter College, University of Oxford. In 2009, he was awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize. He works on slavery, abolition and empire in the Caribbean and wider Atlantic world in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. His current book, Mastering the Niger: James MacQueen's Map of Africa and the Struggle over Atlantic Slavery (University of Chicago Press), examines the entanglements between slavery, exploration, cartography and empire.

The lecture starts at 5.00pm, with tea from 4.00pm and a poster presentation by Mark Tumbridge, the David Nicholls Memorial Trust Postgraduate Scholar at University of Warwick, on 'Representations of Indentured Labour and Asian Presence in Caribbean Cultural Texts from the 19th Century to the Present'.

A wine reception will be held following the lecture at 6.30pm, with an informal dinner at Regent's Park College at 7.00pm. The cost of the dinner will be £10, no advance booking necessary.

David Nicholls Memorial Trust
http://www.dnmt.org.uk/

Tuesday 4 October 2011

Lecture: 'The Roots of Caribbean Identity: Creolisation, Nativisation and Enlightenment'

Lecture: 'The Roots of Caribbean Identity: Creolisation, Nativisation and Enlightenment'



Peter Roberts, Professor of Creole Linguistics, University of the West Indies-Cave Hill.

Wednesday 5 October 2011


RHB139, Goldsmiths, University of London 16.30-18.30 All welcome


Professor Peter Roberts draws on historical sources to present the roots of Caribbean identity across the Spanish-, French- and English-speaking Caribbean. In assessing the significance of Haiti in the process of creolisation, key questions are raised concerning the visibility of creole language in the literature from the eighteenth century. Foremost among the questions are: How was Creole language both a symbol of identity and a medium of enlightment? What are the meanings of Creole enlightenment?

Peter Roberts is the author of From Oral to Literate Culture (1997) and West Indians and their Language (2007). His most recent monograph, The Roots of Caribbean Identity received the Gordon K. and Sybil Lewis Memorial Award of Caribbean Scholarship in 2009 and is described as follows: 'The book is original in its conception, perspective and treatment of the languages and identities of the West Indies as a whole. The author makes extensive use of a huge range of multiple and multilingual historical sources to let the voices of the past speak for themselves, and unearths forgotten connections that reveal the interrelatedness of territories and their 'historical saga."

Monday 3 October 2011

CFP: From Strangers to Partners? The Commonwealth of Nations and the European Union

From Strangers to Partners? The Commonwealth of Nations and the European Union


23 March 2012 - Strasbourg

One-day conference organised by the Institut d'Etudes Politiques (IEP), Strasbourg, and Université Paris Diderot

The early history of relations between the Commonwealth and Europe is to be read in the light of Britain's own relations with the European Economic Community. As Britain twice applied and twice faced the French veto in the 1960s, the Commonwealth of Nations evolved radically. From an association essentially defined through its relationship with the ex-imperial power, the Commonwealth expanded as decolonisation gathered pace, was given a Secretariat in 1965 and Arnold Smith, the first Secretary General, contributed greatly to the assertion of an independent Commonwealth voice, determined to mark its relevance in a rapidly changing world.

The Commonwealth of Nations issued its first declaration of principles in January 1971, as Britain finally progressed towards EEC membership and officially joined in January 1973. For British foreign policy, the Commonwealth and Europe had long represented conflicting attractions and the determination to conciliate both sets of partners had initially been a seemingly insoluble dilemma. While the two spheres retained their specificities, they now intersected, not only through Britain, but through the association of a number of ex-British territories in the 1975 Lomé Convention and the later joint membership of Cyprus and Malta. Is the EU one of the "strategic partners" of the Commonwealth in its actions for development and democracy? To what extent do values converge? To what extent does the Commonwealth have any influence on EU development policies? How can the past and present framework for consultation between the EU and the Commonwealth be understood - and is there scope for improvement? At a time when tensions between the Conservative and Liberal Democrat partners of the coalition government in London have hit the headlines on European issues, and when Foreign Secretary William Hague has called for the reinvigoration of the Commonwealth, understanding current cooperation networks and possible ventures seems an essential undertaking.

The work of the conference will be articulated around two major themes:

1) Connecting institutional pasts

Possible topics for papers include:

- British foreign policy and diplomacy in Commonwealth and European circles: mutual influences, evolving interests and shifting identities
- The impact of Britain's application to the EEC, and membership of the EEC/EU on Commonwealth ties
- The role of Cyprus and Malta in bringing both organisations closer together and as vehicles for common understanding
- Intra-Commonwealth divisions on European relations

2) Present Dynamics and Future Cooperation

Possible topics for papers include:
- Lobbying and co-operation in multilateral organisations
- The articulation of Commonwealth policies and EU policies outside Europe (in the Pacific and the Caribbean where some territories are part of the EU, but also in Africa)
- European and Commonwealth approaches to development
- The scope for cooperation in democratic processes, from election observation to institution building
- Commonwealth and La Francophonie cross-influences in the EU, and the impact of Britain and France's imperial past on EU policies in developing countries.

