With only ten days to go before the over 600 participants from 68 countries across the world congregate at the University of the West Indies, Mona for the 2008 ACS Crossroads Conference the planning and organizing of the event is underway. The seventh staging of the Association of Cultural Studies (ACS) Conference represents the first time that such a cultural and academic encounter of its kind has been hosted in the Caribbean.

The conference will explore a wide range of topics including Race and Identity, Spirituality, Mass Media, Arts, Politics and Power, Education, Gender and Sexuality and Education. There will also be over 600 participants sharing in the intellectual exchange of ideas such as Arturo Escobar of Manizales, Colombia and Jacqui Alexander, who is a professor of Women’s Studies and Gender Studies at the University of Toronto and from the UWI: Professor Rex Nettleford, Professor Carolyn Cooper, Dr. Hopeton Dunn, Dr. Jalani Niaah and Deborah Hickling.

The conference will also feature a cultural village, which is “two fold” as it, showcases important cultural products of the region and it also allows the bridging of the gap between the University and the general public in terms of a wider dialogue about culture. “The dialogue about culture does not simply take place in the plenaries, panels and the traditional conference presentations, but there is dialogue that takes place in the context of experiencing and staging cultural activity," said Conference Coordinator, Sonjah Stanley Niaah, also Lecturer in Cultural Studies at the UWI, Mona Campus. The Cultural Village features three themed nights, Revival Night, Nyabinghi Night, Mystic Revelations of Rastafari, Akwaaba and Drum Xplosion in a night of drum sounds and Dancehall Night.

For more information, please visit the website at www.crossroads2008.org