[Discussion] New Hybridities: Societies and Cultures in Transition

[sule tarakcioglu]

New Hybridities: Societies and Cultures in Transition

An International Conference of the Graduiertenkolleg Postcolonial Studies
LMU Munich
Kloster Seeon
July 22-24, 2004

Call for Papers

"New Hybridities: Societies and Cultures in Transition" is the third annu=
al
conference of the Graduiertenkolleg Postcolonial Studies at the Universit=
y
of Munich, taking place on July 22-24, 2004 at Kloster Seeon located betw=
een
Munich and Salzburg.

Hybridity, acknowledged as one of the key terms in postcolonial theory, m=
ost
usually refers to 'the creation of new transcultural forms from within th=
e
contact zone produced by colonization' (Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin 19=
98:
118). For theorists such as Homi Bhabha cultural hybridity posits a viabl=
e
alternative to the 'exoticism of multiculturalism', and opens the way tow=
ard
'conceptualizing a [genuinely] international culture' (Bhabha 1994: 38). =
The
term, however, remains disputed. Robert Young has pointed out hybridity's
racist legacy, while Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak has warned against the ki=
nds
of 'hybridist triumphalism' that celebrate the catch-all concept of
'cultural difference' without engaging sufficiently with specific cultura=
l
differences, or that are given to utopian visions of global transcultural
communities despite the obvious fact that enduring racial prejudices,
cultural biases and social hierarchies, all of which persist throughout m=
uch
of the contemporary world, have yet to be overcome (Young 1995; Spivak
1999).

The conferences focuses on questions like the following:

- What are the potentials and pitfalls of the concept of hybridity?
- How have the evolving discourses of hybridity that initially emerged ou=
t
of decolonization been transformed by current conditions of globalization=
?
- What are the meanings of hybridity in different social, cultural,
political, economic, historical, literary and linguistic contexts?
- What tensions have emerged between discourses of hybridity in the
different academic disciplines, especially in contemporary postcolonial
studies?

All theoretical and empirical contributions in the spirit of the question=
s
above are welcome. The conference aims at encouraging interaction between
graduate students with works in progress and interested experts from vari=
ous
areas of Postcolonial Studies. Submissions are welcome from Area Studies,
Arts, Economics, Gender & Sexualities Studies, Historiography, Linguistic=
s,
Literary Studies, Media Studies, Political Sciences, Social and Cultural
Anthropology, Sociology, and all other disciplines interested in issues o=
f
colonization, culture, and contact.


Abstracts of 250-300 words for 15-20 minute papers should be sent by May,=
 1,
2004 to:

Graduiertenkolleg Postcolonial Studies
Institut f=FCr V=F6lkerkunde und Afrikanistik
Oettingenstrasse 67
D-80538 M=FCnchen
graduiertenkolleg@anglistik.uni-muenchen.de