The Caribbean could well be regarded as one of the first crossroads of the modern era, where Africa and Asia met Europe on Amerindian soil. The conditions were a forced and bitter crucible. The results of that encounter contributed not only to the making of the modern western world but also to the dynamism that is central to all the cultures of the Western Hemisphere.
Of Sacred Crossroads

Being a site of conquest, dislocation, crossings, enslavement and rebellion, but also of memory and survival, hope of return, culture-building, in-between-ness, and immense creativity and heritage, the Caribbean is a relevant site for hosting the 7th International Crossroads in Cultural Studies Conference, under the theme Of Sacred Crossroads.

Contemporary emphasis on materialism and consumerism as measures of our humanity, arising from the unbridled excesses to which science and technology have been sometimes put, is of growing concern, putting under duress the intangibles embodied in the values by which we live as human beings. Out of these concerns has sprung deepening dialogue at the interface between science and spirituality.

UNESCO's celebration of the intangible heritage of humankind is a timely reminder that civilizations rise not only on great edifices, monuments and artefacts that defy time, but also on those moments of 'livity', or human relationships, that last only as long as they are lived, without which human life would have little meaning.

Of Sacred Crossroads captures many of these concerns in a manner that allows for the broadest of interpretation and accommodation across disciplines and forms—religion, art, dance, song, orature, healing, re-creation, performance, ritual, belief systems, ethics, globalization, communication, among others.

Spotlight themes include:

• Rituals of arrival and contact
• Crossings: The art of the Caribbean crossroads
• Spirituality and Identity
• Language rituals
• Globalization and the spirit
• Indigenous spiritualities
• Rituals of conflict, rites of rebellion
• Virtual realities, virtual spiritualities
• (Spiritual) Tourism
• Rituals, substances and sacred geographies
• The spirit of music
• Cultures of reconciliation
• Storytelling
• Crossroad Deities and divination
• Geographies of the body and spirit

General areas of interest include:

• Body - Identity and Difference
• Media
• Gender and sexuality
• Popular culture
• Cultural industries
• Performance and gender
• Youth culture
• Religion and culture
• Nation states
• Power and knowledge
• New information technology
• Globalization and diaspora
• Nationalism and locality
• Consumerism and fetishism
• Culture and economy
• Fundamentalisms
• Cultural Studies pedagogy
• Policing the crisis
• Culture and ethics
• Critical methodologies
• Politics of opposition
• Cultures of everyday life
• Social and cultural theory
• The city
• Cultural policy
• Centre and periphery
• Space and culture
• Imagined communities