African Studies - Graduate Students in African Studies

Graduate Students in African Studies (GSAS) exists as a forum that brings together graduate students from across a variety of disciplines in order to discuss their common interest in the study of Africa. The main objectives of this organization are to promote the study and research of African societies and cultural productions, to foster fellowship between students and faculty, and to address the needs of African Studies students within the Program.

Inquiries can be addressed to gsas.iu@gmail.com

2ND ANNUAL IU GRADUATE STUDENTS IN AFRICAN STUDIES SYMPOSIUM

Looking Back, Facing Forward: (Re) imagining a Global Africa

Indiana University – Bloomington 31 March 2012

In recent years, a number of countries across Africa have celebrated the 50th anniversary of their independence. Additionally, this year marks the 50th anniversary of the African Studies Program at Indiana University. In light of these events, Indiana University’s Graduate Students in African Studies (GSAS) invite papers for our annual conference that address the tremendous governmental, societal, and cultural changes that have occurred within Africa and the diaspora since independence. We encourage papers that not only reflect on the past, but also explore the future of such transformations.

Papers might consider but are NOT limited to the following topics:

The role of civil society in African countries.
Economic challenges that African countries have faced since independence and ways in which they have worked to overcome these challenges.
How developments in technology impact the continent and the ways in which members of the diaspora communicate with their home country.
How shifting forms of government impact the way the African state and nation are expressed and understood.
How Africans conceive of their identities as “African” fifty years after independence.
The changing roles of women on the continent and the future and meaning of African feminism.

Proposals are welcome from graduate students in any discipline. Abstracts should describe the student’s research in no more than 300 words. They should include the title of the paper the author proposes to present, university affiliation, discipline, address and phone number.

Deadline for submission of abstracts: 30 January 2012

Submissions and questions: iugsas.symposium@gmail.com

Graduate Students in African Studies Symposium

African Modernity and Identity in the Era of New Media

Saturday, April 2, 2011

8:30-9:15

Registration and Breakfast, Woodburn Hall 200, Political Science Library lobby

9:30-11:30

Welcome and Panel 1, Woodburn Hall 200, Political Science Library

Rudo Mudia, Indiana University, Communication and Culture
You Won’t See Me in Your History Books: The Performance and Mediation of Zimbabwean Identity in the Work of Comrade Fatso

Kristofer Olsen, Ohio University, Interdisciplinary Arts
Takai on YouTube: What Effect Does New Media Have on Traditional Ghanaian Musical Creativity?

Carinna Friesen, Indiana University, Ethnomusicology
Internet, iTunes and Rap: The role of music, globalization and technology in the construction of identity among West African Canadians

11:30-1:30

Lunch, School of Fine Arts (SOFA) Gallery

1:30-2:30

Panel 2, Woodburn Hall 200, Political Science Library

Hans Aschim, University of Wisconsin Madison, Journalism and Public Health
The BBC Effect in the Global Village: Africa

John Hames, University of Florida, Anthropology
Pulaar Online: Language Promotion, the Internet, and the Creation of a Common Front

3:00-4:15

Keynote Lecture by Dr. Victoria Bernal, Associate Professor of Anthropology,
University of California at Irvine, followed by Closing Remarks

4:15-5:30

Reception, Woodburn Hall 200, outside the Political Science Library