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BEYOND DECONSTRUCTION - ENGAGING COLONIAL KNOWLEDGE

AN INTERDISCIPLINARY WORKSHOP AT KING'S COLLEGE,
UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE,
15-16 SEPTEMBER 2006.

CALL FOR PAPERS DEADLINE: 15 MAY 2006.

Participants and Discussants:

Prof. Nicholas Thomas (Goldsmiths College,  University of London)
Prof. C.A. Bayly (St. Catharine's College, Cambridge)
Prof. Megan Vaughan (King' College, Cambridge)
Dr. Richard Drayton (Corpus Christi, Cambridge)
Dr. James Leach (King' College, Cambridge)

Please submit a 500 words abstract and a brief exposition of current
research and interests, by email to:

Dr. Kim A. Wagner: [log in to unmask]
Mr. Ricardo Roque: [log in to unmask]


ENGAGING COLONIAL KNOWLEDGE

In the long history of overseas expansion, an immense and diverse
collection of Western texts, images, drawings and maps relating to
various parts of the world, has been produced - part of which survives 
today in archives and libraries. Colonial representations of foreign 
peoples,
their cultures and practices, make a claim to knowledge, the claim that a
reality was being apprehended and described, either scientifically or 
simply as the outcome of lived experience. These representations have for 
long been
taken at face value as veracious and balanced accounts of distant and exotic
places. Within the last three decades of the 20th century, however, this
colonial knowledge has increasingly been criticised as expressive of a
biased Eurocentric understanding of what the Asian, African, or American
indigenous worlds were about. This line of approach, inaugurated by
Edward Said's seminal book Orientalism, has stressed the necessity of 
dealing
with those texts more critically with regards to the context in which they
emerged. Colonial knowledge was inextricably embedded in the projects of
colonial power, or simply trapped within Western constructs, which
recast these phenomena as outlandish. More recently, and due in part to the
growing influence of literary theory to historical investigation,
critics have claimed colonial knowledge presents no more than an inverse
mirror-image of Western cultural values. These critics reduce the issue of
colonial knowledge to a matter of textual constructions and
misrepresentations, where historical events and notions of 'proof' and
'evidence' tend to be dismissed as hopelessly positivist. This workshop
is an attempt to reach an alternative to these methodological problems. How
can we engage with colonial knowledge? In many cases accounts expressive
of the values and sentiments of colonial knowledge are the only tools
available with which to approach the history of other cultures. Do
colonial accounts of noble and ignoble savages, assassins, cannibals, thugs,
head-hunters, pirates, scheming eunuchs and debauched sultans have no
further interest beyond confirming our preconceived notions of the
biased nature of Western constructs? What use, then, can we make of this
repertoire that is not limited to a rejection of its value as evidence
beyond the text itself? This workshop invites contributions from all
fields that address these theoretical and methodological issues by engaging
with empirical material. It invites scholars to go beyond the dichotomy of
colonial and post-colonial approaches; while, the critique or
'deconstruction' of colonial knowledge can constitute a point of
departure, it is not an end in itself.

STRUCTURE OF THE WORKSHOP

The workshop is designed as an intensive exchange of ideas and group
discussion; accordingly a limited number of participants will be
selected.
We expect graduate and post-graduate scholars from the fields of the
humanities and social sciences to participate. Participants are expected
to submit a substantial piece of written work, which will be pre-circulated
among all participants. So as to stimulate discussion we will invite
senior scholars to comment on individual essays. General discussion will 
follow
the discussants' commentaries. A talk on the exhibition of colonial
history and cultural exchange will be given by Prof. Thomas on the first 
day of
the workshop. Publication of the papers as a special issue of a journal, or
as a book, is planned as an eventual outcome of the workshop. The working
procedures will be as follows:

1. Selection of participants: The participants will be chosen on the
basis of a 500 word abstract of the paper, and a brief summary of current
research and interests. 2. Pre-circulation of papers: participants are
required to submit, by 15 July 2006, a 6000-8000 words paper that should
be both theoretical and empirical. Papers will be circulated to the
discussants and to the other participants. 3. Discussants: Discussants
will respond to specific papers, and are expected to contribute to the
general debate. The discussants are: Prof. C.A. Bayly (St. Catharine' 
College,
Cambridge), Prof. Megan Vaughan (King' College, Cambridge), Dr. Richard
Drayton (Corpus Christi, Cambridge), and Dr. James Leach (King' College,
Cambridge). 4. Presentation and discussion of the individual papers: The
presentations will be divided into 4 sessions, 2 morning and 2 afternoon
sessions (about 6 papers per day). Speakers will be allowed about 1 hour
for presentation and debate. Participants have 5 minutes to give a brief
introduction or context to the paper. Comments by the discussant will
follow (15/20 minutes), and then the participants' response (5/10
minutes).
The remaining 25/30 minutes will be used for discussion open to all
participants (these times are merely indicatory). 5. Keynote address:
'Exhibiting colonial history and cultural exchange' by Prof. Nicholas
Thomas (Goldsmiths College, University of London). This talk outlines
'Oceania', a major exhibition project in progress, which explores
colonial histories and cross-cultural exchanges through art and material 
culture.

VENUE

The workshop will take place at King's College, Cambridge, on 15-16
September 2006. The number of active participants will not exceed 12,
plus invited discussants; in total no more than 20, allowing for guest
participants. A workshop dinner will be held on the evening of the first
day of discussion and accommodation will be available for a limited
number of participants.

Organisers:

Dr. Kim A. Wagner
Research Fellow
King's College, Cambridge
Email: [log in to unmask]

Mr. Ricardo Roque
Ph.D. candidate
Darwin College, Cambridge
Lecturer
University of Azores, Portugal
Email: [log in to unmask]

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