Call for Papers

Maroons and Indigenous Peoples: Towards a Sustainable Future

June 20-24, 2018, Asafu Yard, Charles Town, Portland, Jamaica

Celebrating its tenth anniversary, the Charles Town International Maroon Conference welcomes papers and performances from scholars, artists, and activists interested in exploring this year’s theme of sustainability. It will explore the ways Maroons and other Indigenous Peoples have evolved relationships with the environment that can provide resources for today’s ecological challenges. Approaching “sustainability” in broad theoretical and cultural terms, the conference will consider the roles indigenous environments, peoples, histories, and cultures play in securing an ecologically sustainable future.

Papers might consider, among other topics, indigenous environments and climate change; economies of sustainable livelihoods; preservation of cultural and historical traditions; or the aims and outcomes of ecocriticism.

Presentations from all fields and genres are welcome, including environmental and sustainability studies, ecocriticism, history, geography, anthropology, ethnomusicology, education, literature, film, and the arts. Participants will work closely with each other and the Maroons of Charles Town to explore the relevance of indigenous knowledge to contemporary life and the future of the environment.

The Charles Town International Maroon Conference takes place in the town’s Asafu Yard, sacred space of Maroon dancing and drumming, surrounded by Jamaica’s beautiful Blue Mountains.  Offering a unique combination of scholarly panels and cultural events, the conference brings Maroons and Indigenous Peoples together with scholars and locals to examine the ways their legacies have endured, creolized, and resonated in the Caribbean, Africa, Canada, Australia, South America, Europe, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Please send abstracts of 250-300 words by March 1, 2018 or inquiries to fbotkin@towson.edu or maroonconference@gmail.com.