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Barnard
Professors Caryl Phillips and Serge Gavronsky Organize Conference
on the Caribbean Sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation,
Aug. 27- Sept. 1, in Bellagio, Italy
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Caryl
Phillips
Serge Gavronsky
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New York,
NY— Barnard faculty members Caryl Phillips and Serge
Gavronsky are co-directing a major conference on the Caribbean
writing and culture, titled The Caribbean in New York and
Paris, in Bellagio, Italy, sponsored by the Rockefeller
Foundation, August 25- September 1.
The conference, initiated by Phillips who was asked to develop
it by the Rockefeller Foundation, will bring together over
20 academics, writers, and cultural experts from the Caribbean,
Europe and Asia to examine the rich cultural heritage, writing,
and historic background of the French and English Caribbean.
In addition to Phillips and Gavronsky, Elizabeth Schmidt,
associate in the Barnard English Department, will attend.
"It is a bit like living in Brooklyn and wanting to know
what is happening in Queens. They are a bit different it seems,
but the truth is, they are the same," said Phillips,
renowned author and Henry R. Luce Professor of Migration and
Social Order. "The conference will examine writing and
culture on both the French and English sides of the Caribbean,
as well as shed light on the new wave of writers. People in
one island look across another and are aware that similar
things are happening, but just in a different language. The
long-term goal of the conference is to develop academic programs
that will teach Caribbean cultures and writing by way of including
all sides and backgrounds - French, English and Spanish. This
also fits into the goals of the Rockefeller Foundation’s
program for the Caribbean," Phillips concluded.
The conference in Bellagio will consist of academics and writers,
who will work on bridging the cultural and language gaps and
develop curricula through an intensive five-day program, including
morning, afternoon, and evening lectures and readings. Among
the topics to be discussed are the African literary heritage,
the impact of colonialism, and European ideological and literary
movements and how they have influenced the Negritude movement
and Harlem Renaissance.
Gavronsky, Professor of French, an accomplished poet and translator
of French poetry, who will chair sessions on historic background
in the Caribbean and the new developments in writing and culture,
said " We believe that the Bellagio conference will set
the stage for greater coordination of Caribbean literature,
arts, and music, and will at the same time ensure the respect
for individual production and the finding of commonalities."
The conference will be attended by prominent writers, academics,
and cultural experts from the West Indies, England, the U.S.,
France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Belgium, and Spain. Among the
conference speakers are: Ernest Pepin, Conseil General de
la Guadeloupe (New Development in the Writing of the French
Antilles); James Walvin, Uinversity of York, UK (Blowing Hot
and Cold: Europe and the Caribbean Context); Evelyn O’Callaghan,
University of the West Indies (Encountering the Caribbean
in the Nineteenth Century); Alessandra DiMaio, University
of Palermo, Italy (Cristina Garcia’s Cuban Dream in New
York); Elizabeth Schmidt, Barnard College (Disguise and Disclosure
in Claude McKay’s Harlem Poems); Robert Stewart, Trinity
School, New York (Voices of Caribbean Identity in the Metropole:
London and New York City Compared), and Louis-Philippe Dalembert,
L’Institut Italo-Latino American, Paris (A Many-Tongued
Literature: Caribbean Writing in Dutch, French, Spanish, and
English), among others.
Contact:
Petra Tuomi, Barnard Office of Public Affairs, 212-854-7907,
Ptuomi@barnard.edu
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