New geographies of postcoloniality and globalization

24 - 27 March 2011

Name of Organization:
The University of the West Indies, Trinidad
Co-organized by The Department Of Liberal Arts & The Institute of Gender and Development Studies (IGDS)

Location:
Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies.

Contact Information:
postcolandglobal@gmail.com

Deadline for Submission: October 31st, 2010
Of Abstracts


With a conviction to articulate alternative directions for postcolonial studies within a globalised world, we invite paper proposals on a wide range of topics related to postcolonial theory and globalization studies. One of the aims of this conference is a rigorous scrutiny of what it may mean to ‘re-think' the ongoing ‘critiques of postcolonialism'. Postcolonial studies has been steadily and rapidly energized by cross-disciplinary investigations thereby re-configuring critical paradigms of thought and contributing to contemporary understandings of the world as being dominated by transnational capital flows, rapid and extensive globalisation and an unprecedented surge of technology and information. At the conference, we propose to work with a more flexible understanding of postcolonial studies that can reveal new perspectives on the ideological, political and socio-cultural dimensions of the contemporary world order. Given the context and geographical locality of the conference, we are very keen to receive paper proposals that move beyond the West/ non-West structure which inevitably involve a critique of Eurocentric thought. We thus invite proposals that are historically and geographically extensive and that seek to problematize facile divisions in an increasingly mobile and interconnected world. Within this context we are particularly interested in situating postcolonial studies and globalisation with the Caribbean context.

We particularly invite submissions dealing with new geographies including power relations within the Global South. We are also interested in debates about whether or not we have reached the decisive end of postcolonialism or/and the juncture where postcolonial theory and studies should be pushed beyond its current parameters and if so, what this might imply.

We are pleased to announce that the opening keynote address for this conference will be delivered by Prof. Arjun Appadurai. We are also delighted to have Guy DesLauriers at the conference and to screen his film followed by a post-screening Q & A session with the filmmaker himself.

Papers can be submitted in both; English and French. Selected papers will be published in an edited volume.

Possible areas of interest for paper presentations may include but are not restricted to:
* New Geographies of power: how can postcolonial theory account for the multiple heterogeneity and the various, contested voices and positions that make up the global South?
* Travelling cultures: postcolonial take on mobility and transnational connections
* The politics of radicalization in the globalizing world of the 21st century
* Thinking beyond binaries (self/other, colonial/postcolonial, silence/voice and so on.)
* Agency, cultural representation and communicative practices
* The relationship between the notion of history and the term ‘postcolonial'
* Technology, digital divides and Globalisation; globalization and localization of technologies within old and emerging configurations of power
* Identity and Eurocentric discourse
* Sex, sexualities and the rise of religion in the 21st century
* Ethnicity, class and conflict
* Environment, postcolonialism and the Globalised World

Please send abstracts (of 250 words or less) to postcolandglobal@gmail.com. Inquiries and panel suggestions are welcome via email. Deadline for submission is Oct 31, 2010. Please include full contact information-including affiliation, and a brief 50 word biography with your abstract submission.

Scientific Committee:
Shilpa Venkatachalam
Tia Cooper
Savrina Chinien
Maarit Forde