PRSA’s Program Committee met at Albany, NY, on March 2–3 to formulate a Preliminary Program for our October 24–28, 2012 Biennial Conference.
Our 10th Biennial Conference will have a truly terrific program. It will be an apt event to mark the 20th Anniversary of PRSA’s foundation.
Here are some still preliminary highlights:
Outstanding Performances Scheduled
This projects as the PRSA conference with more musical performances than any other in recent memory, ranging from a concert on “Boricua Rhythms”; a classical music performance highlighting the work of Puerto Rican composers; and also a live-music Salsa dance with a truly unique and remarkable band, and also a Latin Jazz ensemble, that will end the conference as a celebration of PRSA’s 20th Anniversary.
Another featured event is titled “Performing Voices of the Puerto Rican Diaspora,” with a group of outstanding poets and performance artists led by Urayoán Noel.
Featured Events with Leading Scholars, Writers and Artists
Besides the Keynote Speech, featured conference presentations will include two plenary sessions on “Diasporas and Latinidades,” with prominent scholars in Latino\Latina Studies, not just Puerto Rican Studies; and two special panels of “Conversations with Puerto Rican Writers of the Diaspora.”
Several featured panels include, for instance, “Puerto Rico as Diasporic Space”; “Latino Emergent Communities & Geographic Dispersal”; “Higher Education and the Puerto Rican Future”; “Diaspora and the Re-Writing of History”; and “The Social Sciences: Puerto Ricans as Seen by Its Other.”
The thematic, as well as disciplinary and interdisciplinary focus of the preliminary selection of conference panels and papers will range widely, covering topics such as, for example, media and performance studies, religion, politics, music, literature (fiction and poetry), history, urban studies, demography, ethnography, museum and archival studies, critical race studies, legal history, genders and sexualities, public policy, sports, geography and environmental studies.
As we had intended with our Call-for-Papers, the tentative set of panels, papers and special presentations examine the experiences not only of Puerto Ricans on the US and the island, but also those, here and there, of a variety of ethnic\national\racial groups, among them African Americans, Asians, Cubans, Dominicans, Mexican-Americans, and West Indians, for example.
More Information Forthcoming Soon
A full version of the Preliminary Program will be posted in this website within the next few weeks after additional details are worked out.
We will be posting updates on the planning of the October 2012 conference here on this blog and also our Facebook Page and on Twitter @Boricua_Studies.
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