NEW GEOGRAPHIES IN CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN ART

The Harvard University Committee on African Studies announces a two-day
conference to be held on Friday, February 29 and Saturday, March 1, 2008.
Drawing on the fields of contemporary art and Africanist art scholarship,
this interdisciplinary convergence will address issues of translocality,
transgression, and notions of place both within the continent and
vis-à-vis Africa and the rest of the world. The conference understands the
trope of geographies in its relationship to Africa as both a physical
place, and as a discursive space of memory and affiliation. Friday’s
program includes four panels, each composed of two thirty-minute
presentations on current research about these themes.

Papers will be presented for discussion by Maria Magdelana Campos-Pons,
Zoe Whitely, Allan deSouza, Lisa Binder, Dominique Malaquais, Elizabeth
Harney, Gary van Wyk, and Steven Nelson. Saturday’s program begins with a
two-hour round table discussion with artists and scholars, including Ute
Meta Bauer, Bili Bidjocka, Hudita Mustafa, Chika Okeke-Agulu, and Paul
Stopforth. Okwui Enwezor will close the conference with a keynote address.

The conference is open to the public. Graduate students and recent PhDs,
as well as senior scholars, are encouraged to attend. Travel and
accommodation expenses will be the responsibility of attendees. There is
no registration fee, but pre-registration by February 25, 2008 is encouraged.

To register and for further conference details, see
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~afrart/