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The Sudan Institute for Research and Policy is please to announce its first symposium
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The Sudan Today: Challenges and Possibilities
Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, PennsylvaniaNovember 10, 2007 Keynote speaker: Dr. Al Wathig Kameir, PhD. Independent scholar and UN consultant
Call for papers It has been a little over 50 years since Sudan has gained political independence from Britain. Among many other things this period has been marked by instability, war, repression, and economic inequality. Today, the Sudan is witnessing one of the worst political and humanitarian crises of its modern history in Darfur; and other similar regional conflicts are brewing up on the horizon. In less than two years - by provisions of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement - the Sudan is scheduled to hold national elections and a referendum that will determine the future of the country. At the same time the Sudan is experiencing a remarkable economic boom, with oil generating rapid economic growth, inviting unprecedented external influence, and altering the country's demographics and cultural makeup. This symposium will explore these three critical dimensions of the current and future landscape of the contemporary Sudan.
Papers are expected to address any of the themes outlined below but other papers on related topics not mentioned here will be considered.
Panel I. Nationhood and the State (Darfur, governance and human rights, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, preparing for national elections, the decline of national politics, ethnicity and regionalism, the place of religion)
Panel II. Economic Priorities (the role of oil; post-conflict rehabilitation of Darfur; economic development in the South; the economic role of the Sudanese Diaspora; education and the Sudanese 'brain drain;' Sudan in the 'information age')
Panel III. Culture and Society (national identity, managing cultural hybridity, retrieving marginalized histories, the gendered dimensions of war)
The symposium is organized by the Sudan Institute for Research and Policy (www.sudaninstitute.org/) and sponsored by Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Deadline for proposals is August 31, 2007. For more information contact Eiman Zein-Elabdin at [email protected] or 717 682-5970.
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