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I hope of interest to some.
Felicity Callard

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Horstkotte, S." <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Tue Jun 24, 2003  1:06:36  pm Europe/London
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: CFP: Identities and Alterities (Netherlands) (10/1/03;
> 3/24/04-3/26/04)
>
>
> Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA)
> University of Amsterdam
>
> CALL FOR PAPERS
> "IDENTITIES AND ALTERITIES"
>
> Amsterdam, March 24-26, 2004
>
> Keynote speakers: Peter Hitchcock, Brian McHale, N.N.
>
> The Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA) invites proposals
> for an
> international conference on Identities and Alterities, to be held in
> Amsterdam on March 24-26, 2004.
>
> The conference will explore the concepts of identities and alterities,
> their interrelations and their relevance in current academic, public,
> and
> political discourse and practice. The usability of the concepts of
> identity, identities and identity politics is highly disputed, but it
> nevertheless functions as an important term for the self-definition,
> articulation and emancipation of individuals and groups. The concept of
> "identity" has been much-criticized for its presumed tendency to
> essentialism, where identity is primordial, given and determinate, as
> well
> as for its alleged positing of the subject as a complete, centered,
> being
> in complete control of his or her actions. However, as Paul Gilroy has
> pointed out, "we make our identities, but with inherited resources and
> not
> under the circumstances of our own choosing."
>
> In recent years, identity has ceased to be an individual, internal term
> for subjectivity, but has evolved into a collective term with an
> inextricable link to alterity, making it a highly useful tool for
> political and historical analyses. Identities are continually
> re-constructed, re-invented and re-interpreted in the light of
> political
> developments (such as decolonisation), in the light of interactions
> with
> the actual, external other (intersubjectivity), and in the light of our
> position in a postmodern discourse.
>
> We want to approach the concepts of identity and alterity from three
> different angles:
>
> - Postcolonialism: Formation as Representation/Representation as
> Formation
>
> This angle explores the concepts of identity and alterity in changing
> societies in terms of Stuart Hall's ideas on the politics of
> articulation
> and representation, and their tactical value for establishing identity
> in
> terms of shifting alliances and a continuous redefinition of
> boundaries.
> The very nature of the postcolonial necessitates an approach that takes
> its complexity into consideration. The colonial experience is diverse
> in
> space and time and should not be essentialised as a unifying force
> between
> different communities. As Richard Werbner puts it: "The postcolonial
> describes at once a presence and absence. The now in tension with the
> not-now, which creates a politicized reality."
>
> In the contemporary postcolonial context we are faced with numerous
> identity formations and representations. The question arises whether
> and
> how these can be systematically accounted for. How do we deal with
> identity formations that are "open-ended, productive and fraught with
> ambivalence" (James Clifford), yet constitute and represent communities
> with regard to cultural politics and global economies? And if identity
> is
> dependent on history and culture, what are the effects of colonization
> and
> decolonization on its conceptualization? Can indigenous identities
> transcend colonial disruptions in terms of a shared past? In what way
> can
> a non-essentialist theory of identity engage with the reality of
> conservative manifestations of identity politics?
>
> - Intersubjectivity: Identities in-between self and other
>
> We want to explore how identities are established and re-established in
> and through intersubjectivity, in and through relations between self
> and
> other, both individual and collective. The empirical, external other
> emerges as a crucial force in relation to subjectivity, embodiment and
> identity in the work of Mikhail Bakhtin and in Peter Hitchcock's
> elaboration of Bakhtin's concept of exotopy, which posits "outsideness
> as
> a form of affirmative alienation." Similar priority to the other as a
> positive force has been given in various recent psychoanalytic
> approaches
> (Jean Laplanche, Kaja Silverman, Jessica Benjamin).
>
> Questions we want to raise are: Can there be a subject or self without
> the
> other? Is there identity without alterity (without difference,
> otherness,
> the other)? In which ways can the other form and reform the self, both
> in
> line with and contrary to dominant cultural representations? What role
> do
> language, vision, the body, space-time, and translation play in the
> process of establishing identities in-between self and other? How can
> we
> formulate an ethics or politics of intersubjectivity? How do we
> conceptualize intersubjectivity on the collective level of social or
> political groups and/or in relation to postcolonialism and
> transnationalism?
>
> - Postmodernism: after and beyond the "death of the subject"
>
> Postmodernism, understood as a discourse (Brian McHale), is preoccupied
> less with the formation of identities than with their fragmentation and
> ultimately, dissolution. However, the talk about the "death of the
> subject" has by now grown somewhat stale and it also cannot account for
> those individuals and groups who are not granted identity and
> subjectivity
> in the first place. The third panel will therefore raise the following
> question: how can we theorize the identity of individuals and groups
> within a postmodernist discourse, but in such a way that they retain or
> gain agency?
>
> Postmodern theories have to a large extent been preoccupied with the
> epistemology of subjectivity as it had already been envisioned in
> German
> idealism, and have neglected the active and narrative processes
> involved
> in identity formation. We will therefore consider what role the
> performative and performativity (Mieke Bal) play in producing
> identities
> and alterities. It is in this context that the concept of alterity can
> develop its full analytic potential, because it allows for an
> intersubjective interplay between real, empirical groups and
> individuals.
> Questions to be asked include: what is the relation between identity
> and
> alterity, between self and other in postmodernist discourses, artworks
> and
> political practices? How are identities and alterities produced,
> performed, and challenged?
>
> * * *
>
> Participants should outline what conception(s) of identities and/or
> alterities they are proposing, as well as their theoretical, political,
> practical or cultural relevance. The concepts may be addressed
> together or
> separately and they may be correlated with cultural objects such as
> film,
> artworks, television, literature, photography, music, museums,
> scientific
> objects/practices, religious objects/practices, etc.
>
> This conference is the latest in a series of ASCA graduate conferences
> and
> is inspired by the Theory Seminar organized by Mieke Bal in 2002-2003
> on
> "How to do Cultural Analysis." Participants will be expected to explain
> how their work connects to the practice of cultural analysis. Papers
> should aim to establish a dialogue between theory and cultural objects,
> asking not only what the theory says about the object, but also what
> the
> object says about the theory, how it prompts theoretical
> reformulations -
> what Mieke Bal calls "letting the object speak back."
>
> Please send your one-page proposal, accompanied by a short CV, by
> October
> 1st 2003.
>
> Proposals will be selected according to their relevance to the topics
> of
> the conference.
>
> The workshop format of the conference is designed to stimulate the
> discussion in the panels. Participants will be asked to send the final
> version of their papers (4000 word maximum) by January 25th, 2004. A
> reader will be prepared for each of the panels, which will be
> circulated
> before the conference.
>
> Instead of "reading" their papers at the conference, participants will
> be
> asked to give a 15-minute presentation on their work, connecting their
> paper to the other papers in their panel and to the overall concerns of
> the conference.
>
> Please send your proposal to the ASCA office:
>
> Dr. Eloe Kingma (Managing Director ASCA), Spuistraat 210, 1012 VT
> Amsterdam, The Netherlands; tel. +31 20 525 3874, fax: +3120 525 3052,
> [log in to unmask] http://www.hum.uva.nl/asca>
>
> Organizing committee: Dr. Silke Horstkotte, Anette Hoffmann, Saskia
> Lourens, Esther Peeren
>
>
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