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Conference Announcement
Theme: Rethinking the Global
Subtitle: Connected Histories and Connected Sociologies
Type: International Conference
Institution: Theory Study Group, British Sociological Association
Birmingham Midland Institute
Location: Birmingham (United Kingdom)
Date: 11.–12.7.2011
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In recent times, a number of academics and commentators have sought
to offer a revisionist history of colonialism. This history presents
colonialism as either something that was not as bad as some others
make out, something that actually made the modern world and so was
essentially a good thing from which the current search for a new
global order should have much to learn; or as something to be
understood simply in terms of networks of circulation and
distribution. The sense of colonialism as a wretched episode of human
history that continues to distort the life chances of those
unfortunate enough to live under its legacies is slowly being eroded.
Similar attempted revisions seek to alter public understandings of
modern transatlantic slavery and its continuing legacies. We believe
that the historical processes of imperialism, colonialism and slavery
shaped, and continue to shape, our common world in ways which have
been and continue to be problematic. This conference seeks to
confront head-on these new revisionist histories and provide the
space for a more adequate understanding of these processes and their
legacies as they continue into today.
There will be 12 key streams in the conference:
1. Imperial Enlightenment and Critical Thought
2. The Place of Minorities in Modernity and Coloniality
3. Decolonial Thought and Other Philosophies
4. Migration and Empire: Voluntary and Forced
5. Is Global History / Sociology Possible?
6. Reassessing Anti-Colonial and Liberation Movements
7. Coloniality / Modernity
8. Recovering Forgotten Histories
9. Slavery and its Legacies
10. Colonial Desires and Eastern Empires
11. From Empire to Neo-Imperialism
12. The Colonial Context of the European Integration Project, Past
and Present
Special Events:
- Workshop on the Legacies of British Slave-ownership project led by
Catherine Hall
- A screening of Unravelling, a film from the Noise of the Past
project led by Nirmal Puwar
- Theologian and public intellectual Robert Beckford will be holding
a film screening and discussion on his documentary film 'The Empire
Pays Back'.
Keynote Speakers:
- Patricia Hill Collins, Distinguished University Professor of
Sociology, University of Maryland
- Priyamvada Gopal, Lecturer in the Faculty of English, University of
Cambridge
- Catherine Hall, Professor of Modern British Social and Cultural
History, UCL
- Walter Mignolo, William H. Wannamaker Professor of Literature, Duke
University
- Nikhil Pal Singh, Associate Professor of Social and Cultural
Analysis, History Department, NYU
Conference Team:
Gurminder K. Bhambra, Ipek Demir, Peo Hansen, Gary Hazeldine, Stefan
Jonsson, Vicky Margree, Lucy Mayblin, Søren Rud, Robbie Shilliam,
Rolando Vazquez, Ozan Zeybek
For general queries, email Gurminder K. Bhambra
([email protected]) or Lucy Mayblin ([email protected]).
For more information on the conference, details on the streams, and
contact details for stream co-ordinators see:
http://bsatheory.org.uk/category/rethinking-the-modern/
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