The University of the West Indies, Mona and Duke University will be hosting a symposium under the theme " States of Freedom: Freedom of States," at the Mona Visitors’ Lodge, UWI, Mona, on June 17-18, 2010. The symposium explores questions of freedom and governance generated from the heart of creolization; a process that forged a uniquely global exploitation of discrete island territories for economic activity, regional influence, and military advantage by many of the major European metropoles. The  interdisciplinary symposium will discuss  how states of freedom, (and felt un-freedoms), have been, and are currently being imagined, performed and represented in politics, the visual and cultural arts, as well as in literature, and also examine the consequences of this for the creolization/kreyòlisation of places, power, people, ideas and knowledge.

This symposium fosters an intellectual partnership and new networks of collaboration between Duke University and the University of the West Indies, Mona. The keynote speakers include: Prof. J. Lorand Matory, Chair, African and African American Studies, Duke University, and Professor Rupert C. Lewis, Professor of Political Thought, Department of Government, UWI, Mona.

A limited number of spaces for participation are available. Persons interested in presenting or attending the Symposium please contact Dr. Patricia Northover via e-mail at   patricia.northover@uwimona.edu.jm, pat.northover@yahoo.com; telephone: 876 927 1020 or 876 927 1234. Proposed titles and abstracts should be submitted by email under the subject heading “States of Freedom” by Monday, March 15, 2010.