After Postcolonialism: Global Theory, Local Transformations
CALL FOR PAPERS
Submission Deadline: 10 January 2025
In A Dying Colonialism (1959), Frantz Fanon, one of the most significant thinkers on decolonisation, writes firmly:
‘There is not occupation of territory, on the one hand, and independence of persons on the other. It is the country as a whole, its history, its daily pulsation that are contested, disfigured, in the hope of a final destruction’ (p. 65).
While Fanon's intellectual legacy continues to inspire scholars of postcolonial studies, the aftermath of postcolonial studies over the last few decades has been multifaceted. What impact has postcolonial studies had on our perception of different postcolonial realities? What can we take from the current scholarship to forge alternative worlds?
This conference aims to address these questions by fostering an interdisciplinary dialogue among various fields that have been significantly influenced by postcolonial studies, including literature, history, political science, and more. In so doing, this conference aims to envision what comes after postcolonialism.
By ‘after’, this conference suggests recalibrating the field away from an approach that is still beholden to the logic of what Edward Said calls 'the West and the rest’. We would like to interrogate whose voices have been marginalised within canonical postcolonial context.This conference will pay attention to the multiple manifestations of imperialistic oppressions within regions where western power is only a part, clashing or collaborating with other imperial forces. It also welcomes the exploration of the broader landscape of global history through, for example, pre-Westphalian interstate systems in which the West played no role and that exhibits different international systems and orders (Amitav Acharya, 2022).
While examining how postcolonial theory should be reshaped by diverse local experiences of (post)colonialism and multiple historical trajectories, this conference will also delve into implementing impactful changes locally, particularly through environmental practices. Aligning with recent scholarship on decolonizing ecology, it echoes calls to reframe discussions on global environmental crises through the perspective of 'worldly-ecology' (Malcom Ferdinand, 2022). This perspective avoids dwelling on 'the wretched earth' inflicted by colonial history and maintaining the status quo. Instead, it demands looking into the past with an eye towards the future.
The conference invites academics, artists, activists, educators, and practitioners across cultures and regions to share their experiences of decolonization through protecting everyday environments. The aim is to conceive how grassroot climate actions hold the potential to build alternative worlds free from political struggles against postcolonial domination and global injustice.
Proposing 'after postcolonialism', we believe that much-needed discussions in postcolonial studies should be place-focused, future-oriented, and action-driven. As such, this conference strives to cultivate plurality, sustainability, and dignity in the epoch after postcolonialism.
To this end, we invite discussions in respond to the following concerns:
- The problematics of universalising postcolonial theory
- Marginalised voices in postcolonial studies
- Alternative conceptions of world orders
- The distance between postcolonial theory and the practice of decolonisation
- Decolonising ecology
- Decolonisation through the protection of environment
Participants may also be invited to publish their contributions in an edited collection Warwick Series in the Humanities (with Routledge)
Please submit your abstracts (200-250 words) and a bio (100 words) to after.postcolonialism@gmail.com
Notification date: 17 January 2025
Join us with this one-day hybrid conference on the 26th March 2025.
(Booking will open in January 2025)
Organised by Lu Feng (Lu.Feng@warwick.ac.uk)
and Wayne Kwong (chun-wai.kwong@warwick.ac.uk)
If you have any questions, please email us:
after.postcolonialism@gmail.com
For more updated information, find us on:
