CFP: Global Dominicanidades: New Approaches to Dominican Studies in the 21st Century

Pre-LASA 2019 Workshop, Boston, May 23rd, 2019

Over the course of the past two decades, there has been a steady increase in scholarship on Dominican studies, much of it centered on the historical conflict in Hispaniola. This work has provided useful new ways of understanding the transnational and dialectical relationship between the two sides of the island. Still, in this conversation surrounding states and borders, a number of subjects have been sidelined. A recent wave of seminal scholarly works on dominicanidad expands the conversations beyond this paradigm by considering the triangular relationship between Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and the United States; newer Dominican diasporic enclaves in Europe and South America; the cultural legacies of the transnational interchange between Hispaniola and the United States since the nineteenth century; gender and sexuality and its connections with feminism, the state, and neoliberal economic models; and Dominican cultural production and history on the global stage. Following these approaches to Dominican studies, this workshop seeks to foreground the preoccupations evinced in current scholarship while expanding theoretical frameworks and providing indispensable mentorship to rising scholars. We invite essay submissions in English or Spanish for a workshop on Global Dominicanidades to take place at Harvard University on May 23rd, 2019. The pre-LASA workshop aims to convene advanced PhD students and junior scholars pursuing research on Dominican studies and put them in conversation with mid-career and senior scholars in the field. By participating in this workshop, graduate students and junior scholars will have the opportunity to engage their research with mid-career and senior faculty, fostering, in this way, necessary mentorship and conversation in the burgeoning field of Dominican studies. We strongly encourage applications from advanced PhD students (post-fieldwork/writing stage) and junior scholars focused on critical approaches to global dominicanidades. We aim to create three workshop tracks that encompass first publications, advancing scholarship following the dissertation, and book/grant proposals.

Possible themes include, but are not limited to:

• Dominican identity and global trends

• Newer migratory waves

• Women, gender, and the global market

• Transnational Dominicanidad

• LGBTQIA+ Activism

• Feminism, gender and the state

• Community empowerment

• Global Blackness

• Afro-diasporic cultural production

• Intellectual history

• Dominican Ethnicities or National Minorities

We welcome abstracts for articles, dissertation chapters, book chapters, or book/grant proposals. Please send an abstract of 250 words and a short bio (150 words) to prelasa2019dominicanstudies@gmail.com by February 5th, 2019. If you will not be submitting a paper but would like to participate as a discussant or mentor, please fill out the form located here: https://goo.gl/forms/TOPNVxVPE5mUZG0y1. Candidates will be informed of acceptance by March 1st, 2019, pending submission of a white paper (approximately 15 page, double-spaced essay; more details provided on acceptance) by April 15th, 2019.

Since we plan to engage in detailed discussion sessions and establish mentorships, it is crucial that participants submit their work by the established deadline. Rather than following the traditional conference paper format, participants will give a brief presentation of their essays, and will receive commentary from other participants and designated mentors. We aim to propose a special issue on Global Dominicanidades with a peer-reviewed journal drawing from the workshop proceedings as well as foster submissions to other venues as a result of the workshop efforts.

CFP: Global Dominicanidades: New Approaches to Dominican Studies in the 21st Century by Lorgia García-Peña, Elizabeth Manley, and Sharina Maillo-Pozo

Image: Painting by Dominican artists Rosa Tavárez