GRFDT

Concept Note

National Seminar

Migration and Diaspora: Theory, Cultures and Literatures

Organised by Bharati College (University of Delhi) and Global Research Forum on Diaspora and Transnationalism (GRFDT)

24-25 March 2017

Acting Principal:                           Dr. Mukti Sanyal

Convener:                                      Dr. Nandini C. Sen

[email protected]

Organizers:     Ms. Naila Anjum and  Dr. Shivani Jha

[email protected]  [email protected]

Last Date of receiving Abstracts: Jan 15, 2017

Intimation of acceptance of Papers: Jan 25, 2017

Concept Note

The study of Diaspora has become singularly important in contemporary times as the world today is in a flux. Migrancy is more a norm than an exception. From the time of the Girmits we have come a long way where the “migrant” can now be a citizen of the host country and can even take part in the electoral process. Diasporic experiences in the current scenario need not be merely about nostalgia and created homelands but can also be a treatise of trying to understand the nuances of both the host and the home land.

Whether the migrations have been through choice or compulsion, the notion of Diaspora in particular has been productive in its attention to the real-life movement of people throughout the world. The greatest significance to the Postcolonial theory is the consideration of the epistemological implications of Diaspora as theory. These studies look upon Migrancy in terms of adaptation and construction – adaptation to changes, dislocations and transformations and finally the construction of new forms of knowledge and ways of seeing the world.

These “mutual transformations”, as Leela Gandhi has called them, affected the colonizer and the colonized, the migrants as well as the indigenous populations, victims and the victimizers. The literature produced out of the Diasporic experiences has always been about constructing fictions that fit realities and those that don't. The quality and quantity of literary writing by Diasporic people merit sustained, historically located critical attention. Such readings could transform our reception of contemporary fiction and our understanding of literature.

This Seminar wishes to address though not be limited to the following concerns:

• Theory of Diaspora and Postcolonialism
• Literature and Diaspora
• Diaspora and Gender
• Diasporas of  Violence and Terror
• Homeland and Hostland
• Disapora as Agency
• Love, Marriage and Culture Formations Diaspora in Film & Visual Arts
• Policy Decisions in the Local and Global Scenario.