The Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowships in the Humanities at UCLA, the Dean, College of Letters and Sciences, and the Department of French and Francophone Studies present the TransNations Conference, May 29-31, 2008. Prolific Somali writer Nuruddin Farah is the keynote speaker on Friday, May 30, and he will read on Thursday, May 29. The conference features several presentations focusing on Africa and the diaspora.

Friday, May 30, 2008
9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
306 Royce Hall
UCLA campus
Los Angeles, CA 90095

May 29-31, 2008,UCLA campus

Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowships in the Humanities “Cultures in Transnational Perspective” - Second Annual Conference

Thursday, May 29, 2008, Royce Hall 314

6:30 pm Opening Reception

7:00 pm Introduction, Alessandra Di Maio, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow

7:05 pm Reading by Nuruddin Farah

8:00 pm Audience Q&A

Nuruddin Farah, one of the world’s most eminent writers, has been exiled from his native Somalia since 1976.  His works have investigated questions of social justice, subalternity, racism, neo-imperialistic power, gender relations and the subjugation of women in patriarchal society.  A prolific author, he has lived in various nations across many continents, remaining faithful to his lifelong literary project: keeping his country alive by writing about it.  The recipient of the 1998 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, his latest novel, Knots, was published in 2007.

Friday, May 30, 2008, Royce Hall 306

9:00 am Welcome, Francoise Lionnet and Shu-mei Shih, Co-directors, UCLA Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowships in the Humanities

9:15 am Introduction, Babli Sinha, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow

9:30 am to 12:00 pm — PANEL I: Translating Blackness

Robin Kelley, (USC)
“The African Invasion: Musical Encounters in the Age of Decolonization”

Fatima El-Tayeb, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow (UCLA)
“Black Europe: Queering the Diaspora from the Margins?”

Alessandra Di Maio, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow (UCLA)
“Global Somali Literature”

Discussant:  Dominic Thomas (UCLA, Departments of French and Italian)

12:00 pm to 1:30 pm Lunch break

1:30 pm to 4:00 pm — PANEL II: Vernacularism and Colonial Modernity

Dilip Gaonkar, (Northwestern University)
"The Rushdie Apology: Six Texts in Search of a Character"

Kris Manjapra, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow (UCLA)
“Crossroads of Crisis: Bengali and German discourses of secular redemption in the 1920s”

Babli Sinha, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow (UCLA)
“‘Who was that masked woman?’”: Modernist tropes of female agency in G.P. Pawar’s Gallant Hearts and Shyam Agarwal’s Fall of Slavery”

Discussant: Aamir Mufti (UCLA, Department of Comparative Literature)

4:00 pm to 4:30 pm Coffee Break

4:30 pm to 6:00 pm: Keynote Speech, Royce Hall 306
Nuruddin Farah, “Catching up with Tomorrow”

Introduction: Alessandra Di Maio

Saturday, May 31, 2008, Royce Hall 306

9:30 am to 12:00 pm — PANEL III: Transnational Feminisms

Inderpal Grewal, (UC Irvine)
“Culture, Nations, Transnations”

Elsa Chen, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow (UCLA)

“Transnational Feminist Relations in Contemporary Art: Global Feminisms Considered”

Eulalia Moles, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow (UCLA)
"Histories of Gendered Colonized Women Subjectivities in a Transnational Perspective"

Discussant: Grace Hong (UCLA, Departments of Asian American Studies and Women’s Studies)

12:00 pm -1:30 pm Lunch break

1:30 pm to 4:00 pm — PANEL IV: Translation, Migration, and the Avant-Garde

Jeffrey Sacks, (UC Riverside)
"Idioms in Translation: Literature, Language, and the Colonial Situation"

Sarah Valentine, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow (UCLA)
“Unlikely Lineage: Translation and Recognition in Contemporary Avant-Garde Poetry”

Sonali Pahwa, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow (UCLA)
“Claiming Recognition: Translation and Feminist Narrative in Egypt’s Avant-Garde Theatre”

Discussant: Ali Behdad (UCLA, Departments of English and Comparative Literature)

4:00 pm Closing Reception

All-day parking ($8) available (check at parking kiosk #4 enter Sunset Blvd. and Westwood Plaza re: parking options).

Cost : Free and open to the public. Seating may be limited; first come, first served.

www.humnet.ucla.edu/mellon/annual_mellon_conference.html

Sponsor(s): The Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowships in the Humanities at UCLA, the Dean, College of Letters and Sciences.