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Conference Announcement "Chotro: Nomadic Communities in the Post-Colonial World: Culture, Expression, Rights" International Conference Baroda and Adivasi Academy, Bhasha Research and Publication Centre Association for Commonwealth Literatures and Language Studies (ACLALS) Tejgadh, Gujarat (India) 4-7 January 2009 __________________________________________________ This conference, as the Bhili tribal term chotro implies, aims to bring together writers, artists and scholars from all over the world interested in the languages and literatures, the cultures and histories of the indigenous peoples of the post-colonial world. It is being hosted by an international group of sponsors and will be held partly at Vadodara, and partly at the tiny tribal village Tejgadh known for its cultural wealth. A number of eminent Indian writers will address the conference. CHOTRO-1 was held at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts, New Delhi, in January 2008. Nearly 180 participants from 22 countries participated in it. CHOTRO-2 is planned as a follow-up conference with an equally extensive international participation. The Bhasha Research and Publication Centre, recognized by the Government of India as a Centre of Excellence, has since its inception worked specifically with and on behalf of the Adivasi or tribal people of India, who have long been neglected in India itself and whose cultural expression remains little known both in India and abroad. Bhasha has undertaken to document the linguistic, literary and artistic heritage of tribal communities in India; it has collaborated with national academies of art and literature and research institutes to encourage research in tribal art and literature; it has pioneered the publication of literary and educational materials in tribal languages; and it has set up the Adivasi Academy at Tejgadh (Gujarat) for the promotion of tribal languages, literature, arts and culture and as an institute of formal education. In the process its work has taken it much beyond the confines of linguistic and literary studies. The thematic focus of CHOTRO-2 will be the historical experience and the artistic expression of the nomadic peoples. The theme of the conference is not diaspora or merely the experience of living in another country, but rather the experience of becoming disinherited and dispossessed due to historical, legal, political, linguistic or cultural processes. The conference will provide an opportunity for an international exchange of ideas between academics, activists, writers and human rights advocates. It is hoped that the conference will for the first time situate the experience of the nomadic peoples in the wider context of the post-colonial world. Contributions are sought on the following topics: - orature - stories of migration / creation myths - cosmology / knowledge systems - life histories - storytelling / folk tales - poetry - drama and performance - aesthetics / interculturality - threatened languages / language death - subaltern history - cultural and human rights - publishing in aboriginal / nomadic languages - translation from aboriginal / nomadic languages - marginalization of aboriginal / nomadic cultural expression Contact: Prof. Ganesh Devy, Director Baroda and Adivasi Academy Bhasha Research and Publication Centre 62 Shrinathdham Society, Near Dinesh Mills Baroda 390 007 Gujarat India Tel. +191-265-2331968 Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.bhasharesearch.org.in/announcements/ConferenceDetails.pdf __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: http://interphil.polylog.org Intercultural Philosophy Calendar: http://cal.polylog.org
