CONFERENCES
`Professing
African Literature,' Paper presented at the Modern Language Association Conference,
`Traveling
Culture and the “Cultural Defense,”' Paper presented at the Sexual Justice /
Cultural Justice Conference, University of British Columbia, V
`Queer
Theory and Alternative Sexualities,’ Paper presented at the African Literature
Association Conference, Madison
`Postcolonial
Theory in the Age of Empire,’ Paper presented at the Modern Language Association
Conference
`Alternative
Modernities and the Politics of Neo-Liberalism,’ Paper presented at the Rethinking
Modernity Conference, Jaipur,
`The
Legacy of Edward Said,’ Plenary Session Speaker, Rethinking Modernity Conference,
Jaipur, India, D
`The
Politics of the Pleasurable: A Cartography of Youth Morality in Recent African
Films,’ Paper presented at the African Studies Association Conference, Boston,
November 2003. [Also chaired panel].
`Globalization
and the Millenial Quartet,’ Paper presented at the American Comparative Literature
Association Conference, San Marco, April 2003.
`Living
Parchments, Traveling Documents: The Cairo Geniza in the Nineteenth Century,’
Paper presented at the Modern Language Association Conference,
`Language, Literature and Colonial Self-fashioning,’ Paper presented at the Modern Language Association Conference, New Orleans, December 2001.
`The “Race” to Colonize
: Caliban’s Curse or Ariel’s Promise?’ Paper presented at the Third International
Crossroads in Cultural Studies Conference, Birmingham (England), June 2000.
`Multi-Ethnic Literatures and the Idea of Social Justice -- Prospects for the
Future,’ Closing Roundtable Participant, MELUS 2000, New Orleans, March 2000.
`In Defense of the Ordinary : The `Popular’ in African Films,’ Paper presented
at the Modern Language Association Conference, Chicago, December 1999.
`Anthropology, Literature, Diaspora,’ Paper presented at the Modern Language
Association Conference, San Francisco, December 1998. [Also Chaired Panel under
the auspices of the Anthropological Approaches to Literatures Division].
`Careers, Professions and Markets,’ Paper presented at the South Central Modern
Language Association Meeting, New Orleans, November 1998.
`Beyond Orientalism,’ Paper presented at the Ethnologie Feminine Conference,
Tulane University, March 1998. [Also served as Co-convenor of the conference]
`Africa and the Dangerous Supplement,’ Paper presented at the Modern Language
Association Meeting, Washington, D.C., December 1996.
`Out in Africa,' Paper presented at the Modern Language Association Meeting,
San Diego, December 1994. [Also Chaired Panel under the auspices of the African
Literatures Division].
`Rationality,' Paper presented at the African Studies Association Conference,
Toronto, November 1994.
`Teaching Like a Native,' Paper presented at the Modern Language Association
Meeting, Toronto, December 1993.
`Administrating Africa : Lugard and Hailey's Inventions of Africa,' Paper presented
at the African Studies Association Conference, Boston, December 1993.
`Derrida and his Interlocutors,' Paper presented at the American Anthropological
Association Meeting, Washington, D.C., November 1993.
`Words Apart : Donald Davidson and the Idea of Conceptual Schemes,' Paper presented
at the South Atlantic Modern Language Association Meeting, Atlanta, November
1993.
`Akiga's Story : Between Literature and History,' Paper presented at the Presenting
the Past Workshop, Institute for Advanced Study and Research in the African
Humanities, Northwestern University, April 1993.
`Wole Soyinka's Dance of the Forests : Performance, Hermeneutics, Pedagogy,'
Paper presented at the Hurston-James Interdisciplinary Symposium, Duke University,
Durham, NC., March 1993.
`Cultural Studies and the African World,' Paper presented at the Modern Language
Association Meeting, New York, December 1992. [Also Chaired Panel under the
auspices of the African Literatures Division].
`Enlightenment Dishonored -- Reflections on the Postrevolutionary Public Sphere
in France : A Response to William Reddy,' Paper presented at the Marxism and
Society Colloquium, Duke University, Durham, N.C., December 1992.
`Indian Culture in Today's Multi-cultural World,' Workshop Leader, National
Indian-American Students Conference, Research Triangle Park, August 1992.
`Reading Derrida : Violence and Legality,' Roundtable participant, Annual Meeting
of the Law and Society Association, Philadelphia, May 1992.
`Forcefully Yours : Stanley Fish and the Arts of Persuasion.' Paper presented
at the 43rd Annual Conference on College Composition and Communication, Cincinnati,
March 1992.
`Roundtable on the Appropriation of Walter Benjamin in the Third World,' Roundtable
participant, "Benjamin for the Jetzteit : 1892-1992", Durham, N.C.,
Feb. 1992.
`Roundtable on the Transfer of Knowledge,' Roundtable participant, 34th Annual
African Studies Conference, St. Louis, Nov. 1991.
`The Habitable Text : Herodotus and Alterity,' Paper presented at the 34th Annual
African Studies Association Conference, St. Louis, Nov. 1991. [Also Chaired
Panel].
`The Power of Discourse - the Discourse of Power: Michel Foucault and the Idea
of Anthropology.' Paper presented at the Southern Anthropological Society Meeting,
Columbia, S.C., April 1991.
`African(ist) Critics and the Evaluation of African Literature,' Paper presented
at the 15th Annual African Literature Association Conference, Madison, April
1990. [Also chaired panel].
`Between Self and Other : African Literature and the Performance Paradigm,'
Paper presented at the 32nd Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association,
Atlanta, November 1989. [Also chaired panel].
`Articulating Our Voice in the Wilderness of the Higher Education Debates,'
Paper presented at the South Atlantic Modern Language Association, Atlanta,
November 1989.
`"You taught me language..."'Paper presented at the 20th Annual Conference
on African Linguistics, Urbana, April 1989.
`"Lighting the Candle on Mount Kilimanjaro" : Nyerere, Ujamaa, and
the Philosophy of Marxism,' Paper presented at the 15th Annual Third World Conference,
Chicago, April 1989. [Also chaired panel]. Revised version of paper presented
at "The Black Diaspora : An Interdisciplinary Symposium," Durham,
N.C., March 1992.
`"African" Literature and the "Nation-State" in Africa,'
Paper presented at the "Nationalism and Representation Colloquium,"
Program of Comparative Literature and Theory, Northwestern University, March
1989. Revised version of paper presented at the 33rd Annual Meeting of the African
Studies Association Meeting, Baltimore, November 1990. [Also chaired panel].
`Theater as Praxis : Discursive Strategies in African Popular Theater,' Paper
presented at the 31st Annual African Studies Association Conference, Chicago,
October 1988.
`Popular Theater and Adult Education in Africa,' Paper presented at the 14th
Annual Third World Conference, Chicago, April 1988. [Also chaired the panel].
`Analysis and Performance of African Literature,' Workshop leader, 13th Annual
Conference of the African Literature Association, Pittsburgh, April 1988.
`African Literature and Development,' Paper presented at the Program of African
Studies, Northwestern University, April 1987.
`Poetics and Politics of Popular Theater : Ngugi's Ngaahika Ndeenda,' Paper
presented at the 12th Annual Conference of the African Literature Association,
Cornell University, April 1987.