Please note: the locations of the morning session as well as the afternoon session have been changed.
Programme October 30, 2009: Occidentalism, Orientalism, and the Idea of a Postcolonial Europe
Morning session: 09:00-12:15
Location: Room 0.32 - Drift 21, Utrecht
Chair: Sandra Ponzanesi (on behalf of the AHRC Research Network Postcolonial Europe*)
09:00-09:30 Coffee/Tea
09:30-09:45 Opening by Sandra Ponzanesi (Assistant Professor Gender and Postcolonial Critique, Utrecht University)
09:45-10:30 Keynote "Colonialism: Between Humiliation and Exploitation" by Avishai Margalit (Kennan Professor, Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton University/ Schulman Professor of Philosophy at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem).
See the abstract of this keynote.
Watch the video of this keynote.
10:30-10:45 Response by Max Silverman (Professor of French, University of Leeds)
Watch the video of this response.
10:45-11:00 Open discussion
11:00-11:45 Keynote “Shameful History” by Paul Gilroy (Anthony Giddens Professorship in Social Theory, London School of Economics, UK).
See the abstract of this keynote.
Watch the video of this keynote.
11:45-12:00 Response by John McLeod (Reader in Postcolonial and Diaspora Literatures, University of Leeds)
Watch the video of this response.
12:00-12:15 Open discussion
Afternoon 14:00-18:00
Location: UCK - Domplein 4, Utrecht
Moderator: Paulo de Medeiros (Professor of Portuguese Studies, Utrecht University)
14:00-14:25 Presentation “The Liquid Europe of the Cahiers du Sud” by Luisa Passerini (Prof. Cultural History, Turin University, Italy).
See the abstract of this presentation.
Watch the video of this presentation.
14:25-14:50 Presentation “Europe, for example…” by Simon Glendinning (Reader in European Philosophy, London School of Economics, UK).
See the abstract of this presentation.
Watch the video of this presentation.
14:50-15:00 Response by Graham Huggan (Professor of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Literatures, University of Leeds).
Watch the video of this response.
15:00-15:10 Response by Tobias Döring (Professor of English Literature at the LMU Munich)
Watch the video of this response.
15:10-15:30 Coffee/Tea break
15.30-16:15 Dialogue between Passerini and Glendinning open to the public
16:15-16:30 Paper presentation “Occidentalist Mothers” by Cordula Lemke (Junior Professor of English Literature at the FU Berlin).
See the abstract of this presentation.
16:30-16:45 Paper presentation “Beyond the textual line: Walter Scott's postponing and post-scripting of authentic Scottishness” by Margret Fetzer (Assistant Professor at the LMU Munich).
See the abstract of this presentation.
16:45-17:00 Paper presentation “Online social networking sites as spaces of conviviality? Dutch-Moroccan youth on Hyves” by Koen Leurs (PhD students Research Institute for History and Culture, University Utrecht).
See the abstract of this presentation.
17:00-17:15 Feedback and discussion
17:15-18:00 Book Launch Luisa Passerini’s Idea of Europe, Berghahn 2009
The aim of this day-long workshop is to discuss from different intellectual traditions and perspectives the idea of Europe as an imagined and actual space. It will explore in particular the relationship between ‘Occidentalism, Orientalism, and the idea of a postcolonial Europe' by going beyond the reactionary notion of a threatened Europe, a notion on which some, unduly inflexible concepts of Occidentalism (e.g. as a ‘war on the West') depend. In moving beyond the ossified concepts of Occident and the Orient, the workshop aims to clear a space to look at postcolonial Europe in terms of a non-binary understanding of European social, cultural and political forms.
In the morning the workshop will engage with the thinking of the prominent Jewish philosopher Avishai Margalit and of postcolonial scholar Paul Gilroy. In the afternoon cultural historian Luisa Passerini (Turin University, Italy) will be in dialogue with continental philosopher Simon Glendinning. In the late afternoon speakers for the network and other invited guests will present their own vision on the suggested theme in the form of short papers and/or responses to the keynote addresses.
* 'Postcolonial Europe' is a 2-year international research network sponsored by the AHRC and involving the Universities of Leeds, Utrecht and Munich.