Abstracts and proposals for thematic workshops to be submitted no later than 31 December 2006.
Further information.
Faculdade de Letras
Alameda da Universidade
Universidade de Lisboa
1600-214 Lisboa (Portugal)
E-mail: mail@iasa2007.eu
Phone: +351 21 792 00 85
Fax: +351 21 796 00 63
If 1492 marks the advent of modernity, this congress will investigate the implications of the Columbian exchange on the development of culture and identity in the Americas. As a result of the exchange of seeds, plants, animals, the exchange of languages and transplantation of peoples, particularly the extraordinary reach of the African slave trade, the subsequent arrival of peoples from Asia, and the impact of violence against Native peoples in the New World, the Americas have been a particularly fruitful site for exploring the meaning of modernity. We welcome comparative papers apropos of the congress title that explore themes across national geographies in the Americas, across the Atlantic and Pacific spaces of intercontinental contact, or across language traditions in the Americas. We also welcome papers focused on particular nationalities, including the United States, that help to illuminate the effects and ramifications of a modernity fostered by exploration, conquest, settlement, and globalization. The aim of the congress is to address, among others, the following questions: What kind of entity called ''America'' is it we study when approached across national, oceanic, or language boundaries? How do we reconcile the liberating potential of hybridity, creolization, or other forms of transculturation in light of the histories of forced transplantation and migration and oppression that characterize much American experience? What are the future prospects for an American culture considered in this broad context? What is the role of a globalized American culture produced by the United States thwarting or unwittingly enabling the emergence of new cultural forms? How have the modern media, modern means of transportation, and other means of intercultural communication shifted the meaning of ''America'' since early colonial contacts? What characterizes sites of resistance to the homogenizing effects of a globalized American culture? As an interdisciplinary organization, IASA welcomes papers and workshops that address these and related questions in the context of analyses of cultural, historical, political, and theoretical material.
