309 - Black Canadian Studies Association (BCSA)
Our conference committee has chosen the exclamation ‘Nah’ as an expression, response, and exhortation of Black refusals. As a colloquial use of language, our call aims to push the boundaries of how we contend with reckonings and re-imaginings in a cultural context where Blackness remains ignored, challenged, and in some cases, diminished by pervasive anti-Blackness, both in formal and informal settings. The experience of Blackness related to (body)language – as a form of expression, political action, and meaning-making – is invoked in our call. Refusal is broadly understood to encapsulate refusals of form (language/artistic expression/media), “in the break” (Moten, 2003) from disciplinary boundaries, and operating outside/within the context of neoliberal diversity and inclusion frameworks.
