Call for Papers - Postcolonial and Postsocialist Dialogues: Intersections, Opacities, Challenges in Feminist Theorizing and Practice

Conference venue: Linkoping, Sweden
Period: April 27-28, 2015
Deadline for submitting abstracts: March 2, 2015
Deadline for submitting full papers: April 10, 2015

Although postcolonial theory has already evolved a sophisticated theoretical apparatus for the investigation of the power imbalance, economic as well as intellectual, between the West and the rest, it has not quite taken on board postsocialist perspectives. At the same time, the intersection between postsocialist geopolitics and imperial/colonial legacies is yet to be thoroughly explored, not least in the context of transnational feminist studies. Along the changing local-global axis, the specificity of Eastern European positioning and the postsocialist condition in particular tends to disappear. This gap needs to be addressed without falling into the trap of re-centring Europe by focussing on its ‘margins’. In the context where the false geopolitical universals and stereotypes such as West versus East, North versus South and the reliance on first-second-third world model continue to operate in full force, we need new models and concepts in order to challenge hegemonic discourses and undermine the problematic expectation to subscribe to the unifying Euro-American intellectual traditions.

The aim of the conference is to spark and consolidate focused dialogues on the theoretical, temporal and spatial intersections of postcolonialism and postsocialism in present-day geopolitical climate. We investigate what are the intersections and opacities – the untranslatable experiences, concepts, ideas – between the two critical discourses in feminist theorizing and practice. We hope to do so in order to address the emergence of new political and cultural formations as well as circuits of bodies and capital so as to arrive at a novel approach to gender, race and sexuality in post-Cold War and postcolonial era in currently re-emerging neo-colonial and imperial conflicts. This becomes relevant in light of recent geopolitical transformations and contemporary complex challenges such as border controls and anti-immigration laws, xenophobia and rising fascism in Europe, and religion-based conflicts in post-multiculturalist societies.

Through staging transversal dialogues between scholars working within postcolonial and postsocialist discourses from a variety of disciplinary, geographical and historical specializations, we propose to explore the possible resonances and also dissonances between the two perspectives and put under pressure what is actually meant by postcolonialism and postsocialism and how these concepts are figured in feminist theorizing and practice. Furthermore, bringing the critical discourses of the postcolonial and the postsocialist together and examining their intersections as theoretical ground generates new understandings of categories such as silences/silencing; resistance/re-existence; border thinking and consciousness as well as multiple identifications associated with diasporic, unhomed and migrant experiences. These categories have important consequences on the ways in which we make sense of new emergent forms of sexual, gendered and racialized subjectivities in global contexts where national and geopolitical boundaries keep shifting and economic restructuring prompts new patterns of migration and circulation.

The conference aims to generate well-focused discussions and as such, it will not have parallel sessions common to large conferences. Instead, it will derive its theoretical vigour from selected keynote addresses and paper presentations and benefit from all participants being involved in all discussions. Proceedings of the conference will be published in an edited book to be proposed for the series Routledge Advances in Feminist Studies and Intersectionality.

Important dates:

Deadline for proposals and bios: 2 March 2015
Notifications of acceptance by: 9 March 2015
Full papers due: 10 April 2015
Register by: 20 April 2015

We invite paper proposals for the Open Forum session which will be devoted to discussing pre-circulated position papers (2,000-4,000 words) (to be later developed into full chapters). Proposals of 200-300 words and a short bio should be sent to Redi Koobak at redi.koobak@liu.se.

Redi Koobak
e-mail: redi.koobak@liu.se