1. H
uman existence in the 21st century has been subjected to
threatening experiences in many parts of the world. News
about problems threatening human existence pervades the
airwaves and pages of tabloids and newsmagazines across
various media of information dissemination in nearly all parts of the
word. The problems have generated gross concerns in all aspects of
scholarship in the humanities, sciences, medicine, law, and the social
sciences. While migration imposes new definitions on the push and pull
factors, new perspectives on identity and development are emerging.
Consequences of these situations call for discussions emanating from re-
search into Africa in the face of 21st-Century challenges. The recent 70th
Congress of the U.N. General Assembly, for instance, could not be silent
on some of these issues. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, in one of his
addresses at the Assembly, declared that “50 million people have been
forced to leave their homes” and, in another instance, he revealed that
“about one million people need urgent rescue from poverty.” U.S. Pres-
ident, Barrack Obama at the same UN Assembly confessed that aside
from “terrorism,” nations must work together to solve world problems,
that the U.S. cannot solve the world’s problems alone. Opinions, facts
and experiences from across the world and academic circles show that
there are problems of migration, identity and development on all spheres
of life threatening the existence of humanity on earth.
It is evident that researchers across the globe need to pay
attention to these problems and come up with ideas, findings,
suggestions, theories and methodologies that can guide academ-
ic and social research. Right now problems of migration have
generated questions on identity and development in places of the
world where owing to natural, social and terror disasters have
had to force people to be internally displaced from their abodes.
Such problems have forced some countries closing firmly their
borders to refugees seeking safety from civil war and religious
conflicts of terror in Europe, Africa and some parts of Asia.
Attention has been drawn to the social, economic, political
and psychological consequences of these experiences on nations
of the globe. Discourses on the subjects of migration, identity and
development have sprung up across the globe but none has essen-
tially and specifically situated Africa in the wider global perspec-
tive vis-à-vis the challenges of the 21st Century that the continent
already has had to contend with. Therefore, the Faculty of Arts,
Lagos State University, Ojo and the African Studies Institute, Uni-
versity of Georgia have jointly organized the 2016 Humanities
Conference to take on these problems with a 3-day International
Conference titled: “Migration, Identity and Development: Africa
and the Wider World in the 21st Century.”
To give attention to these issues and engage recent conver-
sations on the subject-matter in order to get some rewarding re-
sponses, the theme of the conference will be addressed with, but
not limited to, the following sub-themes:
Dr. Danoye Oguntola-Laguda Olusegun Adeyeri Dr. Henry Hunjo Dr. Harrison Adeniyi
(LOC Chair) (LOC Secretary) (LOC Liaison Officer) (Convener)
CALL FOR
PAPER
Theme: Migration, Identity and Development: Africa and the
Wider World in the 21st Century
Keynote
Speaker:
PROF. ABUBAKAR MOMOH
Director General, The Electoral Institute
Host:
PROF. ABOLADE ADENIJI
Dean, Faculty of Arts, LASU
Plenary
Speakers:
PROF AMIDU SANNI
Dept. of Foreign Languages
Faculty of Arts, LASU
DR. KARIM TRAORE
African Studies Institute
University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA
Conference Dates
Arrival: July 18, 2016
Conference days: July 19–20, 2016
Departure: July 21, 2016
Venue:
Faculty of Arts Central Language Laboratory Auditorium
•• Language, migration and cultural identity within and outside
Africa.
•• Africa, economic stability and migration.
•• Migration, arts and music in and out of Africa (i.e., Nollywood,
sculpture, etc.)
•• African migrants and the challenges of religious identity.
•• Migration within and across Africa’s borders and the laws.
•• The media and the issues of migration and African identity.
•• Diasporic Africans, racism, and enslavement.
•• Migration, identity, and technology in and out of Africa.
•• Migration, development, and the future of Africa.
•• Diasporic Africans, political consciousness, and Africa’s
democratic development.
•• African consciousness in non-African worlds (Asia, Europe,
Middle-East, America, and the Caribbean).
•• Scientific advancement, education, and the challenges of
migration in Africa.
•• Migration and its effects on business and the money market in
Africa.
•• Migration, identity, conflict and security
Interested participants are requested to submit abstracts of not more
than 300 words with at least 5 keywords to danoyeoguntola@yahoo.
com, henry.hunjo@lasu.edu.ng, jadeyeriolusegun@gmail.com on or
before February 15, 2016. Responses shall be provided in less than 48
hours of submission. The Conference provides outlet(s) for publication;
submitted papers shall be peer-reviewed after the conference and pub-
lished. Conference Registration fee: N15,000.00 (Nigerian delegates)
N10,000.00 (Nigerian graduate students); $100 (foreign delegates) $75
(foreign graduate students).