UNIVERSITY OF THE GAMBIA (UTG)
School of Arts & Sciences
Gambia Literature Day 2015 (Symposium and Exhibition)
“Literature for Sustainable Development: Pioneering Women Playwrights”
CALLS FOR PAPERS
The University of The Gambia School of Arts and Sciences is pleased to announce a nationwide call for papers from academic scholars and literary critics for the Gambia Literature Day symposium on Thursday March 26, 2015 at 9:00 am, in the Main Hall of Gambia College, Brikama campus. The theme for this year’s symposium is “Literature for Sustainable Development: Pioneering Women Playwrights” with joint honours to be bestowed on two female Gambian dramatists: Lady Augusta Jawara and Mrs. Janet Badjan-Young. Symbolically, the symposium this year is one of the activities planned for the month of March by UTG to commemorate UNESCO’s World Theatre Day 2015.
As playwrights, Lady Jawara and Mrs. Young have, in their respective bodies of work, explored in depth an impressive number of social, political, religious and cultural issues pertinent to Gambians, Africans, and African peoples in the diaspora. As a trailblazing dramatist, Lady Jawara is noted as the first female playwright in The Gambia to have a play published (The Rebellion 1968) and the first Gambian playwright to stage a play – The African King – at the First World Festival of Black Arts (1966) in Dakar, Senegal where it received rave reviews.
The co-honouree Mrs. Badjan-Young is arguably the most prolific female Gambian playwright/director having written almost a dozen plays (notably: Chains of Inspiration, The Ultimate Inheritance, Portraits of Survival, The Dance of Katchikali, Children’s Text Messages to God, The Battle of Sankandi, The Magic Necklace, Kumba Am Ndey and Kumba Amul Ndey, A Fatal Mistake, etc.). Her dramas have been staged in East and West Africa and the Caribbean, and her first published play (The Hand of Fate?) was also the first play by a Gambian to be adapted to film and won several international awards. Mrs. Young is also the first Gambian to build a permanent professional Theatre in The Gambia, and currently oversees its production of an impressive series of local, African and international plays, and important outreach with its Theatre-in-Education programs.
Please submit abstracts of not more than 250 words for presentations based on written dramas by Lady Jawara and Mrs. Young (including published and unpublished staged plays) which may include, but are not restricted to, the following topics:
- Female Literary Activists: Themes advancing education and human rights, especially for young girls.
- Mixture of representational and presentational dramatic techniques in plays by Jawara and Young.
- Myths, legends and folklore: Defining elements in Gambian literary dramas.
- Duality of the theatrical genre: Amalgamation of literature and the performing arts.
- The history plays: Promoting the understanding of history and culture through the dramatic arts.
- Gender and equality: Female characters as advocates for social change.
- Preserving and promoting local languages through the dramatic arts.
- Drama-in-Education for young audiences: Benefits from children’s plays.
- Impact of pre and post-colonial politics and religion on The Gambia reflected in Jawara and Young’s dramas.
- Expanding messages to the populace through drama in local languages.
- Advocates for development: Their similarities and differences.
- An effective use of language and styles in selected dramas: Narrative, poetry and storytelling.
Please email. Abstracts and Final Papers to [email protected] on or before the required deadlines. SUBMISSION DEADLINES Abstracts: Friday, 6 March 2015. Final Papers: Friday, 13 March 2015. Paper presentations at this symposium should not be more than 15 minutes.
Questions: Contact Grace Chapman at [email protected] (Cell: 373-9825; 759-4725)
or
Dr. Pierre Gomez Dean, School of Arts and Sciences The University of The Gambia Brikama Campus, P.O. Box 3530 The Gambia Email: [email protected] Cell: 356-0013; 700-8671