Europe in Black and White/ Europa a Preto e Branco

Europe in black and white intends to address conflicting definitions of what ‘Europe’ was, is and should be.

We depart from the assumption that postcolonial Europe cannot ignore colonial histories on a national and transnational level. Thus there is the need to redefine priorities and identities in an increasingly multicultural space, taking at the same time into account the virulent conflicts that permeate contemporary interactions that cannot be understood as a mere “clash of civilizations” but rather as complex sites of conviviality (Gilroy), contact zones (Pratt), in which the unevenness of former dependencies are prolonged and contested.

Such issues cannot be isolated from debates on the possibilities and limits of postcolonial theory, as recent developments in postcolonial studies show, and have been analyzed by several disciplines with different emphases and agendas.

We wish to address and discuss these topics in a conference bringing together specialists from diverse disciplines and fields, located in different countries, and continents, thus hoping to promote a sustained discussion on a comparative basis in order to probe the limits and possibilities of postcolonial approaches to specific geographic and disciplinary contexts.

What is the relevance of such concepts as identity and difference, race and ethnicity, or hybridity, when applied to precise social or geographical contexts, disciplinary fields, and issues related to the politics of representation?

How are discourses on, and the production, of difference (Gupta, Ferguson) to be articulated with the role of universals in human rights and citizenship claims?

How are representations of religion and secularism to be analysed according to the specificity of local contexts in contemporary Europe? How are the corresponding discourses to be read according to specific colonial histories?

What about the role of emergent forms of diasporic expressive cultures in music, film, and art? How are these to be considered in regard to other narratives such as those suggested by literature, history or anthropology?

How far are these tendencies able to contribute to an unthinking of Europe (Shohat/ Stam)?

Interested scholars should send their proposal IN ENGLISH OR PORTUGUESE, including abstract (maximum 2000 characters, with spaces), to blackandwhite@fl.ul.pt until January 31st 2008.

Keynote Speakers: Ella Shohat (New York University), Paul Gilroy (London School of Economics), Robert Stam (New York University)

Organizing Committee: Manuela Ribeiro Sanches, João Ferreira Duarte, Fernando Clara

Secretariat: Rita Maia

Conference fees:
Non-Students: € 50,00
Students: -------