Rethinking the Postcolonial in the Age of the War on Terror
Thursday 16 September and Friday 17 September 2010
Venue: Law Building - room LB1-29,
UniSA
City West campus, 50-55 North Terrace, Adelaide
(Access from North Terrace via Fenn Place
or George Street - entry via Law Building courtyard)
Refreshments will be held in the Kerry Packer Civic Gallery Hawke Building level 3
The International Centre for Muslim and Non-Muslim Understanding
(ICMNMU), in conjunction with the UNESCO Chair in Transnational
Diasporas and Reconciliation Studies, are holding a joint Symposium
titled: Re-Thinking the Postcolonial in the Age of the War on
Terror, at the University of South Australia, on the 16th and 17th
September, 2010.
Postcolonial thought was for the most part consolidated during the
era of the Cold War and as such its critiques and interventions were
implicated in the narrative and institutions of that global
conflict. The stealthy emergence of a new grammar of international
politics centred around the logic of the 'war on terror' demands a
reconsideration of some central themes associated with postcolonial
thinking. The violent hierarchy between the West and the Rest which
characterised much of postcolonial interventions and critiques seems
at once inadequate to the contemporary complexities of modernities,
societies and cultures, yet at the same time necessary as campaigns
of pacification, racisms and exploitations point to the continuities
of coloniality.
The aim of this Symposium is to explore the postcolonial condition
in the era of the 'war on terror' and to rethink in order to
reformulate or reinforce its critical insights. This Symposium will
be the first in a series directed to re-thinking the postcolonial.
Registration here for Symposium
Preliminary Symposium Program
Speaker abstracts and biographies (where available)
| Day 1 - Thursday 16 September | ||
| 8.45am | Registration at Welcome Desk | |
| 9.15am |
Welcome to conference, welcome to country Professor Pal Ahluwalia and Professor S. Sayyid |
|
| Session 1 | ||
| 9.30am |
Professor Pal Ahluwalia,
Pro Vice Chancellor: Division of Education,
Arts and Social Sciences, UniSA His main research interests lie in the areas of African studies, social and cultural theory, in particular, postcolonial theory and the processes of diaspora, exile, and migration. |
|
| 10.15am |
Dr Ashis Nandy, Fellow, Centre
for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi,
India A trained sociologist and clinical psychologist, his body of work covers a variety of topics, including public conscience, mass violence, and dialogues of civilizations. He will be undertaking a Fellowship with the Hawke Research Institute in August/September 2010, and will present the UniSA Nelson Mandela Lecture, jointly presented by the Hawke Centre and School of Law at UniSA and the Festival Centre's 2010 OzAsia Festival. |
|
| 11.00am - 11.30am | Morning tea | |
| Session 2 | ||
| 11.30am |
Dr Jan Ali, University of
Western Sydney His expertise lies in sociology of religion, migration, ethnicity and globalization. |
|
| 12.15pm |
Dr Amrita Malhi, ANU,
Canberra Her research has focussed on Islamism in colonial Malaya, in particular the Islamist politics of a forest uprising in Terengganu in 1928 which became a Holy War against colonial power; and also on Islamism in contemporary Malaysia. |
|
| 1.00pm - 2.00pm | Lunch: Kerry Packer Civic Gallery | |
| Session 3 | ||
| 2.00pm |
Dr Minerva Nasser-Eddine,
Post doctoral Research Fellow, UniSA Minerva's research examines the role and interface of multiculturalism, racism, discrimination, sectarianism, religion, primordialism and more recently, countering violent extremism. |
|
| 2.45pm |
Dr Lisa Slater, Research Fellow, Hawke Research
Institute, UniSA Her research seeks to understand and define the processes of neo-colonialism, contemporary Indigenous identity formation and settler-colonial belonging. |
|
| 3.30pm - 4.00pm | Afternoon tea | |
| Session 4 | ||
| 4.00pm |
Dr Warren Chin, Defence
Studies Department, Kings College, London His research interests include strategy and warfare, insurgency, counter insurgency, terrorism, future conflict, British Defence Policy and British Weapons Acquisition Policy. |
|
| 4.45pm |
Associate Professor Philip Darby, Director:
Institute of Post Colonial Studies,
University of Melbourne, Victoria His expertise lies in rethinking "the international" with particular reference to the Third World. |
|
| 5.30pm | Day 1 close |
| Day 2 - Friday 17 September | ||
| Session 1 | ||
| 9.30am |
Dr Eyal Weizman, Goldsmiths,
University of London, UK He is an architect and Director of the Centre for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths, and has worked with a variety of NGOs and human right groups in Israel-Palestine. |
|
| 10.15am |
Emeritus Professor Barry Hindess, School of
Social Sciences, ANU, Canberra His research interests include postcolonialism, liberalism and imperialism, and history of political thought. |
|
| 11.00am - 11.30am | Morning tea | |
| Session 2 | ||
| 11.30am |
Dr Gilbert Caluya, Post
doctoral Research Fellow, Centre for Post
Colonial and Globalisation Studies, Hawke
Research Institute, UniSA His postdoctoral research explores alternative Islams in Australia. |
|
| 12.15pm |
Associate Professor John Phillips,
National University of Singapore. This research interests include community, politics, friendship, visual culture, modernist poetics, and military technology. |
|
| 1.00pm - 2.00pm | Lunch: Kerry Packer Civic Gallery | |
| Session 3 | ||
| 2.00pm | Round table session with all participants of the Symposium | |
| 3.30pm - 4.00pm | Afternoon tea | |
| Session 4 | ||
| 4.00pm |
Professor S. Sayyid,
Director International Centre of Muslim and
non-Muslim Understanding, UniSA His research interests encompass: ethnicity and racism; the relationship between culture and politics; postcolonial political studies, and in particular, the way in which the analysis of postcolonial conditions inform and affect so-called 'mainstream' political and social processes and structures. |
|
| 5.00pm | Symposium Close | |
| 5.15pm - 6.30pm |
Book launch - Out of Africa:
Post-structuralism's Colonial Roots Kerry Packer Civic Gallery Launch speaker: Dr Ashis Nandy |
This program is preliminary and is subject to change without notice.