Recent innovative work has shifted the map of French studies in ways that resituate France into Atlanticist frameworks, and that have asserted the importance of the Americas to French cultural and economic history. Christopher L. Miller’s study of the French Atlantic triangle is a timely reminder of the importance of the oceanic circuits of capital and human bodies to hexagonal prosperity and intellectual activity, while Bill Marshall’s French Atlantic projects have prized open a broader area of inquiry that emphasizes Franco–American relations in all their diversity and complexity.

Arguably, the field of Francophone Caribbean studies has remained more exclusively focused on the two-way relations with France, and has been less attentive to the American dimensions of Caribbean experience. The aim of this inter-disciplinary conference is to re-orientate Francophone Caribbean studies and examine in detail the connections between the Francophone Caribbean (Martinique, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Guyane) and North America. We are interested in the historical, recent, and contemporary development of Franco–Caribbean and North American relations, and how these relations have been represented in historiography, literature, music, visual arts, anthropology, and other fields. Suggested topics include:

• Migrations—historical and recent—from the Francophone Caribbean to North America
• The influence of exiled Francophone Caribbean authors in North America
• The Harlem Renaissance and the Francophone Caribbean
• American popular culture and its reception in the Francophone Caribbean
• The reception of Francophone Caribbean literature in North America
• Representations of North America in the Francophone Caribbean
• Images of the Francophone Caribbean in North America
• North American intellectuals and their travels to the Francophone Caribbean
• Francophone Caribbean artists and writers in North America
• The idea of a common plantation culture across the Caribbean and the American South
• New perspectives on the U.S. occupation of Haiti
• Political relations between the two sites
• Musical connections
• Language issues

These are indicative topics, and the list is not restrictive. Proposals—in English or in French—are welcomed for individual papers or for whole panels on any topic relevant to the overall conference theme. Standard panels will normally consist of three papers. Presentations will be selected for inclusion in the conference program on the basis of merit.

To submit a proposal for an individual paper, click here.

To submit a proposal for a panel, click here.

Deadline for proposals: July 1, 2009