Joseph Anténor Firmin (1850-1911): The Equality of the Human Races –
International Symposium on anthropologist and cultural historian, Anténor Firmin
Call for Papers
The symposium Joseph Anténor Firmin (1850-1911): The Equality of the Human Races will take place May 13th at the University of Chicago.
To celebrate the centennial of Joseph-Antenor Firmin's death, the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures are organizing a one-day conference devoted to his The Equality of the Human Races (1885), which will take place on May 13. The symposium wishes to pay tribute to the Haitian anthropologist and cultural historian Joseph Antenor Firmin who was among the first to initiate an unparallel argument on the equality of races. Such venue will be an opportunity to renew the discussions among a growing number of scholars who are interested in revisiting Firmin's ideas. The focus of the symposium is obviously on Firmin's remarkable book, The Equality of the Human Races, which made a critical contribution to the understanding of race in the contexts of religion, history, science, literature, culture, linguistics, and, of course, anthropology.
Anténor Firmin (1858-1911) received a government scholarship to study Law in Paris but found himself drawn into the debate on the scientific racism fueled by the Anthropological Society of Paris, founded by Paul Broca in 1859. In 1884, Firmin was among the only three scholars of African descent (all Haitians) to be a member of that Society. Having little opportunity to present among his peers his new perspectives on craniometrist and biological anthropology, he began the task of writing his colossal The Equality of the Human Races (1885), which many specialists perceived as one of the most pivotal works ever written on the issue of race. Some scholars consider Firmin's work as the point of departure of a scientific alternative to scientific racism as well as aristocratic racism and the first effort to rehabilitate scientifically the image of Haitians, people of African descent as well as other people of color. In the mid-19th century, during the triumphant rise of positivist anthropology, French writer Arthur Gobineau published his famous Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races (1853), in which he aimed to demonstrate by all means the superiority of the Aryan race and the inferiority of Blacks and other people of color. Firmin's book was a direct refutation to Gobineau's claim. Today the impact of this seminal essay, The Equality of the Human Races, spends beyond the field of anthropology to philosophical, religious, political, postcolonial, and literary investigations. Scholars recognized its impact on Jean Price-Mars, the founder of Haitian ethnology, the movement of negritude, and African Egyptology. Others perceived its intellectual and political engagement at the end of the 19th Century as the expression of a burgeoning Pan-African sensitivity and Antillean Confederation.
The one-day symposium is organized and supported by the Center for Latin American and the Romance Languages and Literatures Department at the University of Chicago.
The committee of the symposium invites paper proposals that may cover any relevant topic relating to Firmin's The Equality of Human Races. Presenters are asked to prepare a 20-minute talk and allow 10 minutes for discussion. Those interested in presenting a paper at the symposium should send an abstract in English (max. 400 words) to Daniel Desormeaux (ddd@uchicago.edu) by January 31, 2011.
The organizing committee plans to publish the proceedings of the symposium. A contributor who cannot participate in the event may still consider submitting a paper for inclusion into the proceedings.