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Call for Papers "Cultures of Empire? Circulating, Exchanging and Confronting Cultures in Colonial and Imperial Situations" International Conference Institut Universitaire de France Centre national de la recherche scientifique Centre des sciences de la littérature française, Université Paris X Paris (France) 22-24 October 2009 __________________________________________________ Research over the past three decades has pointed up the importance and complexity of the cultural experiences and exchanges, that accompanied, informed and transformed, but also challenged European colonial expansion. The richness of the work in this field stems from the sheer number of cultural forms and theoretical presuppositions that have been introduced and analyzed; however this very proliferation of topics and approaches has led scholars to adopt a minimalist, free-floating, and sometimes essentialist definition of colonial cultures. The current renewed interest in empires, not all of which were colonial, invites a more productive investigation into the relationship of cultures to empire. Ties between cultures and empires are both evident and difficult to define. The diversity of cultures, the related and encompassing notions of civilization and culture, and the implicit and explicit ties between universalism and particularism were some of the conceptual tools used for and against colonization by both colonizers and their subjects. Beyond their historic ties, the very notions of culture and empire are polysemous and synthetic in ways that render them simultaneously indispensable and undefinable. Bringing the two terms together, while asking whether it is even possible to talk of cultures of empire, is thus a conscious act of intellectual provocation. Lists of colonial cultures and kaleidoscopic approaches that study cultural fragments have clearly revealed their limits; determining what are and are not cultures of empire requires examining the substance of cultural experiences in specific colonial and imperial situations, and accepting the possibility that these very experiences may very well not be both cultural and colonial or imperial in any meaningful way. What analyses should we then propose to move past any essentialist assessment of colonial cultures and to further the study of colonization and empires? This conference will encourage collective work and debate around this question along two broad axes. The first axis is epistemological in nature. Numerous theoretical and methodological contributions have furthered the study of colonization and empires over the last thirty years. This booming has unfortunately inhibited interdisciplinary exchanges, as well as discussion of various hypotheses and divergent references. It has also surreptitiously created the phantasm of atabula rasa in a field of research already prone to very cyclical trends, greatly hindering the accumulation of critical works that build upon each other. We would therefore like to suggest collectively reviving exchanges from one discipline to another, from one paradigm to another, starting with a critical assessment of existing research and the difficulties, convergences and points of dissension that it raises. The first session of the conference will be devoted to this discussion. The following sessions of the conference will gather papers dealing with case studies and addressing the second and methodological axis. To avoid the always tempting essentialist shortcuts, it seems indispensable to focus on social, political and economical processes, changes, exchanges and oppositions which, considered as a whole, could be construed as cultures of empire. To grasp these paths and trajectories, we need methodical investigations into the circulation, transfers, inventions and controversies that gave rise to cultural logics and dynamics in imperial and colonial situations. Onto which range of traditions, objects and practices; onto which conjunctures; and onto which networks of actors did these colonial and imperial experiences graft themselves? How did they insert themselves into the vaster whole of not only contemporary cultural experiences but also those that came before and after colonialism? Answering these questions requires careful analyses of configurations, contexts and scales, and paying constant attention to the individual and collective actors who animated and oriented these logics and dynamics. We have chosen four research themes to permit a full range of debates and exchanges among conference participants. The diversity of imperial movements, be they undertaken by material or immaterial objects, must be investigated by examining the paths and networks taken and the spaces that they traced out, invented or structured. Of particular interest are interactions around the mobile and fundamental support represented by language: vernacular, vehicular, oral and written; languages of dominance or resistance. Another major question centers on the political uses of culture. Explicit and implicit projects need to be studied at all three stages from inception to implementation to adapting current practices if we are to understand how politics interacted with culture. Through which vectors models, practices, or actors - did these uses circulate? Did they manage to define or carve out new spaces which could be defined as imperial libraries? Did these spaces regroup actors/authors, texts, objects and specific practices who negotiated with interlocking spaces and logics of empires in order to transform articulations, hybridizations and conflicts among different cultures? Conference organised with the support of the Institut Universitaire de France, EHGO, IDHE (Cnrs), IRIS (Cnrs) and the Centre des sciences de la littérature française (Paris X). Organizing committee: Romain BERTRAND (Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, Centre dEtudes et de Relations Internationales), Hélène BLAIS (Université Paris X), Caroline DOUKI (Université Paris 8), Jean-François KLEIN (INALCO), Mathieu LETOURNEUX (Université Paris X), Marie SALAUN (Université Paris V), Emmanuelle SIBEUD (Université Paris 8) Scientific committee: Robert ALDRICH (University of Sydney), Karen BARKEY (Columbia University), Jean-François BAYART (CNRS), Susan BAYLY (Christs College, Cambridge), Kmar BENDANA (Université La Manouba- Tunis), Alban BENSA (EHESS), Christophe CHARLE (Université Paris I), Alice CONKLIN (Ohio University), Frederick COOPER (New York University), Florence DEPREST (Université de Bordeaux), Daho DJERBAL (revue Naqd, Alger), Sophie DULUCQ (Université Toulouse II), Ruth GINIO (Université Ben Gourion), Eric JENNINGS (University of Toronto), Patricia LORCIN (University of Minnesota), Isabelle MERLE (CNRS), Ann STOLER (New School of Social Research - New York), Ibrahima THIOUB (Université Cheikh Anta Diop), Andrew THOMPSON (University of Leeds), Mercedes VOLAIT (CNRS). Paper proposals are sought in the form of a title, an abstract (maximum 1 page, single spaced) and a short CV. Deadline: 15 february 2009. Symposium languages: English, French. Email proposals to: [email protected] __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: http://interphil.polylog.org Intercultural Philosophy Calendar: http://cal.polylog.org
