Keynote: J. Michael Dash (Professor of French, Social and Cultural Analysis, New York University) 

Isles and exiles: both of these terms evoke very concrete realities, and yet both terms also open themselves to numerous less literal interpretations that allow us to reconsider these two interlinked but distinct concepts.

We are looking for contributions that focus on either of the two terms, or on the relationship between the two, regardless of whether the approach taken favors a literal or a conceptual perspective. In light of the multidisciplinary scope of this theme, we encourage proposals from a variety of fields including – but not limited to – history, post-colonial studies, comparative literature, digital humanities, art history, and media and cultural studies.

(Ex)isles will address notions and subjects such as: the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized, or between the former colonizer and the formerly colonized; the relationship between centers and peripheries; population displacements; diasporas; communities; margins; isolation; rupture; journeys; temporal displacements; the question of the native and of the ethnographic encounter; the myth of the noble savage; the place of the island in fairy tales and the marvelous; explorations; discoveries; tourism; cartography; penal colonies; pirates and piracy.

Graduate students who wish to participate in the conference should submit an abstract of roughly 250 words. Abstracts must be sent, as attachments, to brown.equinoxes@gmail.com before January 15, 2013. Emails should include the author’s name, institutional affiliation, and contact information. Presentations, whether in English or in French, should not exceed 20 minutes.