This conference follows two previous conferences held at Université Paris Diderot in 2009 (The Commonwealth of Nations: a force for democracy?) and 2010 (The Commonwealth@60: identity and relevance in perspective).

Proposals (max. 500 words) and a short biography should be sent to the organisers, Ron Leask, Virginie Roiron and Mélanie Torrent (cweu2012@gmail.com) no later than 15 November 2011.

Participants are expected to cover their travel and accommodation expenses.

Sunday 2 October 2011

Maori art in Paris

Two exhibitions devoted to Maori art open this week in Paris:


George Nuku & Rosanna Raymond: Face to Face
17 Rue des Beaux-Arts Paris 75006

The contemporary Maori art of George Nuku & Rosanna Raymond face to face with a selection of early Maori art

Opens October 4 from 18h to 21h in the presence of the artists

(NB: exhibition closes October 26)

For more information about the artists and the work, click here.


Māori: their treasures have a soul
Musée du Quai Branly
37, quai Branly Paris 75007

The exhibition presents a great range of artwork, including sculpture, adornment, daily and sacred objects, architectural elements, photographs, audiovisual documents, and so on. It highlights the links between taonga (ancestral Māori treasures) and contemporary art, shedding light on important issues and debates for Māori today.

The exhibition presents Māori culture as seen by Māori, free from Western views and biases. The heart of the exhibition features art that addresses the political, spiritual, and aesthetic developments that have shaped Māori culture.

The exhibition includes the remarkable Michael Parekowhai works that formed the NZ Pavilion at the 2011 Venice Biennale.

From October 4 to January 22

For more information about the exhibition, click here

Saturday 1 October 2011

Beyond revolutions: the use of ICTs for political mobilization and participation in Sub-Saharan Africa

Beyond revolutions: the use of ICTs for political mobilization and participation in Sub-Saharan Africa

Friday, 11 November 2011

Location: CRASSH, 17 Mill Lane, Cambridge.


Conveners: Dr Iginio Gagliardone (Centre of Governance and Human Rights, University of Cambridge);
Dr Sharath Srinivasan (Centre of Governance and Human Rights, University of Cambridge)

Workshop participation is limited: to register your interest, please email Iginio Gagliardone (ig282@cam.ac.uk) describing your background and why you would like to participate.

Conference Summary

After witnessing the critical role new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) played in supporting political change in Northern Africa at the beginning of 2011, expectations have grown that in Sub-Saharan Africa authoritarian or semi-authoritarian regimes may also be challenged by emerging uses of ICTs for political change. However, there have been little signs that long-standing leaders in countries like Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, or Uganda may be ousted from power by a popular uprising supported by and coordinated through the use of new technologies. What are the reasons for this apparent absence of impact? How much of the lack of technologically mediated mobilizations for greater rights and political freedoms depends simply on the limited diffusion of ICTs such as the Internet? How much depends instead on the particular nature of politics on the African continent (where the most significant protests to date have been channelled by partisan and divisive politics rather than being the expression of an empowered civil society)? And, in the absence of revolutionary outcomes, are ICTs affecting and possibly transforming the nature of political mobilization and participation in more subtle ways?

The workshop will address these questions by providing a platform for scholars studying the role of ICTs in political transformations to engage with the arguments put forward by researchers investigating governance processes in Africa. It will focus not only on the newest technologies, but explore the unique ways in which new and old means of communication are being and could be combined in Sub-Saharan Africa to enable citizens to express voice and affect political processes. Participants will examine, for example, whether and how the increasing availability of mobile phones is promoting innovative ways of influencing government policies and of claiming rights, but also how these innovations fit in longer term patterns of use of communication to affect governance. The overarching aim is to explore whether, as has been the case for applications such as mobile banking, the most significant uses of ICTs for participatory politics in Africa may emerge from a unique combination of global influences and local needs, rather than from the application of tools and uses that have been proved successful in external contexts. This inter-disciplinary workshop complements the Cambridge Centre of Governance and Human Rights (CGHR)’s current research project on how innovations in ICTs can transform governance processes in Africa.

Sponsors:
Supported by the Centre for Research in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CRASSH), and the Centre of Governance and Human Rights, both University of Cambridge.