MLA Commons | LLC African since 1990 | Activity https://mla.hcommons.org/groups/african-since-1990/ Activity feed for the group, LLC African since 1990. Sat, 04 Apr 2026 03:00:28 -0400 https://buddypress.org/?v=10.6.0 en-US 30 hourly 2 43d10e2c2dda9fb669d591c1c11c1fa5 Matthew Omelsky started the topic Seeking graduate student self-nominations to be MLA Assembly Delegate in the forum LLC African since 1990 https://mla.hcommons.org/groups/african-since-1990/forum/topic/seeking-graduate-student-self-nominations-to-be-mla-assembly-delegate/ Sun, 15 Feb 2026 13:36:48 -0500 Greetings African Since 1990 Forum Members,

This year, our Forum’s executive council is tasked with submitting two nominees to stand for election to join the MLA Assembly for a 3 year term. We already have one graduate student nomination, and we would prefer to nominate a second graduate student, to avoid any imbalance in rank between…[Read more]

]]> 0 f33058fd0383b52730121af118e3445c William J. Spurlin started the topic Call for Papers for the African Literature Association 2026 Conference in the forum LLC African since 1990 https://mla.hcommons.org/groups/african-since-1990/forum/topic/call-for-papers-for-the-african-literature-association-2026-conference/ Thu, 11 Dec 2025 21:18:10 -0500 Please circulate widely.

]]> 0 adc14d279f62a4285f6f5408b7bf76d5 Louise Bethlehem deposited The Anthropocene and the Environmental Humanities in the group LLC African since 1990 https://mla.hcommons.org/activity/p/1887206/ Sun, 26 May 2024 04:12:18 -0400 Interim bibliography on the Anthropocene and the Environmental Humanities generated in conjunction with the Rift Futurism Project supported by a grant from the ISRAEL SCIENCE FOUNDATION (grant No. 3011006089), May 2024

]]> 0 6788497befc360f3daf0710f6486fccb Louise Bethlehem deposited Speculative Fiction from the Global South--Anthropocene Intersections, Interim Bibliography in the group LLC African since 1990 https://mla.hcommons.org/activity/p/1887201/ Sun, 26 May 2024 04:04:03 -0400 Interim bibliography on science fiction and speculative fiction with an emphasis on the global South and on Anthropocene-related perspectives generated in conjunction with the Rift Futurism Project supported by a grant from the ISRAEL SCIENCE FOUNDATION (grant No. 3011006089)
Louise Bethlehem, PI, English and Cultural Studies, The Hebrew…[Read more]

]]> 0 7b61604c215ffa64007d8ece092b9a20 Louise Bethlehem deposited Lauren Beukes and African Futurism Interim Bibliography in the group LLC African since 1990 https://mla.hcommons.org/activity/p/1887045/ Fri, 24 May 2024 04:06:50 -0400 Research at the intersection between the African Futurism and the work of post-apartheid writer, Lauren Beukes.

]]> 0 449a20c845f2edda40d250e8096ad0b1 Lidiana de Moraes started the topic CFP - Symposium Documenting Diversity & Democracy in Brazil in the discussion LLC African since 1990 https://mla.hcommons.org/groups/african-since-1990/forum/topic/cfp-symposium-documenting-diversity-democracy-in-brazil-2/ Thu, 21 Nov 2019 18:27:48 -0500 Hello everyone,

I am happy to share the Call for Papers for this symposium that will take place at the University of Miami, in March 2020.

https://mailchi.mp/miami.edu/documenting-diversity-and-democracy-in-brazil-call-for-papers-2019

Please share with those who may be interested.

Thank you so much!

]]> 0 625140e75687a1142cea6d58da6282ea Leigh A. Neithardt started the topic Membership Suggestions for 2020 Forum Delegate Election in the discussion LLC African since 1990 https://mla.hcommons.org/groups/african-since-1990/forum/topic/membership-suggestions-for-2020-forum-delegate-election-11/ Thu, 19 Sep 2019 15:18:48 -0400 The next election for this forum’s Delegate Assembly representative will be held in the fall of 2020, and the forum’s executive committee will take up the matter of nominations for this election when it meets during the January 2020 convention in Seattle. Though the executive committee is responsible for making nominations, it is required to nom…[Read more]

]]> 0 a375a40e213e5a52b76acd6538bdb499 Kathryn Chew uploaded the file: Health Humanities Tenure-track position, specialization in Disability Studies to LLC African since 1990 https://mla.hcommons.org/activity/p/1663745/ Tue, 17 Sep 2019 19:35:36 -0400 The Comparative World Literature program at CSULB is excited to announce a new tenure-track position. We are looking for a colleague whose research is in the medical or health humanities and who could teach courses in our health humanities minor (that we are constructing at this very moment), such as Literature and Medicine. We are particularly…[Read more]

