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CONFERENCES: Postcolonial Studies Conference, University of Warsaw

Call for papers:



Postcolonial Discourse, Ethnicity, and Race in the United States: Past
and Present



University of Warsaw

Institute of English Studies

May 13-14, 2010





We are proud to announce a conference that addresses the topic of a
dialogue between the discourse(s) on postcolonialism and ethnicity/race
in the United States. Our special key-note speaker is Professor Gerald
Vizenor.

If the 1950s witnessed the forging of a link between anti-colonial
struggles world-wide and ethnic movements in the United States,
intellectuals of later decades have challenged what they perceived to be
a simple way of relating race and ethnicity to the global
postcolonialism. Nowadays scholars from various ethnic groups in the
United States either suppress commonalities between postcolonialism and
ethnicity/race or enthusiastically endorse postcolonial studies as
offering a useful paradigm to discuss political dominance, victimization
and resistance to hegemonic power.

Enthusiasts argue that post-colonial discourse provides a way out of
American exceptionalism, encourages seeing parallels in the world
outside the United States and leads to the strengthening of global
solidarity, coalition building and comparative research. They point out
that both postcolonial and ethnic studies have resorted to similar
concepts such as double-consciousness, multiple identities, hybridity
and/or contamination, and a "third space" that is neither essentialist,
nationalist culture zone nor assimilation. Enthusiasts frequently use
postcolonial studies to theorize the cultural space of exchange and
resistance between the centre and the periphery, and among different
ethnic groups.

Skeptics point out that applying postcolonial discourse in ethnic
studies may lead to reductionism and offer a faulty perspective on
ethnic identity. They warn against the danger of a hasty enunciation of
the end of ethnicity in an inexorable victory of hybridity and point out
that a principled rejection of ethnic difference, congruent with a
post-ethnic paradigm, is at odds with an everyday practice in which
racial and ethnic differences still matter.

We welcome submissions from the field of American Studies, thus
encourage presentations which would use insight from political social,
religious, cultural, media and literary studies. We invite papers that
refer both to earlier historical periods and those that are interested
in diagnosing the present moment. Theoretical analyses and case studies
are equally welcome.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

*    Postcolonial and ethnic identities
*    Postcolonialism and ethnic histories
*    Re-writing national narratives
*    Postcolonialism and/or ethnic criticism
*    The problematics of the term "post-colonialism"
*    Diaspora spaces and communities
*    Nationalism/transnationalism/tribalism/sovereignty
*    Domestic and (neo)colonial violence
*    Decolonization and resistance
*    Resistance to (neo)colonial discourse (law, politics, economy,
medicine)
*    Postcolonial bodies
*    Border studies



Please send an abstract of 400 words, by 10 January 2010, to Dr. Ewa
Luczak e.b.luczak@uw.edu.pl <mailto:e.b.luczak@uw.edu.pl>  , Dr. Joanna
Ziarkowska j.ziarkowska@uw.edu.pl <mailto:j.ziarkowska@uw.edu.pl>  or
Dr. Justyna Wierzchowska j.wierzchowska@uw.edu.pl
<mailto:j.wierzchowska@uw.edu.pl> 



Full conference fee: 50 EURO

Postgraduate conference fee: 40 EURO - Limited places available



A selection of the conference papers will be published in a collection
edited by the conference organizers.



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Partenerii nostri: US Embassy | Fulbright Commission in Romania | English Department, Faculty of Foreign Languages,
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