[Sugarman] CFP Wits - Michigan Workshop 1

[Keith Breckenridge]

*WISER and the University of Michigan Mellon Collaboration Workshops*

“*The Global South as a Source of Theory”*

*5-19 May 2014*

The Mellon Foundation has provided funding for collaboration between the
African Studies Center, University of Michigan, and the Wits Institute for
Social and Economic Research (WISER), Johannesburg. The title of this
collaboration is “Joining Theory and Empiricism in the Remaking of the
African Humanities: A transcontinental Collaboration.” Our main goal is to
strengthen research relationships between scholars at the two institutions.

The core of this collaboration will be a series of ten Workshops that will
alternate between Johannesburg and Ann Arbor. The first of these will be
held in Johannesburg from May 5 to May 19 under the theme “The Global South
as a Source of Theory.” A significant part of the first workshop will focus
on in-depth discussions of this theme. The Workshop will be held at WISER
in Johannesburg and at the Wits Rural facility in the Lowveld. It will
consist of combined reading sessions, break-out thematic discussions, ample
time for writing and the discussion of writing, and presentations of work
in progress. We intend to use the Workshop to sponsor a series of
publications that follow from the discussions. We will also take some time
to plan future workshops.

May 5: introductions

May 6-9: combined and break-out reading sessions at WISER

May 10-11: weekend off

May 12-15: writing and discussion at Wits Rural

May 16-17: presentations at WISER

*Those who wish to participate in this Workshop should:*

1. Submit a 500 word statement about how you would like to engage with the
workshop’s theme. This statement should be biographical as well as
interpretative. It should explain how your research is linked to the theme,
but also what you understand the theme to mean. For example, how does, or
might, your work contribute to an understanding or imagining of the Global
South as a concept or approach? What is distinctive about the Global South?
Are there theoretical lines of inquiry that are opened up as well as
foreclosed by identifying with “the Global South”?

Note: It is vital to keep this submission short. We will have plenty of
time to expand during the workshop; for now, the idea is to produce short
texts that we can all read in advance, and that can serve to initiate
conversation.

2. Submit suggestions for common readings. It would be most helpful if you
could add a brief annotation explaining the relevance of the reading for
our workshop.

To apply, please fill out this simple online form:

http://wiser.wits.ac.za/page/sugarman-workshop-1-registration

*The application deadline is February 21.*

Proposals will be read by a team of scholars at the University of Michigan
and at Wiser to make the final determination of participants. Our
expectation is that any faculty member whose statement addresses the
workshop’s theme and who can commit to participating in at least one of the
subsequent workshops will be able to attend this initial, planning
workshop.

*Future Workshops*

Each year for the next five years, two 2-week workshops alternating between
Johannesburg and Ann Arbor (for a total of 10 including the initial
workshop in May 2014). These Workshops will be interdisciplinary in nature,
focusing on significant questions that inform scholarship in the Humanities
broadly conceived. Their focus will be determined through a competitive
call for proposals at the University of Michigan and WISER each year. Each
workshop will be run by a different committee consisting of faculty from
both WISER and University of Michigan. Participants will include faculty
and graduate students from both institutions. Graduate students and junior
faculty from other African and American institutions may also be invited to
participate. The workshops will combine research presentations, critical
readings in the literature, and field trips (to heritage sites, museums,
performances, art exhibitions, etc – as appropriate to the theme).

The next workshop -- to be held Ann Arbor -- will address the theme of
“Digital Humanities.” Derek Peterson and Danny Herwitz have agreed to
coordinate this workshop at University of Michigan. This will take place in
early November.

The ten workshop themes funded by Mellon are listed below. While there is a
binding expectation on the part of the Mellon Foundation that we work with
these topics, there is room for each workshop’s planning committee to shape
the event, and we might envision combining these themes in a variety of
ways.

   1.

   The Global South as an idea and a source of theory
   2.

   Legacies of the imperial archive in post-colonial history, museums, and
   performance
   3.

   Textual analysis, visual culture and the state in the making of African
   publics
   4.

   Interrogating Neoliberalism as idea and explanation
   5.

   The politics of literacy, legibility and expert knowledges in Africa
   6.

   Narrative, visual forms and biopolitics in the medical humanities
   7.

   Cultural studies of science and technology in Africa
   8.

   Intellectual property and curatorship in the digital humanities
   9.

   Public spaces, informality and infrastructures in the desegregating city
   10.

   Vernacular literatures in the making of transnational movements and
   subjects


-- 
Keith Breckenridge  *W I S E R* - The Wits Institute for Social and
Economic Research, University of the Witwatersrand | Pbag 3, PO Wits,
 Johannesburg, South Africa, 2050 | Tel: +27117174272  | Fax: 0867654213 |
Web: wiser.wits.ac.za
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