Dear CACLALS Members,
We invite you to join us on Saturday, April 10 at 1:00pm EST for a panel to discuss the upcoming change in our organization’s name.
You can access the Zoom link to attend this meeting in the email that was sent to all CACLALS members. The link is available in the PDF attachment to that email. If you have not received an email, please contact jesse.arseneault@concordia.ca.
The request to change CACLALS’ name has been on our association’s agenda for many years, was unanimously supported at the 2019 AGM in Vancouver, BC, and submitted as a motion prior to our planned 2020 conference, though that event was unfortunately canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic. Members have expressed concern about the “commonwealth” element of our name, and the need to distance our association from the colonial history represented by this institution.
Our panel will involve short presentations from long-serving CACLALS members, including John C. Ball, Mariam Pirbhai, Pamela McCallum, and Ranjini Mendis, who will speak about the history and mandate of our organization, the history of movement toward a change in name, our relationship with our parent organization, ACLALS, and potential alternate names for our organization. One potential suggestion that garnered support at our 2019 AGM was the Canadian Association for Postcolonial Studies, or “CAPS.”
The meeting will consist of:
• Panelist’s presentations (20 min)
• Open discussion on potential new names (40 min)
Following the discussion, CACLALS members will be sent a link at which they can vote for a new name, and we will ratify the chosen name at the next AGM, which will be held during our independent 2021 annual conference. Details for this event will be announced shortly.
We look forward to seeing you on April 10th for a generative discussion. We also wish you all the best during these difficult times.
Sincerely,
The CACLALS Executive