Have you got something to say about Carnival? If so, you need to get your ideas together quickly, because Tuesday 1 November is your last chance to submit a paper for ‘Power, Performance and Play An International Conference on Caribbean Carnival Cultures’.
The conference will take place at Leeds Beckett University from 19 to 21 May 2017. It is jointly organised by Leeds West Indian Carnival and the university’s Centre for Culture and the Arts. There are plans for a civic reception and welcome by the Lord Mayor of Leeds and an evening of reggae and soca at the Leeds West Indian Centre.
Keynote speakers are Trinidadian carnival playwright Tony Hall, US-based carnival researcher Professor Milla Riggio and Michael La Rose, chair of the George Padmore Institute (and occasional Soca News contributor). Others taking part include academics, costume designers, musicians, film-makers and founding members of Leeds Caribbean Carnival.
There is still room for a few more conference contributions in the form of papers, workshops or exhibitions, say the organisers. They should be on one or more of the following themes:
- • The relationship between Carnival and diasporic identities
- • The cultural history of Caribbean carnival in the UK
- • Carnival and the politics of emancipation and practices of resistance
- • Transcultural relationships between UK and global Caribbean carnivals
- • Carnival and the body
- • Carnival as a site for conviviality, pleasure and social cohesion
- • The commercialisation of Carnival
- • Intergenerational relationships and carnival practices.
You should send an abstract of no more than 250 words and a biography of a maximum 150 words to Danielle Hall, Conference Administrator at d.hall(at)leedsbeckett.ac.uk by 1 November.
