Colonialism?"

Invisible Culture: issue 13, Fall 2008
Call for Submissions
Deadline for Papers June 1, 2008

After Postcolonialism?

Guest Editors Maia Dauner and Cynthia Foo, University of Rochester

This issue of Invisible Culture seeks to explore the limits and
possibilities for post-colonial theoretical discourse as it relates to
artistic and cultural practice. Art works, performances, films,
videos, and other cultural production that engage with issues of
global migration and the muddying of identity markers of race and
class suggest the importance of doubt when considering history writing
and fact-gathering. Performance artists The Yes Men fake their
identities and take their practice outside of the gallery in an
attempt to chip at the legitimacy of political structures such as the
World Trade Organization. Visual artist Ken Lum offers a commentary on
how one may understand visual markers of identity. Visual and
performance artist Walid Ra'ad's works under the name The Atlas Group
suggest the anxiety-producing task of stitching together history from
material evidence. La Pocha Nostra's Chica Iranian Project
investigates the
political dimensions of visual misrecognition in post 9/11 United
States.

These practices suggest the possibility for identity to be context-
and site-specific, and to mobilize identity markers to critically
examine
practices of authorship, history writing, and institutional practices.
But is identity truly mutable? Can we be in a post-post-colonial era
where identity is understood to be contextually informed, partial, and
provisional? And if so, what does this look like? Kwame Anthony Appiah
argues for the unfixed cosmopolitan in his 2004 monograph
Cosmopolitanism, a utopic figure which some critics have suggested
presents a re-framed flâneur, able to travel the globe freely with
little consideration for the class and political restrictions that
impede the movement of those less fortunate. Other writers and
theorists have asserted that this is not a post-colonial era; that we
are still dealing with colonialization's legacy, whether we call this
period post- or neo-colonial. Yet others suggest that post-colonial
theory still maintains its position as a vital field of examination
when considering visual presentations of identity, providing important
tools to critically analyze place, class, race, and practice. What is
the place for art and globalization in this context? What
possibilities and limitations do various forms of theorization
(post-colonial, neo-colonial, Cosmopolitanism, or
post-post-colonialism) offer to a consideration of artistic practice
concerned with identity and place? What role does the gallery and the
site play in this presentation?

We are particularly interested in papers that take into account the
multi-faceted experiences of post-colonial thought. Possible
methodological frameworks include: interdisciplinary visual culture,
gendered experience, inquiries considering notions of class, and/or
other streams that may contribute to a rich and nuanced inquiry into
the state of post-colonial theory and practice. How is identity
represented, performed, interrogated? How do these examinations tie in
with post-colonial theoretical discussions? What are the boundaries of
post-colonial discussions when dealing with contemporary artistic
practice?

Possible topics include:
- Representations of identity in art, video, film, and/or
performance which blur the boundaries between self and other;
- The future of post-colonial discourse and practice: current
methodological challenges and how to proceed from here;
- Identity politics: dead or alive? Does cultural production
involving a claim of identity or lack thereof continue to have
political and aesthetic valence?
- Visible minority or visible stereotype? How does one represent
an Othered group without calling up its stereotype? What are some
alternate ways to address or perform racial identity? Or is race
obsolete?
- The New Cosmopolitan: challenges and possibilities in the
cultural sphere suggested by Kwame Anthony Appiah and others proposing
a cosmopolitan rather than regional approach to ethical race
relations;
- Whither whiteness studies? What role do studies of whiteness
play into notions of post-colonialism, when racial identities are
troubled? What are some methodological tools which whiteness studies
offers in a field post- post-colonialism?
- Post-colonialism or Neo-colonialism? Marxist theorists suggest
that there has never been a move away from the colonial moment. What
are the possibilities and challenges of both methodological premises,
particularly in understanding cultural production?
- The museum and the minority. How far have museums come to
address issues of equality fought for in since the 1960s? Guillermo
Gomez-Peña pointed out in a 1995 essay "From Art-Mageddon to
Gringostroika: A Manifesto Against Censorship" (published in Mapping
the Terrain: New Genre Public Art Ed. Suzanne Lacy. Seattle, WA: Bay
Press), that equality may only be truly measured by the number of
minorities who hold administrative positions. How has this wish been
realized? Does this wish still hold true? Or does hiring based on
minority standing in any form repeat practices of stereotyping?

Please send submissions of 2,500 - 5,000 words and a 500 word abstract
to Cynthia Foo (foo.cynthiagmail.com) AND Maia Dauner
(mdaunermail.rochester.edu) by June 1, 2008.