Afterlives of Postcolonialism

An international conference on Postcolonial theory, weekend of October
25-26 Location: Small Cinema, Richard Hoggart Building, Goldsmiths, New
Cross

In recent times some scholars have proclaimed that postcolonial theory
has exhausted its critical energies- at the very time that it has been
taken up by scholars and activists not located in English or Literature
departments, the area where postcolonial theory made its early impact
and sometimes found an institutional home. The Centre for Postcolonial
Studies at Goldsmiths is organising a conference on the “Afterlives of
Postcolonialism”- the ‘after’ referring both to its life/lives after the
proclamation of its death, and also to its life after/outside the study
of literature. In what ways can/has postcolonial theory been taken up by
artists, architects and scholars of art and architecture, by those who
study politics, anthropology and sociology, and area studies, and to
what effects? Does it merely provide another way of ‘reading’ texts, to
does it have the potential to destabilize and reconfigure practices and
disciplines? And what happens to postcolonial theory when it moves into
politics, art, sociology, and area studies; what mutations does it
undergo, or need to undergo? Drawing upon speakers from a range of
geographical (India, the U.S., South Africa, Palestine, the U.K.) and
disciplinary locations (everything from architecture to art, film,
music, politics…), involving practitioners as well as theorists, this
conference asks whether postcolonial theory still has any life in it-
and what sorts of lives it is leading once it travels outside of
literature.

Confirmed speakers include:
Harry Harootunian, History and East Asian Studies, New York University
Lindsay Waters, Harvard University Press (Executive Editor of
Humanities)
Ivor Chipkin, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Eyal Weizman, Centre for Research Architecture, Goldsmiths
Robert Fine, Sociology, Warwick University
Sandi Hilal, UNRWA, West Bank
Rangan Chakravarty, film producer, Kolkota
Alessandro Petti, International Art Academy, Palestine
Gurminder Bhambra, Sociology, Warwick University
Paramita Brahmachari, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkota

How to get there: http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/find-us/
Cost: free
Further information: http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/postcolonial-studies/

Any enquiries, please contact
E-mail: s.sethgold.ac.uk
Telephone: 020 7919 7740