Our time is one of intersecting political, material, and environmental crises — many of which have roots in the historical dynamics of imperialism and its aftermath on the African continent. Such things as international legal infrastructures that marginalize African perspectives, the nature of policing and digital surveillance on the continent, the entrenchment of extractive infrastructures, and neocolonial projects involving both Western and non-Western state actors are phenomena that invite new ways of theorizing and thinking historically in Postcolonial Studies. To this end, the Association for Postcolonial Thought (Pocothought) invites submissions for a panel focused on emergent sites of critique in Africa-focused engagements with Postcolonial Studies. Pocothought proceeds from a commitment to the imaginative possibilities inaugurated by anticolonial thought and the urgency of critique now. An uncertain present of endless war, converging catastrophes, and worsening global inequality reveals the exigency and relevance of postcolonial studies and, at the same time, demands new modes of critical theory. Thinking from and with the continent, we seek submissions that attend to the problematics of this field through the lens of African issues in the present moment. The African Studies Association Annual Meeting offers a uniquely important forum for facilitating such a dialogue, as it brings together diverse communities of scholars from across the world. We are particularly interested in papers that position postcolonialism (as both theory and practice) in relation to critiques of material structures, rhetorics of violence and non-violence, and transnational campaigns challenging imperialism in all its forms. This panel asks how doing so produces fresh perspectives on established categories of knowledge and terminologies in African Studies.
Key areas of inquiry with regard to this might include:
– New ways of thinking anticolonialism as historical process and political philosophy
– The re-evaluation of foundational texts in postcolonial theory in light of recent events
– Reading and translating across linguistic borders in Postcolonial Studies
– Theorizing from specific sites of struggle in colonial and postcolonial African contexts
– The political necessity of Postcolonial Studies today
We encourage submissions from across disciplines and fields so long as they engage with (post)colonialism as a central problematic.
For consideration in this panel, please email a 200-word abstract and 100-word bio to Christian Alvarado (University of California, Davis) at cdalvarado@ucdavis.edu no later than 5pm Pacific Time on Thursday, March 20th.
