Black Canadian Studies Association (BCSA)
Conference Date: May 29–31, 2023
Location: York University
Deadline: January 15, 2023
Our Theme: Nah! On The Possibilities of Ongoing Refusals
The annual meeting of the Black Canadian Studies Association (BCSA) will take place in person May 29 – 31, 2023 as part of the annual Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences (May 27 – June 2, 2023) at York’s Keele and Glendon Campuses in Toronto. The theme for Congress 2023 will be Reckonings and Re–Imaginings. Drawing on the lessons of Black Lives Matter, the Federal Anti–racism Secretariat, Idle No More, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, Congress 2023 aims to focus on what is needed to live in non–hierarchical relationships that can truly honour our human differences, while protecting the land, water and air we all need to live together. This theme also reflects the vision of Associate Professor Andrea Davis, Academic Convenor for Congress 2023, and her collaboration with members of the York University community.
Our conference committee has chosen the exclamation ‘Nah’ as an expression, response, and exhortation of Black refusals. As a colloquial use of language, our call aims to push the
boundaries of how we contend with reckonings and re–imaginings in a cultural context where Blackness remains ignored, challenged, and in some cases, diminished by pervasive anti–Blackness, both in formal and informal settings. The experience of Blackness related to (body)language – as a form of expression, political action, and meaning–making – is invoked in our call. Refusal is broadly understood to encapsulate refusals of form (language/artistic expression/media), “in the break” (Moten, 2003) from disciplinary boundaries, and operating outside/within the context of neoliberal diversity and inclusion frameworks. Refusal is taken to be a “generative stance” (Tuck & Yang, 2014) which encourages radical imaginings beyond established boundaries. Through imaginative articulations of ‘Nah’ we aim to delve into and depart from past/ongoing practices that precipitate the need for reckonings and reimaginings.
The possibility of ongoing refusals acknowledged by a nod, an intentional and explicit or subtle rejection, a calling deixa pra lá, or a pleading non mais, all create space for counter–narratives and Black re–existence.
How can we move the conversation on Black lives beyond rhetoric to actionable strategies that aim for structural change? How might ‘Nah’ be a productive response to inadequate policies, practices, and politics? Where are the structures, spaces, sounds of Black lives currently operating that deserve recognition and could serve as templates for intersectional justice? Can we even begin to reckon and imagine when much remains to be named and acknowledged?