]]> 0 2b60757bea085340f9a861ad6dd35552 Katherine Hallemeier deposited Literary Cosmopolitanisms in Teju Cole's Every Day is for the Thief and Open City in the group LLC African since 1990 https://mla.hcommons.org/activity/p/1658731/ Fri, 26 Jul 2019 03:58:14 -0400 This paper examines cosmopolitanism in Teju Cole’s Every Day is for the Thief (2007) and Open City (2011). The protagonists of both novels maintain cosmopolitan identities largely by embracing an international literary culture in which elite cosmopolitan fiction relays the experiences of marginalized cosmopolitan subjects, such as the migrant w…[Read more]

]]> 0 b5e0606b9ae65595ab8a4140e1d63f2d Matthew Omelsky deposited Jean-Pierre Bekolo's African Cyborgian Thought in the group LLC African since 1990 https://mla.hcommons.org/activity/p/1627186/ Sun, 23 Dec 2018 16:31:43 -0500 This article elucidates how Jean-Pierre Bekolo’s 2006 film Les saignantes rearticulates cyborgian thought in an effort to remap dominant modes of social consciousness among African youth. Bekolo uproots hegemonic tropes of African pathology; recasts narratives of African tradition in a way that forecloses singular, fixed interpretations; and d…[Read more]

]]> 0 23728d010056438465634f02a915f392 Matthew Omelsky deposited Chris Abani and the Politics of Ambivalence in the group LLC African since 1990 https://mla.hcommons.org/activity/p/1627183/ Sun, 23 Dec 2018 16:25:23 -0500 In his 2004 novel GraceLand, Chris Abani unsettles notions of youth “empowerment,” or “resistance,” creating a restless oscillation between cynicism and idealism. On the one hand, pervasive violence and restricting
norms seem to debilitate the novel’s characters, leaving little room to negoti- ate the constraints of their bleak lives in the slums…[Read more]

]]> 0 5b89199bfba83a6a13dfff4b4a9e4dce Matthew Omelsky deposited After the End Times: Postcrisis African Science Fiction in the group LLC African since 1990 https://mla.hcommons.org/activity/p/1627125/ Sat, 22 Dec 2018 03:48:43 -0500 We live in a moment of “apocalyptic time,” the “time of the end of time.” Ours is a moment of global ecological crisis, of the ever-impending collapse of capital. That we live on the brink is too clear. What is not, however, is our ability to imagine the moment after this dual crisis. In recent years, African artists have begun to articul…[Read more]

]]> 0 382ad13081d8312eed4ceb8df8cf3a64 Marzia Milazzo deposited Reconciling Racial Revelations in Post-Apartheid South African Literature in the group LLC African since 1990 https://mla.hcommons.org/activity/p/1621644/ Sat, 20 Oct 2018 04:14:32 -0400 Offering a reading of Mongane Wally Serote’s Revelations (2010) alongside other recent novels by black South African writers, this essay answers calls for more careful analyses of the roles that race plays within post-apartheid literature and culture. As it questions the shift away from a concern with institutional racism and white supremacy t…[Read more]

]]> 0 700866c30793248849cb1b3508645ea0 Katherine Hallemeier deposited Humanitarianism and the Humanity of Readers in FEMRITE's True Life Stories in the group LLC African since 1990 https://mla.hcommons.org/activity/p/1621527/ Fri, 19 Oct 2018 04:08:37 -0400 This paper examines three FEMRITE collections of ‘true life stories’, Today You Will Understand (2008), Farming Ashes (2009), and I Dare to Say (2012), all of which include testimony of women’s experiences of war in northern Uganda. While these volumes explicitly aim to abet a project of national awareness and reconciliation, they also sel…[Read more]

]]> 0 432d0231d944a6245ba30f18951204ae Katherine Hallemeier deposited “To Be from the Country of People Who Gave”: National Allegory and the United States of Adichie’s Americanah in the group LLC African since 1990 https://mla.hcommons.org/activity/p/1621393/ Thu, 18 Oct 2018 04:05:48 -0400 Current debates about Afropolitan literature alternately value it for challenging western stereotypes about Africa and critique it for embracing western capitalism. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah (2013) complicates these debates by articulating a Nigerian dream that, while imbued with the class mobility of its American counterpart, d…[Read more]

]]> 0 066060ac7c6faa95f40c12cd82502588 Neelofer Qadir deposited Migritude’s Decolonial Lessons in the group LLC African since 1990 https://mla.hcommons.org/activity/p/1620997/ Sun, 14 Oct 2018 03:49:23 -0400 In this essay, I trace the deep time of the Indian Ocean through and against which Shailja Patel fabulates the notion of migritude and, in particular, what its valences are for solidarities between black and brown Kenyans and other south-south relationships. Attentive to the multiple voices she invites into the text and the material objects that…[Read more]

]]> 0 c285480ab1983ce6b5bd67d9e626b50e Lidiana de Moraes started the topic CFP - Modern Languages and Literatures Graduate Student Conference in the discussion LLC African since 1990 https://mla.hcommons.org/groups/african-since-1990/forum/topic/cfp-modern-languages-and-literatures-graduate-student-conference/ Tue, 14 Nov 2017 19:52:42 -0500 Good afternoon,

