Institute for Colonial and Postcolonial Studies
Research
Research seminar programmes
View pages in this documentThe ICPS is associated with a number of research seminar programmes across the Faculty (details below). See our listings for upcoming events.
Literature Without Borders
'Literature Without Borders' is an interdisciplinary seminar series, organised by the School of Modern Languages and Cultures and School of English, and in affiliation with the Institute of Postcolonial Studies, that brings together academics in a discussion of literature that crosses departmental and institutional borders. Creating a stimulating and lively forum that brings together different approaches to the study of literary texts, the series also explores and challenges categories of literary identity.
For more information email: literaturewithoutborders@googlemail.com
The Postcolonial City
If the industrial era produced the modern European city, the post-industrial era has been equally as transformative in changing the face of the city today. We now use terms like the 'post-modern city' or the 'global city' or the 'transnational city' to describe the transformations brought about by accelerated flows of capital, culture and communications and by changed patterns of migration. Within this new world order, and new relationship between the local and the global, it has been suggested that the term 'postcolonial' is too limiting to describe the multiplicity of processes which have a bearing on the nature of the contemporary city. This lecture series will neither accept nor reject this thesis but will seek to explore the relevance of the idea of 'the postcolonial city' today. Lectures will therefore address some of the following questions: how can the term 'postcolonial' still be useful in helping us understand configurations of space, movement and human relations in the contemporary city; is the term 'postcolonial' equally useful in theorising the city across the (porous) boundaries of history, the social and political sciences and culture; is the 'postcolonial city' a limited and ethnocentric term with relevance only to a limited number of world cities; to what extent does the idea of the 'postcolonial city' reinforce outdated concepts of 'race' and identity, despite proposing notions of hybridity and decentred subjectivities?
The Postcolonial City lecture series is organised by the Centre for French and Francophone Cultural Studies (CFFCS) & School of Modern Languages and Cultures (SMLC) lecture series, in conjunction with the Institute for Colonial and Postcolonial Studies. Contact Dr James House or Prof Max Silverman for more information.
The Postcolonial Cities reading group is organised by Dr Ben Bollig.