Extended Deadline: March 22
In 2019, Nigerian-American science fiction and fantasy author Nnedi Okorafor coined the term, “Africanfuturism,” as a way to critique discussions on Afrofuturism that privileged the concerns and experiences of the African Diaspora over those living in Africa. The term, “Afrofuturism,” was coined in 1993 and has grown to have a global reach, yet its focus has largely been on practitioners in the United States. Recent publications, like Afrocentricity in Afrofuturism: Toward Afrocentric Futurism (2023), edited by Aaron X. Smith, and Kimberly Cleveland’s Africanfuturism: African Imaginings of Other Times, Spaces, and Worlds (2024), suggest that scholarship is moving in the direction of analyzing works of art, visual culture, literature and other media from an Africa-focused lens. Does Africanfuturism (or Afrocentric Futurism, as Smith terms it) serve to adequately expand Afrofuturism’s reach by centering Africa in discussions of the future? This panel welcomes papers and creative works from all disciplines that contribute to ongoing discussions that clarify, distinguish, or bridge the divide between Africanfuturism and Afrofuturism.
Please email kristen_laciste@fitnyc.edu with a title and short abstract (no more than 200 words) by March 22, 2024. Kindly include full contact details, institution, and title.
Co-Chairs Information:
Kristen Laciste
kristen_laciste@fitnyc.edu
Assistant Professor
SUNY Fashion Institute of Technology
Aaron Samuel Mulenga
amulenga@ucsc.edu
Ph.D. Candidate
University of California, Santa Cruz
