The Caribbean Philosophical Association was founded on June 14, 2002 at the Center for Caribbean Thought at the University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica.   The founding members were George Belle, B. Anthony Bogues, Patrick Goodin, Lewis Gordon, Clevis Headley, Paget Henry, Nelson Maldonado-Torres, Charles Mills, and Supriya Nair.  The first international conference was held May 19–22, 2004 at the Accra Hotel in Christ Church, Barbados, West Indies.

The Caribbean Philosophical Association is an organization of scholars and lay-intellectuals dedicated to the study and generation of ideas with a particular emphasis of encouraging South-South dialogue.  Although the focus is on engaging philosophy that emerges in the Caribbean, membership is not limited exclusively to scholars with degrees in philosophy, and any region and historic moment is open to the exchange of ideas.  In similar kind, membership in the organization is not limited to professional scholars.  Any one with an interest in engaging ideas and playing a role in the development of new ideas can become a member.  Finally, the Caribbean Philosophical Association is also dedicated to assisting with the development of institutions that would preserve thought in the Caribbean and facilitate the creation of new ideas.

June 4 - 7, 2008| Cité des Métiers, Le Raizet, Guadeloupe 5TH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE CARIBBEAN PHILOSOPHICAL ASSOCIATION Theme: Shifting the Geography of Reason V: Intellectual Movements

Click here for the 2008 registration form for the 5th Annual Meeting of the CPA.

Click here for the 2008 Call for Papers [PDF].

CPA 2008 Panel Call For Papers: What is Enlightenment? Invitation to a Post-Colonial Debate

Under this heading, the Caribbean Philosophical Association will expand on its organizing theme, when it focused on the broad impact of the rise of Africana and other “third world” philosophies from geographical notions, metaphors, and assumptions that have long been associated with modern concepts of philosophical reason. For 2008, we will continue to look closely at the variety of intellectual movements that have shaped the development of ideas, especially in the Caribbean, that have contributed to, and continue to have an impact (positive or negative) on, the geography of reason. These movements include, but are not limited to, those that have grown out of the Africana Francophone world such as Negritude, Mestisaje, and Creolité, the varieties of Afro-Latin discourses on race and decolonization, and social and philosophical movements such as Pan-Africanism, Garveyism, Rastafari, Black Consciousness, Feminism, Historicism, Poeticism, historicism, Marxism, Afrocentrism/Africology, Phenomenology, Hermeneutics, Existentialism, Pragmatism, Logical Analysis, Deconstruction, Poststructuralism, Cultural Studies, Psychoanalysis, and more. In the spirit of reshaping the geography of reason, we invite the submission of papers on the philosophical aspects of these movements, nearly all of which are present in the texts and practices of Native Caribbean, Afro-Caribbean, Indo-Caribbean, Euro-Caribbean, African, Latin-American, African-American, Indian, and European thinkers, or papers that offer radically new formulations of issues born from these movements. Proposals may be submitted and papers may be presented in English, French, Spanish, or Portuguese since members of this organization are encouraged to work in these languages with and in indigenous and creolized New World languages as well.

Sessions are also encouraged on intellectuals from or associated with the Caribbean and Latin America such as Aimé Césaire, Maryse Condé, Enrique Dussel, Ramabai Espinet, Frantz Fanon, Anténor Firmin, Edouard Glissant, Wilson Harris, C.L.R. James, José Martí, André Schwartz-Bart, Sylvia Wynter, as well as those from other regions of the globe.

Send submissions for panels and abstracts for papers by 17 March 2008, by email to caribphil@yahoo.com or by regular mail to: Research Associate • Institute for the Study of Race and Social Thought • Temple University • Philadelphia, PA 19122-6090 • (215) 204-5621/Fax: (215) 204-2535.

This conference is co-sponsored by The Institute for the Study of Race and Social Thought at Temple University, the Department de Lettres and GEREC at the Université Antilles-Guyane, the Philosophy Department at Florida Atlantic University, and the Department of Africana Studies at Brown University.