Sponsored jointly by:
Michigan State University and University of Michigan
October 29, 2010 - MSU
October 30, 2010 - U of M
Organized by Ken Harrow, MSU and Frieda Ekotto, U of M



Friday, Oct. 29, 2010
Michigan State University
Third Floor, International Center


8:30 - 8:50 a.m.
Coffee and Welcome remarks:
James A. Pritchett, Director, African Studies Center, MSU

9:00 - 11:00 a.m.
PANEL I
Moderator: Anna Norris, Michigan State University
- Safoi Babana-Hampton, Michigan State University,
"The Promises and Pitfalls of Critical Approaches to Film Productions in the Maghreb"
- Valerie Orlando, University of Maryland, "Screening Morocco: Filming the Social, Cultural and Political Challenges of a Country in Transition"
- Salah Hassan, Michigan State University, "Figurations of Islam in Graceland"
- Lamia Ben Youssef, University of Alabama-Birmingham, "Writing from the Ghetto: New Trends in North African Exilic Literature"

11:15 - 12:30 p.m.
Keynote Speaker (1) Moradewun Adejunmobi
"Provocations: African Societies and Theories of Creativity"
Respondant: Maureen Eke, Central Michigan University

1:30 - 3:30 p.m.
PANEL II
Moderator: Laura Fair, Michigan State University
- Charles Sugnet, University of Minnesota, "Plus ca change... But What Continent Do the Critics Live On?"
- Eileen Julien, Indiana University, "Issues of Language and Vision in the Work of Boris Boubacar Diop and Joseph Ramaka"
- Olabode Ibironke, Johns Hopkins University, "World Market and the Invention of Global Literature"
- Pius Adesamni, Carleton College, "When is an African Literature Classroom?: Perspectives from Canada"
Respondent: Odile Cazenave, Boston University

3:34-5:00
Keynote Speaker (2)Patrice Nganang
"In Praise of the Alphabet"

Respondent: Akin Adesokan, Indiana University

This symposium is supported by: Michigan State University African Studies Center, Center for Advanced Study of International Development, International Studies and Programs, Department of English, History, Philosophy, French Departments, Residential College, Office of Inclusion, African American and African Studies Department, College of Arts and Letters and Global and Cultural StudiesProgram


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Saturday, Oct. 30, 2010
University of Michigan
Wolverine ABC (Michigan Union)


8:30 - 8:50 a.m.
Coffee and Welcome remarks:
Yopie Prins, Chair
Department of Comparative Literature, U of M
9:00 - 11:00 a.m.
PANEL I

Moderator: Mandy Davis, University of Michigan

- Mária Minich Brewer, University of Minnesota, "Theorizing New African Dramaturgies in France"
- Adeline Koh, Richard Stockton College, "Reexamining Transnational Feminism in the 1960s: Gendered Connections in Malaysia's Joss and Gold and Zimbabwe's Nervous Conditions"
- Lindsey Green-Simms, The College of Charleston, "Occult Melodramas: Spectral Affect and West African Video-Film"
- Caitlin Scholl, Berkley University, "Delineating Bodies, Silencing Voices: Nationalism, Gender, and the Sunjata Epic"
11:15 - 1:00 p.m.
Keynote Speaker (1)Leonora Miano, Novelist
"Perception occidentale des Lettres subsahariennes"

Translator: Patrick Tonks, University of Michigan

Respondent: Nathalie Etoke, Connecticut College
2:30 - 4:00 p.m.
PANEL II

Moderator: Marie Stoll, University of Michigan

- Magali Compan-Banard, Mary and William College, "Breaking Silence from the Indian Ocean: Shenaz Patel's Mauritius Geography of Production"
- Soraya Tlatli, Berkley University, "Assia Djebar: la voix des morts"
- Charles Gueboguo, University of Yaoundé, Cameroon, "Comparing Queer Nations in Africa"
- Ingrid Lynch, University of Michigan (University of Pretoria, South Africa), "Languages and Sexualities: The Relevance of "bi" in South African Discourses of Fluid Female Desire"
4:15 - 5:30 p.m.
Keynote Speaker (2) Tejumola Olaniyan, University of Wisconsin
"African Cultural Studies: Of Travels, Accents, and Epistemologies"

Respondent: Derek Peterson, University of Michigan
5:30 - 6:00 p.m.
Concluding remarks:
- Freida Ekotto, University of Michigan
- Ken Harrow, Michigan State University