Conference Theme: Violence and Representation in Africa and the African Diaspora

Date: April 17-20 2011

Venue: The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA

The seventeenth annual conference of the International Society of African Philosophy and Studies hosted by the Department of African American and African Studies and the Department of French and Italian at the Ohio State University will bring together scholars, artists, practitioners, and activists from a variety of disciplines to explore the nature, forms, and manifestations of violence in the African world.  Apart from the traditional more or less negative representations of violence, the conference will enable participants to further nuance the concept of violence and connect it to morality, ethics, accountability, and “democracy.”  Scholars are also encouraged to discuss epistemic, economic, social, and political manifestations of violence that have functioned both as a means to free Africans, as a resource to keep them in subordination, or, as Fanon claims, as a cleansing force.

The organizers welcome ground breaking papers that discuss issues such as epistemic violence and the invention of blackness; violence of/and the stereotypical representation of African descended peoples in the media; violence and Western encounter with Africa: From the triangular trade and the scramble for Africa to the decolonizing process; Violence, Knowledge, and Trauma; Violence as a cleansing force; Violence and Capitalism: from the economic policies of the IMF to the illicit enrichment of African political elites; Violence, class, and Social Reproduction; Violence and Poverty; Violence and Gender; From Miles Davis to Chris Brown: Gendered Violence in the Black household; Violence, Race, and Afro-European experiences; Violence and the City; Politics, Policy, and Violence; Law, Violence, and Race; Violence and Culture; Violence and Religion in Africa; Violence and Black Popular Culture; Violence, Nation, and Nationalism; Genocides; Tribalism; The treatment of violence in African literatures; Violence and Language; The Language of violence; New Perspectives on Violence.