[Reader-list] Call for Papers: The Dalit Experience and the Question of Marginality, 16-18 February 2012, Department of English, University of Delhi

[Aswathy Senan]

http://www.englishdu.ac.in/uploads/DU%20Eng%20Conference%202012.pdf
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*Department of English, University of Delhi*
*Annual Conference 2012*
*The Dalit Experience and the Question of *
*Marginality*
*16-18 February 2012*
*Call for Papers*
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Recent times have seen a rapid growth of interest in marginality in literary
and
cultural studies. Marginal cultures  and identities are by definition the
‘other’ of
hegemonic cultural formations; their place and plight are always determined
by
and peripheral to the dominant culture. Typically, Dalits are framed as
socially
frail, politically powerless and economically backward. However, in India,
while
the nature of traditional caste society does make Dalits a marginalized
people, the
discourse of marginality needs to be taken in conjunction with the fact that
Dalits
(along with Bahujans) constitute a majority work force.  Further, the
decisive
alterations to the public sphere made by an assertion of Dalit political
consciousness must be recognized.
Against this background the Department of English, Delhi University is
organizing a conference on “The Dalit Experience and the Question of
Marginality” from February 16  – 18, 2012. The conference aims to probe the
relation between the public sphere consolidation of Dalit identity and the
continued devaluation of Dalit labour. At what point, can these different
coordinates of the Dalit experiences be mobilized to constitute a
counterhegemonic citizenship? What are the various theorizations of caste
reality as it
pertains to questions of symbolic and not-so-symbolic acts of violence? What
are
the limits and possibilities of framing the Dalit question as an identity
question?
How do we critically examine the institutional practice of Dalit studies
especially
within the cultural rubric of experience and affect?
A core part of our conference intends to open up the question of modernity
as
imagined by Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar, given that 2012 will see the
celebration
of his 120th
 birth anniversary. In so far as the idea of the annihilation of caste
remains central to Ambedkar, the embrace of modernity cannot simply be seen
in
terms of reconciliation. It was envisioned very much as a transformative
project.
Papers can be from any discipline. They should address but not be limited to
the
following topics:• Theorizing Dalitness: rigorous location in caste versus
more open-ended
category of the downtrodden.
• Myths of origin: invented or historical proofs of indigeneity which trace
Dalit ancestry to the broken men, nagas, rakshashas, adi-dravida,
namashudras, Buddhists etc. and the expression of this genealogy in
contemporary politics.
• Questions of faith: differentiations within a broad Hindu  habitus,
relationship with Hindutva and conversion to Buddhism or other faiths.
• Dalit Citizenship: the articulation of Dalit citizenship in relation to
the
issue of affirmative action as well as human rights.
• Using the Media: representation of Dalits in the upper caste media and
Dalit intervention in the different branches of mass media—print,
electronic, publishing, theatre and films.
• Globalisation and Dalit entrepreneurship: the role of the emergent Dalit
diaspora; the indigenous Dalit bourgeoisie and the political class’s
complicity with neoliberal policies on the one hand and Dalit (and tribal)
displacement and resistance on the other.
• Dalit and gender question: specificities of Dalit patriarchy.
• Dalit aesthetics and the Dalit intellectual: the question of Dalit
aesthetics
and the forms of Dalit expression.
Please send your abstract (300 words) and a brief bionote (150
words) to the following email or postal address by 9 December 2011:
Dr. Raj Kumar
Department of English
Delhi University, Delhi – 110007
Email: bedamatiraj at yahoo.co.in
Conference Committee:
Dr. Raj Kumar (Director), Dr. Hany Babu,
Dr. Tapan Basu, Dr. Nandini Chandra