I would like to invite graduate students to submit papers for the upcoming Modern Languages and Literatures Graduate Student Conference, at the University of Miami. The theme of our conference is: Lands of Freedom? Oppressions, Subversions, and Pursuits of Justice in a Changing World. The presentations will be held on February…[Read more]

]]> 0 30faf16d7da24606227bc5fd463eef23 John Charles Hawley uploaded the file: CFP: Queer Theory in African Film and Fiction to LLC African since 1990 https://mla.hcommons.org/activity/p/1563692/ Thu, 02 Mar 2017 17:47:28 -0500 How are African literatures and cultures mediating globalizing frameworks for gender and sexuality and shifting understandings of “queer”? From Woubi Cheri and Dakan, to Stories of Our Lives, African film has begun this conversation. From K. Sello Duiker, to Chinelo Okparanta and Diriye Osman, new voices have invited national debates on these top…[Read more]

]]> 0 f76e65991346eefa65e067888e7670c3 Moradewun Adejunmobi started the topic CFP MLA 2018 Questioning Precarity in the discussion LLC African since 1990 https://mla.hcommons.org/groups/african-since-1990/forum/topic/cfp-mla-2018-questioning-precarity/ Mon, 20 Feb 2017 17:08:06 -0500 The Africa since 1990 forum of the MLA invites submission of abstracts for a non-guaranteed panel titled “Questioning Precarity” at the 2018 Annual Convention. As a concept, precarity has been associated with a retrenchment of the state, erosion of Fordist production and casualization of labor, among others, especially in the Global North. Pre…[Read more]

]]> 0 69e95d9f32b261bbb726d8b34a34977e John Charles Hawley started the topic Queer Theory in African Film and Fiction, for Yale ALA, proposed panel in the discussion LLC African since 1990 https://mla.hcommons.org/groups/african-since-1990/forum/topic/queer-theory-in-african-film-and-fiction-for-yale-ala-proposed-panel/ Fri, 18 Nov 2016 16:23:34 -0500 CFP for proposed panel on Queer Theory in African Film and Fiction, for Yale African Literature Association conference (June 14-17, 2017).  How are African literatures and cultures mediating globalizing frameworks for gender and sexuality and shifting understandings of “queer”?  From Woubi Cheri and Dakan to Stories of Our Lives, African film…[Read more]

]]> 0 d4611e14adf89edfda54fd5038e7bf16 Carol Zuses started the topic 2017 Forum Delegate Election: Suggestions Needed in the discussion LLC African since 1990 https://mla.hcommons.org/groups/african-since-1990/forum/topic/2017-forum-delegate-election-suggestions-needed/ Thu, 03 Nov 2016 13:47:50 -0400 In the fall of 2017, an election for this forum’s Delegate Assembly representative will be held; the forum’s executive committee will take up the matter of nominations for this election when it meets during the January 2017 convention in Philadelphia. Though the executive committee is responsible for making nominations, it is required to nom…[Read more]

]]> 0 dcbf99cc46ee94e9531fc822c40e1425 Patrick Herald deposited Eng 260/AAS 264 - Introduction to Black Writers: Global Black Fiction in the group LLC African since 1990 https://mla.hcommons.org/activity/p/548870/ Fri, 24 Jun 2016 03:29:58 -0400 This course focuses on developing skills of close reading and literary analysis, both in class discussion and in assignments, through the study of major black writers. This section will be a study of global black literature—novels, drama, and poetry—written in English from the twentieth century to the present. We will consider how major aut…[Read more]

]]> 0 98a232845597da9e5348778549e540ef Moradewun Adejunmobi started the topic CPF for MLA 2017 Illegal Diasporas in African Literature and Cinema in the discussion LLC African since 1990 https://mla.hcommons.org/groups/african-since-1990/forum/topic/cpf-for-mla-2017-illegal-diasporas-in-african-literature-and-cinema/ Tue, 01 Mar 2016 16:44:55 -0500 Illegal Diasporas in African Literature and Cinema

The Afropolitan is an increasingly salient but contested figure in African literary studies. This panel focuses on alternative figures of diaspora for whom an Afropolitan identity appears beyond reach or ill-advised. The panel provides an opportunity to build on the work of Khalid Koser in the…[Read more]

]]> 0 1a8981be3af29df5de2fa589729b58e6 Louise Bethlehem deposited Lauren Beukes’s post-apartheid dystopia: inhabiting Moxyland in the group LLC African since 1990 https://mla.hcommons.org/activity/p/532176/ Thu, 22 Oct 2015 08:37:48 -0400 This article reads South African science-fiction writer Lauren Beukes’s first novel, Moxyland (2008) set in a futuristic Cape Town, from the perspective of Lindsay Bremner’s notion of “citiness”– or how cities produce the modernity of the subjects who inhabit them. The novel is remarkable for its dependence on the social geography of the South A…[Read more]

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