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1 - CAAR is a financially independent, international, professional organization of African-American Studies and Black Diaspora scholars from over 25 countries. Click here to find out more about the organisation. 2 - What we are: CAAR is a financially independent, international organization of African-American and Black Diaspora scholars from over 25 countries, including the US, Canada, Japan, China, several African countries and all European countries. Members come from a range of disciplines including literature, history, cultural studies, film studies, social sciences, as well as from queer studies and gender studies. The membership is made up equally of professors, students, and individual researchers and activists outside the academy. Because of the current presidency, CAAR activities are primarily run out of University of Bremen (within the context of the Institute for Postcolonial and Transcultural Studies). 3 - What we do: In order to stimulate research in African American Studies in Europe, the Collegium of African American Research (CAAR) promotes intellectual collaboration through the creation of an international and interdisciplinary research and teaching network. CAAR organizes bi-annual conferences, sponsors local symposia, helps to create research networks, particularly for younger scholars, and supports publications, most prominently its FORECAAST Series (Forum for European Contributions in African American Studies). Established by a group of European-based scholars heavily indebted to the social movements that led to the creation of Black Studies in the United States, the Collegium sees its purpose in this intellectual and political tradition. As a consequence, CAAR is dedicated to the production of scholarship that acknowledges the centrality of the imperial and colonial legacy of the West. Thus, the Collegium's mission remains the production and promotion of knowledge of the Black Diaspora, its interrelatedness with and its effects on our present systems of knowledge (humanities, social sciences, natural sciences), which, traditionally, have failed to incorporate the insights and perspectives of the Black experience. To carry out its mission, CAAR remains committed to the elaboration of multicultural and antiracist epistemologies, doing so, by fostering interdisciplinary and transnational academic practices. Recently, CAAR has increasingly attracted younger scholars allowing them to engage in interdisciplinary exchange in various fields related to African American Studies. 4 - Where we come from: CAAR was founded at the University of the Sorbonne Nouvelle in 1992 and incorporated at the University of Rome later that year, and has since been run by a board of distinguished European and US based African-Americanists. |
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