The Centre for Gender & Religions Research
Seminar: 1st October 2003
Rm 266, SOAS Main Building, 13:00-15:00.
‘Alternative or Normal’? The Question of Methodologies in the Study of Gender and Religion
Professor Stephen Chan, Faculty of Law and Social Sciences, SOAS
Ever since Spivak asked ‘can the subaltern speak?’, the emphasis has been upon the character of the subaltern as a marginalised subject, and upon the nature and origins of marginality. Feminism, for instance, has identified the position of marginality as one imposed upon women. There has been comparatively less emphasis on the term ‘speak’, and few metropolitan champions of the subaltern do so without imposing a philosophical and political vocabulary, and conceptual apparatus, which is also metropolitan. Whether it is by means of ‘solidarity’ or ‘political correctness’, the subaltern is frequently translated from marginality into new forms of orientalism. Professor Chan asks not only ‘what is it that the subaltern speaks?’ but ‘in what ways would the subaltern speak if it had the freedom to speak conceptually and in its own vocabulary?’
Stephen Chan is Professor of International Relations and Dean of Law and Social Sciences at SOAS in the University of London. His academic work specialises in two areas: African contemporary politics (Robert Mugabe: A Life of Power and Violence [London: I.B. Tauris, and Ann Arbor:University of Michigan Press, 2003]) and the epistemological foundations of multicultural thought on international ethics (The Zen of International Relations [London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001]). He is of Chinese descent, grew up in New Zealand, lived several years in Africa, has been adopted into forms of Japanese culture, and pines for Paris while living in London. He was previously an international civil servant, involved in both development work and peacekeeping in Africa, and a newspaper editor in New Zealand. Of his 23 books, 5 are volumes of poetry.
ALL ARE WELCOME!
For more information please contact Sian Hawthorne ([log in to unmask]; 020 7898 4774)
Information on how to get to SOAS is available at: http://www.soas.ac.uk/contact/location.cfm?navid=1110
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