CfP: Colonial Legacies, Postcolonial Contestations

CfP: Colonial Legacies, Postcolonial Contestations

Conference

Colonial Legacies, Postcolonial Contestations:
DECOLONIZING THE SOCIAL SCIENCES AND THE HUMANITIES

Frankfurt Research Center for Postcolonial Studies
Goethe University Frankfurt am Main
16th - 18th June 2011
http://www.frcps.uni-frankfurt.de/?page_id=729

Panel 16: Taking Postcolonialism elsewhere? Post-Soviet Postcolonialities

Panel Proposer: Alexander Vorbrugg

The history of Russian/Soviet imperialism and present-day post-Soviet realities are more or less absent from the field of postcolonial studies so far. While some critique this as a substantial lack and others claim that there are good reasons for this absence, others argue that there is no general answer to the question whether it is helpful and adequate to apply postcolonial theory to post-Soviet contexts or not.  If postcolonialism does not merely describe the condition of (formerly) colonized contexts, but rather offers a critical perspective to look at power relations, then the question is not whether a country is `postcolonial´ or not, but what happens when we apply postcolonial approaches and tools to specific issues in different contexts.

Attempts to `fill the gap´ between post-Soviet and postcolonial studies have dealt with very different issues like: What was and is the role of the Russian/Soviet Other in Western identity-formation and politics? How can Russian and Soviet imperialism (colonialism?) be conceptualized? How can the Soviet experiment be understood in relation to modernity and Western hegemony? What challenges and chances do new perspectives on `real-life socialism´ bear for those who draw on Marxism? Despite conceptual questions, the analytical potential of postcolonial approaches in this context has been debated. Can they help understand the shifts and changes that occurred after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the reconfiguration of 'the' old geopolitical world order; the renegotiation of spheres of influence, the rearticulation of histories and nationalities, drifting identities and epistemologies etc.?

The travel and transfer of `postcolonial´ ideas to contexts alien to its `origins´ may be contested, inadequate and challenging, but it holds the potential of bringing in new perspectives from and on the oevanished second world, to enable voices and stories to be heard that have not been previously acknowledge and share experiences from different parts of the world, circumstances and disciplinary backgrounds. Postcolonial tools and arguments can help understand and make visible specific forms of exploitation and oppression in the `peripheries´ of the  Russian/Soviet empires, the changing notions and specific intersecting effects of race, gender, sexuality, religion and class and respective forms of subjectivation, and rearticulate political struggles and questions of emancipation in these localities. Furthermore, the inclusion of these new (hi)stories might in turn influence postcolonial studies.

The panel invites abstracts which bring postcolonial and post-Soviet perspectives together and thereby contribute to critical (self)reflexion in both contexts.

If you want to propose a contribution to this panel in any other language beside English, please contact the panel proposer.

Abstracts (deadline 30th November 2010) and queries may be submitted to: Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist gegen Spambots geschützt! JavaScript muss aktiviert werden, damit sie angezeigt werden kann.

For further information on the conference please consult: http://www.frcps.uni-frankfurt.de/?page_id=729