Postcolonial Empires: Transnational Being and Ontological Politics [2008-2011]

About

The series theme for the 2010-11 academic year will be ‘Postcolonial Empires: Transnational Being and Ontological Politics’ and will focus on the various types of knowledges and practices of knowledge production that have been taken up in the global South, especially against the uneven and problematic contexts of post colonial politics and global asymmetries. Some of the key questions driving this series will be: How do contesting ontologies inform or underwrite local resistances, and problematize notions of ‘modernity’ and ‘secularism’? And how, if at all, do they find purchase in broader global/dominant discourses?

This thematic will continue to pursue the initial project of the Postcolonial Empires group and its key questions. Does postcolonial theory remain relevant to analytical and critical investigations of twenty-first century empires? How does postcolonial theory then explain the politicisation of religious, spiritual and ‘traditional’ worldviews? How have localised cultural practices become syncretistic and/or opposed to Western modernity?

Postcolonial Empires: Institutions and Historiographies 2009-10.
Our seminar group aims to be a site for inter-disciplinary research within the field of postcolonial studies. From its inception, the field of postcolonial studies has drawn on the work of historians, anthropologists, philosophers and cultural and literary theorists working in various languages and in relation to various geographical regions.

We will continue to pursue the question that formed the basis of our initial project: does postcolonial theory¬ remain relevant to analytical and critical investigations of twenty-first century empires, commercial, cultural and geographic? Building on this, our new sub-title gestures towards the direction of our second year work which asks how postcolonial theory might be relevant in examining historiography, looking at how postcolonial theory helps us to explore physical, material, social, geographical and textual histories. Our key questions include:

–    Who speaks for the past?
–    Who narrates, who is narrated and who is excluded?
–    Who is responsible for making history accessible?
–    How do we interpret history through institutions?
–    Why do we collect?
–    How do archives function as national projects?
–    What is the relationship between memory, the archive, memorialisation and the museum, and why is this important for rethinking history in a postcolonial context?

Our questions require an interdisciplinary mode of address, and are relevant to the CRASSH theme for 2009-10, looking at a ‘sustainable, renewable, or ‘future’ university’ as we seek to look at how institutions, including the university, are sites of  ‘cultural encounter and transformation'. We will continue to examine the state of our common theoretical framework, and also to determine how it has impacted upon the various disciplines to which we belong.
 

Postcolonial Empires: Rhetorics of Resistance 2008-09

From its inception, postcolonial theorists have drawn on a great many disciplinary backgrounds. Significant contributions have been made by historians, anthropologists, philosophers and cultural and literary theorists working in various languages and in relation to various geographical regions. Our group’s primary objective is to question the territorial integrity of this fundamentally inter-disciplinary space. Thirty years on from the publications that established the field, we feel it is time to take stock of the strengths and weaknesses of postcolonial theory, to measure its achievements and failures.

Our seminars will revolve around a number of central questions: does postcolonial theory¬ remain relevant to critical investigations of twenty-first century empires, commercial, cultural and geographic? Has it not itself become something of an imperial formation, a master-narrative effacing regional and temporal specificities? To what extent has postcolonial theory enabled new and effective forms of resistance? Who are postcolonial intellectuals and how do they intervene outside of the academy to confront imperialism as it operates in the spheres of economics, culture and geopolitics?
While addressing ourselves to these and other questions, we will ground our discussions and research by examining a set of key texts and debates, oriented in each of the three terms in relation to a particular geographical region that either has been or that will be important for the development of postcolonial studies. Hoping to engage with empires of the past, present and future, we have chosen as our themes Algeria for Michaelmas, Cuba for Lent and China for Easter. In each term our seminars will be supplemented by film screenings and exhibitions.