We Have Never Been Human: A Caribbean Studies Series

Event time: 
Tuesday, February 18, 2014 - 4:00pm
Location: 
African American Studies Gordon Parks Room See map
81 Wall Street
New Haven, CT
Event description: 

Critical Lime, the graduate reading group in Caribbean Studies, with the support of the Edward J. and Dorothy Clarke Kempf Memorial Fund, has developed a speaker and workshop series to consider the following questions: To what extent have the categories ‘modern’ and ‘human’ not only excluded the Caribbean, but also failed to encompass the particular encounters, labor, and migration upon which the Caribbean was founded? How does a long view of cultivation and indigeneity or belonging present alternatives to or new modes of thinking about what it means to be human? How and where is Caribbean knowledge production sited? What might be gained or lost in appealing to frameworks such as post-humanism and eco-criticism for answers? 

The first visitor of the series is Oonya Kempadoo on February 18, 2014.

Public Talk, 4 pm: “Stories and Survivability,” a presentation on her current project Naniki, and a reading from her newest novel, All Decent Animals

Naniki is a creative story approach to regional collaboration for eco-championing (survivability/sustainability). Based on a fantastical tale set in the Caribbean Sea, and the protagonists journey into the future and the past of various islands, it includes:

  • Interdisciplinary and cross-sector exchange, data collection and interactive mapping.
  • Education (interdisciplinary teaching module and online platform)
  • Eco-social entertainment (enhanced e-book, anime, graphic novel, digital game etc.)

Workshop, 6 pm: An interdisciplinary group of students and faculty will gather to discuss “sustainability” and “survivability” as they relate to the Caribbean region, and workshop in-progress critical writing for the Naniki project. Space is limited. Register at http://bit.ly/1ipzmII

Admission: 
Free but register in advance